Brown is tea-party no-show

Associated Press

BOSTON

When the Tea Party Express pulls into the city where the conservative movement got its name, the crowd will be as notable for who is not there as who is.

Sarah Palin is the keynote speaker at today’s rally on Boston Common, but Republican Sen. Scott Brown — whose January election the movement claims as its proudest accomplishment — is skipping the event.

Officially, he’s too busy with his congressional duties — but Brown also kept the movement at a respectful distance during his upset campaign to succeed the late Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

If he gets too close, the freshman senator, who’s still getting used to his national profile, risks being aligned with the tea party’s more radical elements, which have questioned the legitimacy of everything from President Barack Obama’s U.S. birthplace to his college degree.

“His ‘business in Congress’ is getting re-elected in 2012, and to do that, he needs to present a moderate image. Going to a tea-party rally is about the last thing he needs,” said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at Brown’s alma mater, Tufts University.

The rally, taking place in the shadow of the Statehouse on Boston Common, is forecast to attract 10,000 people.

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