Scott Brown Not Invited to Sit with First Lady

It is a safe bet that Scott Brown will not be one of the first lady’s guests at the State of the Union address, the grand Washington ceremony where the president of the United States delivers his annual report to Congress on how the country is faring. The report is required, and defined, by the Constitution (Article II, Section 3). It is practically the President’s duty to say the magic words, “The state of our union is strong,” but variations are accepted. Only Gerald Ford had the guts to say that the State of the Union was “not good.” Reagan always promised that it would be “better.” In 2002, in his speech on the “axis of evil,” George Bush asserted as early as the third sentence that the state of the Union had “never been stronger.” In 2008, the phrase had been pushed back to the next-to-last line: “The state of our Union will remain strong.”

There’s a bit of a speech-from-the-throne aspect to the State of the Union address. For that matter, Thomas Jefferson, that champion of the Republic, never left the White House to deliver the speech. He would have the head of his cabinet deliver the text to Congress. (True, Jefferson was a very bad speaker.) Every president did the same until Woodrow Wilson, who re-established the custom of making a speech in 1913. The protocol has not changed. The sergeant-at-arms announces the assembled bodies and the members of the Cabinet. Military men wear full dress uniform. The Supreme Court justices file in wearing their black robes. During the speech, the members of Congress tirelessly stand up to applaud and sit back down. In 2007, George Bush was interrupted 61 times during a 49-minute speech. In 2000, Bill Clinton, who was saying his goodbyes, broke the record: 89 minutes of speech and 128 standing ovations.

It is a privilege to be invited to the first lady’s box. Generally, presidents choose everyday heroes (like the pilot who miraculously landed his plane on the Hudson River), symbols of redemption (the drug dealer who began studying for the ministry in prison), icons of the moment … Scott Brown could have been there. All by himself, the newly elected senator from Massachusetts shook up Obama’s priorities. He became the icon of 2010. “The independent voice of Massachusetts,” he said. Independents are that breed of voters who vote Democrat or Republican, according to the mood of the moment. In 2008, they chose Obama; for the last few months, they have turned away from him. By definition, they are for change, and if it does not come fast enough, never mind, let us change the change.

The Republicans are looking for a man sent by divine providence. No sooner had Scott Brown, 50, captured the Massachusetts Senate seat, known as “the Kennedys’ seat,” when the comparisons to Barack Obama started. They have the same athletic build, the same profession (law), the same fatherless childhood (Each of Brown’s parents was divorced four times.) and the same education at good schools (Brown attended Boston College, Boston’s Jesuit university.). They have the same ability to cross [political] lines. Elected from a deeply Democratic state, Brown is not opposed to abortion, nor is he opposed to Massachusetts-style universal health care coverage.

But Scott Brown has a closer resemblance to John McCain, who happens to be his mentor in the Senate. He is a “maverick,” a nonconformist who campaigned with his pickup truck — a GMC Canyon — and ads filmed in his kitchen. During Brown’s first visit to Congress, pages asked for his autograph. Reporters asked him about his possible presidential ambitions. “Let me tell you when I first got the feeling something big was happening in this campaign. It was when I was driving along and spotted a handmade, Scott Brown yard sign that I hadn’t actually put there myself,” he joked.

Brown’s major exploit was posing nude for the centerfold of “Cosmopolitan” at the age of 22, when he was in law school (to pay his tuition). The 1982 photo did not turn voters against him, much to the indignation of feminists who protested that if a woman had done the same thing she would be pilloried in the media. On election night, Scott Brown and his family were in seventh heaven. Brown introduced his wife, a local TV news reporter, and their two daughters, Ayla and Arianna, a blonde and a brunette. “They’re both available,” he announced. One second later he corrected himself: “No, only kidding, only kidding … Arianna’s definitely not available. But Ayla is.” Pursued by the media on campus, the Boston College basketball star stated that, no, she had no plans to pose nude, and that she was not creeped out by her father’s lame remarks. “That is so my dad,” she said. On top of all this, a record label is finally interested in the CD Ayla recorded four years ago (she was a finalist on the TV show “American Idol”).

The Democrats have not completely digested Scott Brown’s Hollywood-style victory. Some see it as a sign that the torch is being passed back to the Republicans in the wake of the 2008 elections, the return of macho and the white man’s revenge — the white man with the pickup truck that gets 16 mpg.