Posted on 10/27/2011 12:51:47 PM PDT by raccoonradio
DANVERS — The usually sedate North Shore Chamber of Commerce annual dinner received a jolt last night in the form of a protest outside the CoCo Key Hotel, where U.S. Sen. Scott Brown spoke last night.
About 40 teachers, firefighters, activists and unemployed people staged a small protest across the road from the hotel's grounds, rallying in the cold against the Republican junior senator's vote last week to block the $35 billion Teachers and First Responders Back to Work bill in the U.S. Senate.
Police from Danvers and Middleton kept the half-hour, boisterous but peaceful protest away from the hotel, containing it off the former Sheraton Ferncroft's grounds on the opposite side of Village Drive from the hotel's main entrance. There was also a heavy police presence inside the hotel during the gathering.
At least two women in the protest were identified as Peabody teachers, but they declined to speak with a Salem News reporter.
"Scott Brown, green jobs now," they chanted. They held signs that said "Scott Brown: Stop Voting Against Jobs!"
"Scott Brown went to Washington, D.C., promising to represent ordinary people," said Ted Chambers, a teacher at Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, "and he has been straight down the line on Republican votes on the side of big bankers, hedge fund managers and multi-, multi-billionaires."
"Just because he drives a pickup truck, doesn't mean he understands people like us," Lynn firefighter Matthew Reddy said.
Reddy was referring to the signature ad of Brown's campaign last year that featured him driving a pickup truck across the state, racking up miles and stumping for votes.
Inside the ballroom where the dinner was held, the former state senator from Wrentham worked the room for more than an hour, greeting many of the 525 attendees of the chamber's 93rd annual dinner who turned out to see him.
"People said, 'Scott, we'll get you right out of here," Brown said during his remarks. "I said, 'Why, I only have the cat at home.'"
In a brief interview before his remarks, Brown said he was unaware of the protest forming outside, as he was busy greeting those inside. When asked why he voted against the "Back to Work" bill, Brown said he wasn't going to vote for a measure that would raise taxes in the middle of a three-year recession, something he called "a job killer."
The bill, part of President Obama's jobs plan that has stalled on Capitol Hill, called for $30 billion to create or save 400,000 education jobs, $5 billion for first-responder jobs and a tax hike in the form of a 0.5 percent surtax for those making $1 million or more.
The Senate blocked the measure with a 50-50 vote, short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster, according to news reports. Opposition came from all Senate Republicans and three Senate Democrats.
"That bill was defeated in a bipartisan manner," Brown said. "There were Democrats who voted against it."
Brown added that Washington can do better and that both sides of the aisle need to work together.
"We should take the things we agree on and get them out the door and stop with the political theater," Brown said.
In his remarks, Brown said he was a former chamber member in other communities and spoke about the challenge of doing business in a tough climate. He told the crowd he appreciated coming to chamber meetings and greeting those whom he called the job creators in Massachusetts.
>>Brown said he was a former chamber member in other communities and spoke about the challenge of doing business in a tough climate. He told the crowd he appreciated coming to chamber meetings and greeting those whom he called the job creators in Massachusetts
Horrors, he's a Republican. Shouldn't he be voting Democrat like the man he replaced? Fear not, he will probably be replaced by a Democrat like Elizabeth Warren who will vote in lockstep with the Democrat Party and we will all be much happier.
It’s now dawning on Marblehead that no matter how he votes, Brown will never get their votes.
Wow!!!..forty.
” - - - About 40 teachers, firefighters, activists and unemployed people staged a small protest - - - “
Don’t, just DON’T Tell me! I want to guess. Okay, there were only 40 people there, but that was in Salem at night.
Okay, - - - activists? Is that a term for outsiders? No! don’t tell me. Okay, um, - - -.
No way! That was “Occupy Salem?”
Did he just realize that it wasn’t the Gov’t. Union Leadership that got him elected last time? I’m not saying that there’s much hope, but if the they can only find 40 paid agitators, the Public Unions may have outlived their usefulness.
Well, good for him. At least he votes right some of the time.
Scott came by our KOC Pancake Breakfast in Malden for Housing Families. He was well received.
Knew he was a turncoat
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