Sen.-elect Brown gets welcome befitting a movie star

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican state senator who shook the political landscape from Massachusetts to California this week descended on Capitol Hill to a celebrity’s welcome Thursday as he introduced himself to a Congress he says has lost its way.

Sen.-elect Scott Brown acknowledged that winning the seat held since 1962 by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in Tuesday’s special-election upset presented unique challenges.

“I’m stepping into shoes that are very, very big,” Brown said during a meeting in Kennedy’s former offices.

Brown made other gestures of humility and substance during visits with Senate veterans and leaders.

“This is the best place in the world when it comes to solving problems,” Brown said, “but we’ve sort of lost our way.”

Washington greeted the former Cosmopolitan centerfold, followed through the complex by a camera-clicking mob, more like movie idol Brad Pitt — who created a major fuss at the Capitol in March — than Jimmy Stewart’s Mr. Smith who went to Washington.

Brown said he was overwhelmed. Inciting a particularly dense swarm after one meeting, he expressed hope “no one trips” in the frenzy.

Republican leaders are hoping the same thing about Brown, largely unknown outside Massachusetts until he began surging past Democrat Martha Coakley to capture the Senate seat held by Kennedys all but a few months since 1953.

Welcoming Brown first was Sen. John McCain, the GOP presidential nominee in 2008 whose independent streak has often riled other Republicans.

Brown, who campaigned emphasizing his independence from either party, recalled that McCain was one of the first people “in this very office, to look me in the eye and say, ‘Well, you’re a long shot, but I’m with you.’”

Brown’s victory shook the Democratic Party to its core, breaking its 60-vote Senate majority, jeopardizing health-care reform and sending a shudder through even the most well-funded Democratic incumbents up for re-election in November.