Defensive Assignment?

Senator Scott Brown’s committee assignments include joining the Armed Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs; a posting which tilts too far toward defense for some. “This is good news, of course, for the state’s many defense contractors, and there’s no questioning the importance of these assignments,” writes the Boston Globe. “Brown, a former army JAG lawyer, will have a chance to build on his knowledge of defense-related issues and, over time, play a substantial role in foreign policy. The problem is that his fellow Massachusetts senator, John Kerry, is already exerting maximum clout on foreign policy as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, meaning that the state’s Senate delegation is tilting too far overseas. Kerry’s specialty in foreign policy worked well when he was partnered with Edward Kennedy, who was the leading domestic-policy legislator of his time. From his perch on what is now called the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, Kennedy influenced much of social policy for the last half-century. He also tended assiduously to Massachusetts’ giant health-care industry, directing billions of federal dollars a year to local hospitals and laboratories.”