Reply #64: I agree completely with what you are saying

[karynnj]

I hope the DSCC (I think still headed by Menendez) did not do this - if they emailed it to reporters (I interpreted "circulated" more vaguely) they are brain dead. (When I suggested it was a smear - it was because no one was named as the one sending it and there was no specificity or details - just the Capecodtoday article - which I had seen, but did not post here or elsewhere because it is pretty bad and I wanted no part in spreading anywhere the idea that it could have been made up. (The only part I agreed with at all was the concern for the camp. I have 3 kids who went to a PA camp for a total of about 10 summers, that was also family run and family owned - so I have had some sympathy for the camp. There was nothing in Brown's story that suggested that the camp knew what happened and closed their eyes.)

Suggesting it didn't happen is beyond the pale - and likely unprovable - even if true. (I believe he likely was molested.)

Politically, it is brain dead, especially as there HAS been at least somewhat of a minor backlash because the BH and BG both questioned how he could have backed Perry. In addition, the BH had an excellent article with someone who works with abused kids, where most of the responses were negative for Brown because he did not identify the man. This turns it around to Brown being the victim. If the DSCC did this, I hope JK condemns it when proven.

To me the real negative theme emerging is that he has little empathy for kids struggling with poverty now - in spite of his past. BlueMass has a thread that connects his getting a summer job funded by the government and his voting against the Patty Murray/John Kerry amendment that funded summer jobs and extended TANF. This IS relavent - not for the past - but because unlike the rest of the MA delegation, he genuinely does not see that help is sometimes needed. (That he himself benefited is beside the point. In fact, I wonder if he believes the coach at school who found so much time for him and changed his life, deserved the pension, he is likely now living on, that his union won for him.)