It didn’t take long for Scott Brown to overreach

All of 50 years old, unknown until he had the good fortune to run against the colossally inept Martha Coakley — the woman whose touch was so uncommon as to describe Red Sox hero Curt Schilling as a Yankees fan — Brown is going to be taking time from governing to write the story of his life: all those tales from the state Senate in Massachusetts, those spine-tinglers about his tenure as town assessor; the steamy details behind his nude photo shoot for Cosmo in 1982.

Yes, it is true that his parents were each married four times and that his father — his parents divorced when he was 1 — didn’t play much of a role in his life. Barack Obama managed a memoir about his relationship with his dad, Dreams from My Father, but he had a hook: He was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, and still his book went nowhere when it was first published. It took his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention to make it one of history’s best-selling nonfiction titles. If Scott Brown forgets who he is and how he got there, his chances at a keynote slot evaporate.

Will his pick up truck play a major role? How about his barn coat? Given the role they played in his election, they might be the most lively characters in the book.

Hillary Clinton signed her $8 million deal for her memoir before she took her Senate seat so she wouldn’t have to deal with Senate ethics rules on royalties. Scott Brown has already been sworn in, so his advance will be subject to Senate ethics rules, such as they are.

Still, publishers are surely lining up to win a bidding war for the Brown memoir. The publisher and the deadline have not yet been announced. Watching Brown in the short time he’s been in the national spotlight, he looks like the kind of guy who is going to enjoy a national media tour — and like the kind of guy who might not have the sense to stick to his work in the Senate and postpone the gratification of celebrity.

Then again, Brown will be working with a “collaborator,” so perhaps there’s no work to speak of — just signing those contracts for what is sure to be a high six- or seven-figure advance. Oh, and his spokesman said part of the proceeds will go to charity. She didn’t say which part, which reminds me of Sarah Palin’s representatives saying that her $100,000 paycheck for speaking at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville would be poured back into the movement. Palin herself provided no details other than a statement to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly: “I will not financially be gaining anything from this.”