Scott Brown: GOP Has Room for Pro-Choice Moderates

Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who says he turned down a larger role at the Republican National Convention, showed up in Tampa Thursday to see his fellow state Republican, Mitt Romney, accept the party's presidential nomination.
 

According to the Boston Globe, Brown, considered a moderate voice within the GOP, denied that he had stayed away from the early days of the convention to distance himself from the party's extreme elements, which could impact his re-election efforts in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts.
 

His appearance, he told reporters, "shows that someone who’s a pro-choice moderate Republican is here as part of the big tent that we have, and should have, and will continue to have with my involvement."
 

"And while I don’t agree with everything in the platform and/or with [former Massachusetts] Gov. Romney, I have a lot of respect for him and vice versa," added Brown, who is facing a tough re-election challenge from Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

“I have my own race, and I have my own life, as you know,” Brown said.
 

He chalked up his late arrival at the convention in Tampa as a simple scheduling conflict, given his busy political and private life. For example, he flew in from Washington, D.C., where the Globe said he was serving National Guard duty at the Pentagon this week.
 

“There’s only so many days in the year to be a dad, and a husband, and a soldier, and a senator, and then run for re-election," he said.