{"id":198717,"date":"2007-10-16T10:54:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T15:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2007\/10\/16\/mcconnell-aide-smeared-12-year-old-child-in-s-chip-debate\/"},"modified":"2007-10-16T10:54:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T15:54:00","slug":"mcconnell-aide-smeared-12-year-old-child-in-s-chip-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2007\/10\/16\/mcconnell-aide-smeared-12-year-old-child-in-s-chip-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"McConnell aide Smeared 12 Year Old Child In S-Chip Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BTW, go to the end, and see the <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">two year old<\/span> saved by S-Chip.  The Republicans are going after <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">her<\/span> too. <\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;pro family crowd&#8221; are claiming that here parents were &#8220;irresponsible&#8221; for having her when they were poor.<\/p>\n<p>Even most Republicans think that S-Chip is a good idea, so they can&#8217;t argue the merits, so they are trying to slime children.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, none of this would have an issue except for the fact that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.courier-journal.com\/apps\/pbcs.dll\/article?Date=20071016&amp;Category=NEWS0106&amp;ArtNo=710160398&amp;SectionCat=NEWS01&amp;Template=printart\">the reporters have have the email accusing the Forsts of fraud<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 153);\"><p>Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell&#8217;s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children&#8217;s health insurance program.<\/p>\n<p>But Don Stewart, the Kentucky Republican&#8217;s communications director, said he also wrote a follow-up e-mail later the same day that said a blogger he respected had determined that there was no story and that &#8220;the family is legit.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Huh&#8230;That day?  More like the next day, and late the next day at that.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 153);\"><p>Stewart said there was no effort by McConnell to discredit 12-year-old Graeme Frost, of Baltimore, or cast aspersions on the family.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It would be kind of hard to &#8216;slime&#8217; somebody when I was telling reporters there&#8217;s no story here and the family is legitimate,&#8221; Stewart said yesterday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>You sent an email around saying that they were welfare cheats.  How on earth is that <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">NOT<\/span> an attempt to &#8220;slime&#8221;.<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"color: rgb(0, 0, 153);\"><p>McConnell&#8217;s alleged role in depicting the Frosts as something other than what they claimed to be has been fodder for The New York Times op-ed page, bloggers and Democratic officeholders, among others.<\/p>\n<p>Stewart&#8217;s comments were the first detailed explanation of the role McConnell&#8217;s office played in the controversy.<\/p>\n<p>Matthew Miller, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an e-mail yesterday that &#8220;spreading false rumors about a 12-year-old boy is despicable for any reason.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No matter how McConnell&#8217;s office spins it now, the e-mail makes clear that they were part of the campaign to smear a child who had the nerve to stand up and say children&#8217;s health insurance shouldn&#8217;t be cut,&#8221; Miller said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>All this kid did was to tell the truth about what happened to him.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xkAvxrgtLr4\"><\/param><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"><\/param><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/xkAvxrgtLr4\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n<p>BTW, those kids that Michelle Malkin is going after?  Some pictures:<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img98.imageshack.us\/img98\/8308\/158289041001f75d90bdha6.jpg\" \/><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img525.imageshack.us\/img525\/445\/15828904529e03c54666yk7.jpg\" \/><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/img528.imageshack.us\/img528\/4232\/158289042408a9b15766fp4.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BTW, go to the end, and see the two year old saved by S-Chip. The Republicans are going after her too. The &#8220;pro family crowd&#8221; are claiming that here parents were &#8220;irresponsible&#8221; for having her when they were poor. Even most Republicans think that S-Chip is a good idea, so they can&#8217;t argue the merits, &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[969,1046,978,979],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evil","category-healthcare","category-politics","category-wanker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198717"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198717\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}