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	Walter Brooks: Scott Brown’s Falling Star By South Dennis Providence Journal February 25, 2011 http://www.projo.com/opinion/contributors/content/CT_walter_02-24-11_MOMMELS_v3.8eef43.html Cape Codders were saddened last week by Sen. Scott Brown’s (R.-Mass.) claim that he was molested at a local summer camp. Camp Good News, in the Forestdale section of Sandwich, has confirmed that Brown attended the camp and has reached out to the senator repeatedly in hopes of unmasking his alleged assailant. The senator refuses to name his molester. Subsequent media reports and blog comments received at www.CapeCodToday.com show locals squaring off on two sides of the issue, both of which are unfortunate for the senator. On one side are those who believe Brown’s story but are troubled by his refusal to name the long-haired, tie-die-wearing “hippie” who the senator alleges approached him whilst the young Brown was in a camp rest room with his pants down and whose advances sent him screaming from the building. Many have questioned how Brown could let a pedophile run free instead of stopping what could be a serial molester who may now have been at it for upwards of 40 years. Among the “believers” are many who are appalled that a U.S. senator would throw a literary grenade at a respected Christian summer camp and not disclose a name so that Cape officials can pursue the attacker and defend their reputation. On the other side are alumni and friends of the camp who accuse the senator of fabricating the whole matter for political purposes – or at least to sell more books – leaving Camp Good News with a damaged reputation and no way to refute his accusations. Neither story line is playing well with readers of CapeCodToday.com. Those who believe Brown’s story feel that his political career cannot survive his sheltering of the molester. Those who feel he fabricated the account feel he should step down from office if he is proven to have lied. In one of the most boorish statements ever uttered by a politician, Brown told the media “I have more important things to do” when challenged to name the perpetrator. The senator could have ended this matter by naming the attacker and helping to track him down. Now a week later, it may be too late for that. Brown’s coming out as a child sex-abuse victim redoubled criticism of his strong support for former state Rep Jeffrey Perry’s failed run for the Massachusetts 10th Congressional District seat. Perry faces continued criticism for his supervision of police officer convicted of illegal strip searches of juvenile females when Perry was a sergeant on the Wareham Police Departmen. Brown’s support for Perry came back into public view when Perry was appointed to a $110,000-a-year position as special sheriff by his political crony Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings in January. Cape Codders demanded to know how Scott Brown, as a sex-abuse victim, could offer his unwavering support to a person with Jeff Perry’s reputation. Besides the controversy surrounding the alleged molestation, Brown’s accounts of his high jinx in 1980’s New York are not playing well on Puritan-settled Cape Cod. The Cosmo-centerfold senator’s stories of Studio 54 parties featuring piles of cocaine and Calvin Klein trying to rip his shirt off do not fit well with Brown’s carefully packaged campaign image of a truck-driving, barncoat-wearing family man. After decades of media reports on the less savory aspects of the Kennedy clan, perhaps Cape Codders had hoped for better in their new Republican senator. Just one year ago, Scott Brown was a national superstar in the Republican Party. He had managed to capture the “Kennedy Seat” in the U.S. Senate in an upset election that stunned the nation. Youngish, attractive and articulate, there seemed no limit on how high Brown’s political star might soar. Now many of even the most conservative of CapeCodToday’s readers believe Scott Brown’s political career is effectively over. Brown’s refusal to name his abuser, his continued support for Jeffrey Perry and his revelations of an immoral past are simply too much to overlook. Clearly the Massachusetts Republican party – the party of Elliot Richardson and Frank Sargent – isn’t what it used to be. Walter Brooks is editor and publisher of www.CapeCodToday.
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