Kennedy's Burnt Bridge Finally Gone

"Republican Scott Brown took over the seat of the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy on Thursday, vowing to be an independent voice in a bitterly divided Senate.

"I can't promise I will be right in every vote I make. ... I will do the very best job I can," Brown told reporters.

Brown was sworn-in by Vice President Joe Biden at a Capitol Hill ceremony a week earlier than he originally planned, and just in time to plunge into a partisan fight over President Barack Obama's choice of a union attorney for a top labor job. "