Scott Brown: ‘Thanks, David Gergen; thanks, Rahm Emanuel; I couldn’t have done it without you’

When Republican Scott Brown looks back at his unlikely victory, he can thank Martha Coakley, his inept opponent, but he should also thank CNN’s David Gergen and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

During a debate between Brown and Coakley, moderated by supposed wise man Gergen — an adviser to presidents of both parties but obviously entranced by President Barack Obama, and one of the pundits who met with him in the White House — Gergen asked Brown, “Are you willing … to say, … ‘I'm going to sit in Teddy Kennedy's seat and I'm going to be the person who's going to block [healthcare reform] for another 15 years’?”

“It’s not the Kennedys' seat,” Brown responded, “and it’s not the Democrats' seat; it's the people's seat.” (The backdrop for Brown’s victory speech Tuesday night trumpeted the words THE PEOPLE’S SEAT.)

Brown also owes Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s chief enforcer, and he owes him big time. Over Christmas, Emanuel took a much-needed vacation to India with his family. He should have stayed in Washington with his ear to the ground. Had he done so, he would have realized that the entitled, politically tone-deaf Martha Coakley was also taking a vacation — from campaigning — but that Scott Brown was not. He was putting miles on his pickup truck. When Coakley told reporters after casting her ballot Tuesday morning in Medford, Mass., “We’ve been working every day,” one could imagine Rahm, back in his West Wing office, exploding in choice profanities.