Scott Brown has chosen his first bill to sign on as co-sponsor -- well, technically his second, as he previously joined every other US Senator in co-sponsoring a resolution marking the death of Rep. John Murtha. But his first real one. And the winner is... provoking Iran!

It's a pretty clear signal to the right -- one of two he made on Thursday -- perhaps as atonement for his vote for the jobs bill earlier in the week.

...most liberal, that is, according to the new National Journal vote ratings for 2009.

The all-Democrat, 10-member Massachusetts delegation scored an 84.5 out of 100, putting us easily ahead of #2 Hawaii.

As usual, New England was well-represented on the high side of the list: Vermont #3, Connecticut #4, Rhode Island #5, Maine #8, and New Hampshire a surprisingly moderate #11, at 61.

Well, here's one I'll have to ask the junior Senator's office about in the morning. Late today, the Senate passed the Travel Promotion Act, which is intended to promote international tourism to the US. It passed, with Republicans pretty evenly split -- and Scott Brown voted among the 18 all-GOP "Nos."

Senate President Harry Reid has been pitching it as a jobs bill -- of course, lots of those jobs would be in his home state of Nevada, which has been running low on free-spending European jet-setters.

Odds are pretty good that today's health care summit will produce a Joe Wilson-esque "You Lie!" moment -- some crazy-ass comment or rude outburst that zooms around the blogosphere, leads off Olbermann, and raises a million dollars in 24 hours for the Republican who says it. But who will be the headline-grabber this time? I say Joe Barton; below I rank the GOP attendees in order of likelihood.

For the real Golden Dome junkies among you, who read my new article on dissent under Speaker Robert DeLeo and find yourselves wanting more data, you're in luck!

Here are the Democratic state reps with the most and fewest total "votes off" -- opposite DeLeo -- cast on 214 roll call votes since DeLeo became speaker, that were examined by the Phoenix

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I write about the level of intraparty dissent under the current Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Robert DeLeo.

Two years ago, I wrote that "voting off" -- that is, casting roll-call votes contrary to then-Speaker Sal DiMasi -- had virtually ceased in the House.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that eight GOP Senators, including himself, will attend Barack Obama's big "health care summit" on Thursday. They are: Mitch, Jon, Lamar, John, Chuck, Mike, Tom, and John.

Back during the Sotomayor confirmation, I wrote that the GOP's glaring lack of elected female officeholders becomes especially glaring when the party is trying to oppose a woman or a women's issue.

I didn't mention the praise of Toyota in my review of Mitt Romney's new book, because it's really an unfair pot-shot... but that's what blogs are for, right?

Anyway, I now have the final actual version of "No Apology," instead of the advance proof I had before, and it's still in here (p.105-106), so here it is:

In the auto world, Toyota innovated what we now call "quality manufacturing" -- placing such consistent attention to each detail at every step of the manufacturing process that flaws and rejects virtually disappeared.

This is the first in what I intend to be a regular weekly wrap-up of the life and times of the Bay State's first new US Senator in a quarter-century.

In the week just past, Scott Brown got a taste of both the pleasures and perils of newfound fame.

Much like his daughter Ayla, Senator Brown entered a competition, did better than expected, and became the object of idolation among a portion of the national audience.

--I've written this before, but I think this is a good time to bring it up for discussion: the current wave in movement conservatism -- best encapsulated by CPAC keynoter Glenn Beck yesterday -- is not conservative, but reactionary. That is, it wants to rip asunder America's current social and political fabric, and attempt to re-instate conditions as they once were long ago.

For the first day and a half or so, the CPAC speeches were a real disappointment for those who like the crazy -- and who were spoiled by last year's version. CPAC always has its share of crazy (I'm talking about the main speeches; I've never been down in person to get the deeper picture), but the 2009 version was special. Obama had only been President for about six weeks, so everyone was essentially competing for most apocalyptic nightmare vision of the coming regime.

"Boston Bertie" asks:

Have you been following the race for Tisei's open seat in the state senate. Will Katherine Clark's association with Coakley hurt her? Her Democratic opponent - Mike Day - raised $70,000 in a couple of months and seems like he could run as an outsider? Any predictions?

I was wondering that myself, but I think the answer is no, Clark will probably win that seat.

"Bernie" asks:

Can you rate the performance of the Democratic and Republican state party chairs?

I can only give a partial rating -- we'll know much better after November. I think John Walsh has done a good job considering what a widely diverse set of interests are pulling at the state Democratic Party -- which can never truly be just a wing of the governor's operation the way the state GOP has been in the past.

"Rob" asks:

Which State Rep and State Senator races should we keep an eye on for the fall?

So far, it's the open ones. I'll be real interested in what shapes up in Joan Menard's southeastern district, where she just announced she won't run again, and in Bob Hedlund's south-fo-Boston seat, if he runs for Congress. For me, Willie Mae Allen's seat will be a must-watch, to see who emerges as a political leader from the community.