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Sen. Scott Brown: Let the States Decide Gay Marriage, And Let the Military Decide DADT For Me

Now that Scott Brown is the newest U.S. senator, everyone cares what he has to say about The Gays. Like whether he’s up for letting them get married, or serving openly in the military.

On marriage, Brown has the same position as President Obama: Let the state’s decide. That’s either a progressive stance for a Republican to have, or the natural one for a U.S. senator from Massachusetts to have, given his own state decided the gay marriage issue already — and he’s willing to let it stand. Unclear from this interview is how Brown feels about the Defense of Marriage Act.

And for the men and women in uniform (Brown is a National Guard vet), Brown isn’t making any calls yet — he first wants to hear from the military leaders on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Which, again, while not exactly what we want to hear, is a more nuanced approach to the issue than we’ve heard from almost any member of the GOP. It’s also the line Barack Obama keeps feeding us! And for a guy who supports the “big tent” approach to the Republican Party, maybe this means he won’t just be falling into line with GOP leadership, like House Minority Leader John Boehner, who just got done saying the president needs to take a break on his repeal efforts.

Does that make him our new BFF? Hardly. But at this point, we’ll settle for the “at least he’s not the second coming of John McCain.”

Or maybe Brown, who came out of nowhere to defeat Martha Coakley, is realizing that while he can score points with voters fed up with the Democrats’ handling of health care and the economy, he can score a few more with anyone tired of their gay rights management.

Elsewhere, it’s Florida’s Congressman Alcee Hastings who’s renewing last year’s pledge to force the White House’s hand and keep its promise.

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