Some people have asked what I don't like about certain elements of the Tea Party such as the Tea Party Express (TPE). Scott Brown is a perfect example along with Olympia Snowe of their short sightedness. They see everything as liberal versus 'true' conservative -- it is not always that way. Massachusetts and Maine are not two Conservative Republican states but this group has the capability of costing us two Senate seats with their tactics if they come into MA like they did Alaska.
Both Scott and Snowe should talk to Lisa Murkowski about the Tea Party Express and their underhanded tactics. Truth means nothing to that group and are a blight on the legitimate Tea Party people. TPE is all about getting people to donate for their choice of who is the best candidate when they don't even live in the State. Our Country Deserves Better PAC is who gets the donations not the Tea Party Express. Don't understand how the Our Country Deserves Better PAC could fund the Tea Party Express because they are nothing like TPE which frankly is out of control and has been almost since it was formed.
They were big time behind Joe Miller who turned out to be a horrible candidate who never could keep a job and broke rules wherever he landed, then Christine O'Donnell of "I am not a witch fame" while wearing a black dress, Sharron Angle who ran one of the worst campaigns ever in NV and refused to listen to long time strategist, and John Raese in WV who keeps running and losing and spends over half his time in Florida. We probably lost the Senate race in Colorado because Ken Buck who should have won could not lose the Tea Party label when trying to say he was a grassroots candidate to bring in the independent votes. He was right he was a Colorado grassroots candidate but the media kept calling him the Tea Party candidate.
Some people from the TPE want to kick out the grassroots of the Republican Party but we are not leaving and will continue to support candidates who can WIN like Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe who vote with us most of the time on the very important issues. Both are very much on board with the military. The Don't Ask Don't Tell was going to be overturned sooner or later and to use that as a wedge issue is stupid.
We support Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe for reelection in 2012 and hope the Tea Party Express finds out that they are not calling the shots in individual states. In fact I hope the American people wake up to their underhanded tactics they used in places like Alaska in 2010 along with their arrogance and quit contributing to their PAC.
We applaud Scott Brown for having the courage to write this book. Don't remember hearing of child abuse cases when I was growing up but over the years more and more has come out as people are no longer afraid to talk about abuse. IMHO, adults who abuse children should be thrown in jail and have the key thrown away. Brown uses nothing for an excuse but talks about how it made him a better person -- how refreshing not to play the victim act.
If I lived in Massachusetts, Scott Brown would definitely have my vote!
Scott Brown: 'That Life Made Me the Man I Am Today'
Feb 21, 2011 – 11:01 AM
Michele McPhee
Sen. Scott Brown gave the first copy of his memoir, "Against All Odds," to his mother, Judith, weeks before news broke that he was sexually abused as a child by a camp counselor, the Massachusetts Republican told AOL News.
It was also the first time his mother would learn about the physical attacks allegedly inflicted on him by her husbands -- childhood traumas he had never shared with anyone.
"I told her, 'I think you need to read this, Mom.' I gave a copy to my sister [Leeann], and she tried to get her to read it too,'' Brown said. "She didn't. She was dealing with some health issues, and I'm not sure she wanted to really know what was in it. It's a difficult process now, but I don't regret writing the book."
Brown said his mother still hasn't read the book, but they've spoken and she told him she's proud of him.
He wrote the book, which hit bookstores today, because "I want people to understand where I came from; why I have voted the way I have voted," he said.
Brown stunned the nation last January when he won a special election for the Senate seat that had been held by Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy for decades -- a startling result in a state that had not elected a Republican since 1972. Kennedy had represented Massachusetts in Congress for 47 years before he died of cancer in 2009.
The memoir details Brown's hardscrabble upbringing in the blue-collar suburbs outside of Boston. It starts with a look at his tumultuous childhood, which was marred by violence against him and his mother, and the poverty that forced him at times to steal food.
"By the time I turned 18, I had moved 17 times and lived in 12 different homes," he wrote. The homes belonged to "relatives and whatever man my mother was married to at the time. We were visitors there; they were never our own."
Brown's mother was married four times. ''Constrained by her choices, good and bad, my mother worked hard, often at multiple jobs, to keep a roof over us, put clothes on our backs, and pay baby sitters, and she bought food and a few extras with whatever was left over," he wrote.
His father was an unfamiliar entity in his life, gone before Brown was a year old. He would materialize only on "rare weekends,'' the senator wrote.
The sexual abuse Brown describes allegedly happened the summer after he finished the fourth grade, when the 10-year-old was sent to a Christian camp on Cape Cod. While he will not name his alleged abuser and said he will not seek prosecution against the man, Brown can recall everything about the assault.
