A little advice for the GOP senator from Massachusetts

I'm hoping — no, make that praying — that the newest senator from Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown, will now do what he said he would during last week’s special election, in which he trounced Democrat Martha Coakley in what is arguably the bluest state in the nation. I’m hoping he will, in fact, be an independent voice for the people of Massachusetts.

That is, I hope Brown won’t simply join the ranks of the GOP naysayers that are in such abundance in Congress these days. I hope, for the sake of the nation as well as his own, that he will be another Ted Kennedy — a leader committed to core principles who was also willing to reach out to the other side of the political aisle and extend a conciliatory hand for the sake of getting critical legislation done.

Health care is one piece of legislation that must get passed for the sake of the country. But there’s also cap-and-trade, education, the war on terror, you name it. Brown has to roll up his sleeves and be prepared to compromise with his political foes — and there will be many of them in Washington these days.

My sense is that many Democrats have already written Brown off. They assume he’ll become just another obstructionist. With his election, Democrats no longer hold that all-important, filibuster-proof 60th Senate vote that they wrongly believed they had locked up. Brown could exercise his vote along party lines and kill health care reform, cap-and-trade — heck, just about any bill that his heart desires.

Here’s the thing, though: Brown should never forget the state that elected him. He was a good-looking, smart-talking, even-tempered candidate who ran a people-first, grass-roots campaign that made no unforced errors. His opponent took a vacation in the middle of her campaign, screwed up a Red Sox reference during a radio interview and came off as disconnected, disinterested and arrogant.