In response to questions about the newest job stimulus proposal in the Senate, Sen. Scott Brown responded,

"In Massachusetts it [past stimulus spending] hasn't created one new job and throughout the country as well. It may have retained some, but it hasn't created any new jobs."

That would have been a powerful argument, and part of the opposition's mantra, had it not been so wrong.

It so happened, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was in North Andover Friday celebrating the award of federal stimulus, funded contracts to the solar energy company Nexamp, which is about to install four megawatt solar energy panels at twelve Bay State water and wastewater treatment facilities.

"And they're growing jobs right here -- in the last few years having gone from just four employees at the outset , on their way to fifty now and with some infusion of federal stimulus funds you'll be heading north of that and we're very, very proud. So for anybody who is questioning whether the stimulus bill is creating jobs here in Massachusetts, I say come on over to Nexamp."

That might seem a modest boost to the state's jobless rate, hardly enough to silence critics such as Senator Brown.

"In just the last few months, there are nearly two thousand public sector jobs that have been created, and I'm not talking about the ones that have been saved, new ones. Excuse me, three thousand public sector jobs. And over four thousand private sector jobs that have been created."

The Lieutenant Governor rushed in with some figures on construction jobs.

"Now for jobs in other sectors -- Well, there are jobs taking place in a whole variety of different sectors as a result of the federal stimulus money, whether it's direct grants that have gone to colleges and universities and areas of clean energy and energy research."

According to the Massachusetts Recovery Office, in the last three months, more than 9,000 jobs have been created or retained in the commonwealth, including 1,389 new jobs. More than 4,700 jobs were in the public sector, the rest from private entities.

Welcome to the big leagues, Mister Brown.