Something the Dems overlooked? (Gawker photo illustration)
Big drama in Wrentham! Uh, 10 years ago. But still — Gawker raises an interesting issue about a decade-old harassment case and wonders whether the Democrats lost their chance to horribly exploit it and keep the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s Senate seat in the family.
But why did Democrats and members of the national press fail to even bring up the fact that Scott Brown had once been accused of sexual harassment and defamation in the myriad stories about him prior to Massachusetts’ special election in January? Google it. The entire incident is conspicuously absent.
The entire incident involves Jennifer Firth, a member of the Wrentham board of selectmen elected in 1999, who went to work on Brown’s state House campaign the year before, in 1998. Her lawsuit claimed he harassed her and told people they had been “intimate” and other refinements — read all about it here.
Brown denied the allegations. Firth’s lawyer withdrew from the case, and then Firth withdrew her own lawsuit, three days after filing it. Gawker notes that Firth had some other contretemps in Wrentham — including an ethics complaint stemming from claims she was harassed by a cop in 2005.
Still, Gawker wonders why, even given the fact that Firth’s case no longer exists and may have been flawed, the matter was not thoroughly aired and exploited during what was a particularly heated (and not terribly high-minded) special election race. Notes the website:
Clearly, if the situation were reversed and it had it been a Democrat in a high-profile special election who had a harassment and defamation suit in his past, the story would have been a talking point on Fox News for weeks.