"I can remember how he looked, every inch of him: his long, sandy, light brown hair; his long, full mustache; the beads he wore; the tie-dyed T-shirts and the cutoff jeans, which gave him the look of a hippie,'' Brown wrote. "I was standing there with my pants down, and he came right up next to me and asked me if I needed help, and then he reached out his hand."
What happened next was an account of a brutal fondling that ended only when Brown screamed. He didn't tell a soul because his abuser said, "If you tell anybody, I will kill you."
It was a threat Brown took seriously, citing the incident as one of the reasons he was such a strong proponent of victims' rights in the Massachusetts State House.
"When I am attacked for some of my votes, for not voting in lockstep with the Republican Party, there are reasons for it,'' Brown told AOL News. "I hope these revelations will bring a better understanding to some of the fights I have waged as a legislator."
The alleged childhood abuse is a small part of "Against All Odds." The book describes the life experiences that shaped a politician whose unexpected win was described by his voters as "the Scott heard around the world."
It describes a troubled teenager who was arrested for shoplifting and chastised by a judge who told him to write an essay and concentrate on his athleticism -- advice he heeded. It also explains some of the decisions Brown made as he mounted his political career and some of the obstacles that provided unexpected direction.
Brown joined the National Guard because in the Blizzard of 1978 he saw it as the only organization not helpless in the face of that infamous storm. His prowess on the basketball court got him into college.
After graduating from Tufts University, he found a way to pay for law school by modeling, including a nude spread in Cosmopolitan that earned him the title "America's Sexiest Man.'' He's grateful for that job, he said, because it helped him meet his wife, Gail Huff, a former Boston television reporter. The couple raised two daughters -- Ayla, a former "American Idol" contestant who remains a celebrated singer, and Arianna, who is in medical school.
Looking ahead, Massachusetts Democrats have been very careful about picking a candidate to run against Brown in 2012. The senator hopes to raise $25 million for his re-election bid, which he knows will be more problematic because hard-line tea party activists have taken umbrage at a number of his more moderate votes, including his support of repeal for the military's don't ask, don't tell policy for homosexuals.
Sponsored LinksHe said he doesn't regret a single thing.
"I look back on my life now, though, and I can honestly say that there isn't one thing I would change -- not the arrest, not the violence, not the hunger, not the beatings and the brute struggles, not even cleaning up someone else's vomit in the stairwell of my dorm at Tufts for $10 in quick cash from the resident adviser because I had no money for extra food,'' Brown wrote.
"I wouldn't change any of it. ... Those years and that life made me the man I am today."
Both Scott and Snowe should talk to Lisa Murkowski about the Tea Party Express and their underhanded tactics. Truth means nothing to that group and are a blight on the legitimate Tea Party people. TPE is all about getting people to donate for their choice of who is the best candidate when they don't even live in the State. Our Country Deserves Better PAC is who gets the donations not the Tea Party Express. Don't understand how the Our Country Deserves Better PAC could fund the Tea Party Express because they are nothing like TPE which frankly is out of control and has been almost since it was formed.
They were big time behind Joe Miller who turned out to be a horrible candidate who never could keep a job and broke rules wherever he landed, then Christine O'Donnell of "I am not a witch fame" while wearing a black dress, Sharron Angle who ran one of the worst campaigns ever in NV and refused to listen to long time strategist, and John Raese in WV who keeps running and losing and spends over half his time in Florida. We probably lost the Senate race in Colorado because Ken Buck who should have won could not lose the Tea Party label when trying to say he was a grassroots candidate to bring in the independent votes. He was right he was a Colorado grassroots candidate but the media kept calling him the Tea Party candidate.
Some people from the TPE want to kick out the grassroots of the Republican Party but we are not leaving and will continue to support candidates who can WIN like Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe who vote with us most of the time on the very important issues. Both are very much on board with the military. The Don't Ask Don't Tell was going to be overturned sooner or later and to use that as a wedge issue is stupid.
We support Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe for reelection in 2012 and hope the Tea Party Express finds out that they are not calling the shots in individual states. In fact I hope the American people wake up to their underhanded tactics they used in places like Alaska in 2010 along with their arrogance and quit contributing to their PAC.
We applaud Scott Brown for having the courage to write this book. Don't remember hearing of child abuse cases when I was growing up but over the years more and more has come out as people are no longer afraid to talk about abuse. IMHO, adults who abuse children should be thrown in jail and have the key thrown away. Brown uses nothing for an excuse but talks about how it made him a better person -- how refreshing not to play the victim act.
If I lived in Massachusetts, Scott Brown would definitely have my vote!
