http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/10/mcconnell-smear-graeme/
October 10, 2007
The right wing’s attack on Graeme Frost, a 12-year old recipient of
SCHIP, is now attracting attention from a number of traditional media
outlets. http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/08/attacking-graeme-frost/
“I think it’s really a sad statement about how bankrupt some of these
people are in their arguments against S-chip that they would attack a
12-year-old boy,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/washington/10memo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Mounting evidence
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/10/10/convenient-laundering/ suggests
that the right-wing smear campaign
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/09/rush-limbaugh-on-graeme/ may have
been orchestrated by a staffer in Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell’s (R-KY) office.
First, ABC News reported earlier this week that a staffer in Sen.
Harry Reid’s (D-NV) office received an email that was not intended for
him.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/10/dems-poster-chi.html
The email from a “Senate Republican leadership aide” showed the
minority leader’s office was intently tracking the smear campaign well
before it had gained widespread attention:
“This is a perverse distraction from the issue at hand,” said Jim
Manley, a spokesman for Reid, D-Nev.
“Instead of debating the merits of providing health care to children,
some in GOP leadership and their right-wing friends would rather
attack a 12-year-old boy and his sister who were in a horrific car
accident.”
Manley cited an e-mail sent to reporters by a Senate Republican
leadership aide, summing up recent blog traffic about the boy’s
family.
A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
declined to comment on Manley’s charge that GOP aides were complicit
in spreading disparaging information about Frosts.
Today, the New York Times adds more to the story, reporting that Sen.
McConnell’s office was preparing to issue a press release to attack
the Frost family, but pulled back once the progressive blogosphere
revealed the malicious campaign:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/washington/10memo.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were gearing up to use Graeme as
evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to
include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance, have
backed off, glad to let bloggers take the heat for attacking a family
with injured children.
An aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader,
expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release
criticizing the Frosts.
Christy Hardin Smith writes, “Is anyone in the media going to actually
dig into this and find out how involved the McConnell oppo shop has
been in all of this?”
http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/10/10/convenient-laundering/
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Surprised? Of course you're not.
Harry
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