MANCHESTER, N.H. — LET ME BE honest. I wasn’t exactly expecting something Churchillian when Scott Brown’s Senate campaign announced he would deliver a “major foreign policy speech” at Saint Anselm College this week.
When it comes to Brown, the Bay State-turned-Granite State Republican, I’ve long been something of a skeptic.
Why? Because I’ve watched him since his days as a state legislator, and I’ve never been persuaded that he gives much real thought to anything beyond political calculation. That impression has been reinforced by the lengths Brown takes to avoid reporters, which to me signals someone who is neither broad nor deep.
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However, I hadn’t seen Brown in action since he loaded up his truck and moved to New Hampshire.
And though dubious, I was open to the possibility that, as he courts the Granite State’s politically demanding electorate, Brown might have developed some more serious habits of mind and, as a result, some policy heft. Certainly his topic, “Protecting America’s Freedom,” seemed like a worthy and weighty subject, given the liberty-versus-security tug-of-war that characterizes the age of terrorism.
And so I got my notebook and drove to Saint A’s to listen to the once and possibly future senator explain his worldview.
Oh my.
As far as I can tell, Brown has been studying under the tutelage of Sean Hannity. Which is to say, he has cast his gaze about the globe, catalogued the various problems that have arisen in the last half-decade — and blamed them all on President Obama. His foreign-policy reasoning, to the extent it can be called that, runs this way: Post Barack ergo propter Barack.
If that seems perhaps a bit simplistic to you, well, buckle your seatbelt. The point of Brown’s “major foreign policy speech” wasn’t just to blame Obama for the world’s problems, but also to cast Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic incumbent, as an unquestioning, asleep-at-the-switch Obama ally and enabler.
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To hear him tell it, Brown would be a clear-eyed, independent-minded steward of the national interest, supporting the president when he acted rightly, but speaking out resolutely when he veered off course.
Certainly everyone wants that kind of senator. But does that really describe Scott Brown?
Not in his last Senate incarnation. During that short stint in Washington, Brown’s modus operandi was to decide which way the wind was blowing or a vote was going, and then join the winning side.
Well, if that’s not the senator he was, perhaps it’s the federal lawmaker he would be if elected again?
As it happens, there’s an important issue at hand that provides a decent clue on that front: Does he think, as per the US Constitution, that President Obama should have to come to Congress for authorization for the multi-year military effort he wants against the Islamic State? After all, a senator can’t exercise much independent judgment if he concedes war-waging authority to the president without either a debate or a vote.
As Brown exited the hall, I posed that question to him.
He ignored me.
I asked his aides if he would be doing a press availability.
No.
Well, did they know Brown’s position?
They didn’t.
Could they find out?
Brown press secretary Elizabeth Guyton said she’d try to get me an answer. By deadline on Thursday, she hadn’t.
As it happened, on the very afternoon I hit a brick wall with Brown, Shaheen was touring a high-tech firm in Manchester. She actually took questions (both before and after the event), which gave me a chance to ask mine.
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“I think Congress should debate an authorization for use of military force,” she said. “I have called on the president to do that, and I’ve said if he doesn’t, we should do it without him.”
So let’s see. The man who declares he would be a firm, forceful, nonpartisan voice on foreign policy delivered a highly partisan address, ducked a topical query, and didn’t take any other questions.
The senator whom Brown disparages as a “naive follower” of Obama met with reporters and addressed the same question directly, with an answer that showed some independence of mind.
All in all, it was a revealing day. Which just goes to show that you can learn a lot when a would-be senator delivers a “major foreign policy speech” at an area college.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeScotLehigh.