"I’ll let my votes speak for themselves"

Asked whether he’s attempting to position himself as a moderate, Brown replied tersely, “I’ll let my votes speak for themselves.”…

“I’ve voted across party lines to move things along to try to get the wheels moving,” Brown said Wednesday. “It’s clear that Washington is broken — I’ve said that during the campaign; I’ve said it here. If my efforts can get things moving, then that’s great. That’s what the people want in my state and in the country.”

One of his first votes back in February was to approve a $15 billion jobs-creation package, which he said “contains measures that will help put people back to work” but which some of his fellow Republicans said would be ineffective and was filled with budget gimmicks aimed at making its cost appear marginal. And last month, he joined 10 other Republicans to vote for a $17 billion version of that bill, which would temporarily give employers payroll tax breaks for hiring unemployed workers and pump cash into highway and transit programs but add $13 billion to the mounting federal debt.

And that position prompted DeMint’s aide to call out Brown and the other defectors, catching Brown off-guard.