The TV character Kojak routinely asked, "Who loves ya, baby?"

(A Nine-5 report: 1/21/10)

Washington is now Scott Brown’s courting parlor.

Fresh off a love-at-first-sight encounter with half the voters of Massachusetts, he heads down to our nation’s capital today, rested and with hair coiffed to start being wooed by two eager suiters: the Obama administration and Republicans.

It’s enough to turn an experienced pol’s head. And Brown is not experienced: not when it comes to statewide politics and definitely not the harsh glare of the national political spotlight. If he’s not careful, he may end up doing something he regrets, and not getting any respect in the morning either.

The issue that will define him — and our national political conscience over the next year — is healthcare reform (even though that issue is an intended or unintended red herring that steers the nation’s attention away from the biggest issue facing our country, which is Wall Street’s role in the deterioration of the middle class).

It can go one of two ways and either way, it will go pretty fast. Both sides will play to his ego.  If Obama is successful, he gets Brown to support some version of the healthcare bill. Brown is then hailed by those who support the bill as an independent force capable of doing the impossible: getting Republicans and Democrats to stop their bickering and work together for the betterment of our country. He gets assailed by those who don’t like the bill as a sellout: a Democrat in a red dress.

If the GOP is successful and he is the deciding vote against the healthcare reform bill, he is assailed by those who supported the bill as an obstructionist for the Republican political machine who’s first priority is getting reelected. Brown is then hailed by those opposed to the bill as someone who started a Republican revolution in this country and then rides this phony-baloney, hot-aired-driven train all the way to a GOP VP nomination in 2012.

But in both cases, there’s a chance that either side will simply have their way with him and then toss him aside, like some cheap floozy who was able to satisfy an urgent, but fleeting need.

Meanwhile, Brown is being primped and groomed for his big date(s). Let’s just hope he’s a good boy and remembers he has a two-headed wife back in Massachusetts: both of which are watching him very closely.

Blah, blah, blah….

(Photo courtesy of Flickr)

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