Scott Brown: 'That Life Made Me the Man I Am Today'
Feb 21, 2011 – 11:01 AM
Michele McPhee
Sen. Scott Brown gave the first copy of his memoir, "Against All Odds," to his mother, Judith, weeks before news broke that he was sexually abused as a child by a camp counselor, the Massachusetts Republican told AOL News.
It was also the first time his mother would learn about the physical attacks allegedly inflicted on him by her husbands -- childhood traumas he had never shared with anyone.
"I told her, 'I think you need to read this, Mom.' I gave a copy to my sister [Leeann], and she tried to get her to read it too,'' Brown said. "She didn't. She was dealing with some health issues, and I'm not sure she wanted to really know what was in it. It's a difficult process now, but I don't regret writing the book."
 |
Josh Reynolds AP U.S. Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts says he has no regrets about revealing that he was sexually abused by a camp counselor as a child. |
He wrote the book, which hit bookstores today, because "I want people to understand where I came from; why I have voted the way I have voted," he said.
Brown stunned the nation last January when he won a special election for the Senate seat that had been held by Edward M. "Ted" Kennedy for decades -- a startling result in a state that had not elected a Republican since 1972. Kennedy had represented Massachusetts in Congress for 47 years before he died of cancer in 2009.
The memoir details Brown's hardscrabble upbringing in the blue-collar suburbs outside of Boston. It starts with a look at his tumultuous childhood, which was marred by violence against him and his mother, and the poverty that forced him at times to steal food.
"By the time I turned 18, I had moved 17 times and lived in 12 different homes," he wrote. The homes belonged to "relatives and whatever man my mother was married to at the time. We were visitors there; they were never our own."
Brown's mother was married four times. ''Constrained by her choices, good and bad, my mother worked hard, often at multiple jobs, to keep a roof over us, put clothes on our backs, and pay baby sitters, and she bought food and a few extras with whatever was left over," he wrote.
His father was an unfamiliar entity in his life, gone before Brown was a year old. He would materialize only on "rare weekends,'' the senator wrote.
The sexual abuse Brown describes allegedly happened the summer after he finished the fourth grade, when the 10-year-old was sent to a Christian camp on Cape Cod. While he will not name his alleged abuser and said he will not seek prosecution against the man, Brown can recall everything about the assault.
"I can remember how he looked, every inch of him: his long, sandy, light brown hair; his long, full mustache; the beads he wore; the tie-dyed T-shirts and the cutoff jeans, which gave him the look of a hippie,'' Brown wrote. "I was standing there with my pants down, and he came right up next to me and asked me if I needed help, and then he reached out his hand."
What happened next was an account of a brutal fondling that ended only when Brown screamed. He didn't tell a soul because his abuser said, "If you tell anybody, I will kill you."
It was a threat Brown took seriously, citing the incident as one of the reasons he was such a strong proponent of victims' rights in the Massachusetts State House.
"When I am attacked for some of my votes, for not voting in lockstep with the Republican Party, there are reasons for it,'' Brown told AOL News. "I hope these revelations will bring a better understanding to some of the fights I have waged as a legislator."
The alleged childhood abuse is a small part of "Against All Odds." The book describes the life experiences that shaped a politician whose unexpected win was described by his voters as "the Scott heard around the world."
It describes a troubled teenager who was arrested for shoplifting and chastised by a judge who told him to write an essay and concentrate on his athleticism -- advice he heeded. It also explains some of the decisions Brown made as he mounted his political career and some of the obstacles that provided unexpected direction.
Brown joined the National Guard because in the Blizzard of 1978 he saw it as the only organization not helpless in the face of that infamous storm. His prowess on the basketball court got him into college.
After graduating from Tufts University, he found a way to pay for law school by modeling, including a nude spread in Cosmopolitan that earned him the title "America's Sexiest Man.'' He's grateful for that job, he said, because it helped him meet his wife, Gail Huff, a former Boston television reporter. The couple raised two daughters -- Ayla, a former "American Idol" contestant who remains a celebrated singer, and Arianna, who is in medical school.
Looking ahead, Massachusetts Democrats have been very careful about picking a candidate to run against Brown in 2012. The senator hopes to raise $25 million for his re-election bid, which he knows will be more problematic because hard-line tea party activists have taken umbrage at a number of his more moderate votes, including his support of repeal for the military's don't ask, don't tell policy for homosexuals.
Sponsored LinksHe said he doesn't regret a single thing.
"I look back on my life now, though, and I can honestly say that there isn't one thing I would change -- not the arrest, not the violence, not the hunger, not the beatings and the brute struggles, not even cleaning up someone else's vomit in the stairwell of my dorm at Tufts for $10 in quick cash from the resident adviser because I had no money for extra food,'' Brown wrote.
"I wouldn't change any of it. ... Those years and that life made me the man I am today."
