You can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps: Rudy Giuliani (supports assault weapons ban and nationwide licensing along with gun control), was here stumping for him and Mitt Romney is his bud, (hello? forced healthcare and assault weapons ban anyone?). brown's first visit was to John McCain's office...Hint, hint?
I'd bet Mitt and Rudy were part of a political calculation from the GOP. EG, some guy called up brown and said "We can get Mitt and Rudy up there, do you want them to come?" What is he gonna say? No? I probably would say NO, personally, but that's why I'm not running for office... I wouldn't get many votes doing what I wanted to do... at least not in MA. Yeah, he could be a typical RINO, probably is. The proof will be in the pudding, I guess.
The problem on the ground is, that any non-dem who wants to win here has to at least pretend they believe in that crap in order to get elected. There's no other way around it. You know as well as I do that MA does not have the base required to elect a real conservative, or for that matter, a libertarian leaning conservative. The demographics of this state just don't support it- the numbers are literally not there. It's mostly dems and so called "independents" that mostly swing dem. We got lucky this time because the voters were pissed and Martha is flaming douchebag.
-Mike