E-mails show Steffen not 'irrelevant,' 'mid-level' (NCPAC/MD4Bush/Rumorgate)

Baltimore Sun ^ | 03/14/05 | Michael Olesker

[conservative in nyc]

IN THE continuing saga of Official State Dirtball Joseph Steffen, a new name enters the mix: Kendel S. Ehrlich. It turns out, the day before Steffen was to be outed for spreading filth about Mayor Martin O'Malley, he turned to the first lady of Maryland for a shoulder to cry on. Relax, Kendel Ehrlich told Steffen, we need you. The next day, Steffen was shoved offstage. As Shakespeare didn't quite say: Out, out, damned Dirtball.

The Kendel Ehrlich e-mail was the most fascinating item uncovered by two dozen reporters scrounging through 14,500 pages of e-mails and other documents the Ehrlich administration reluctantly released Friday. They did it because The Sun and nine other news organizations filed Freedom of Information Act requests.

--Snip--

The records were requested because everybody wants to know just how close this Steffen was to the inner circle of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. "Irrelevant to our world," Ehrlich press secretary Paul E. Schurick said this month.

--Snip--

We already knew that Steffen, under scrutiny for his alleged role in politically motivated dismissals of scores of state workers, is known as the Prince of Darkness. But we now learn, according to a Steffen e-mail, that it was Ehrlich himself who bestowed the nickname on Steffen.

--Snip--

We also know, of course, that Steffen was throwing around rumors about the mayor of Baltimore's sex life, and we've already been told, in previously outed Steffen e-mails, that "a lot of the reason everybody knows [O'Malley's] history is because of what has gone on beneath the surface. ... A few folks put in a lot of effort to ensure the story got some real float."

[conservative in nyc]

The Baltimore/Washington area papers have 24 reporters sifting through Steffen's e-mails. We already knew they are LURKING here (not that there's anything wrong with that, Mr. Olesker -- you might learn something). We already knew few, if any of these nine newspapers have dedicated dozens of reporters to trying to figure out who really was spreading these years-old rumors about Baltimore's Mayor O'Malley having affairs with Baltimore TV reporters.

We also already knew this isn't the first place these rumors were spread. And we knew that NCPAC's not the only one who discussed the rumors. We already knew these rumors were also spread on USENET about the same time it was here, on the Baltimore Sun's own boards and in Dave Hughes' DCrtv.com Mailbag before xcullen posted it (according to xcullen "out of pure curiosity" to discern the truth of the rumors) here. We already knew the rumors were also posted on DU. And that the MSM even admits they were trying to track down the rumors for years.

Questions Mr. Olesker and his MSM friends might want to ask about how the rumors REALLY were spread on the internet and the mysterious MD4Bush whose FReepmail conversations were somehow received by the Washington Post so that we can "now learn" the whole truth include:

1) "Dave from Sterling" said in the DCrtv.com July 5, 2004 mailbag that the DCrtv.com rumors were being spread by "a repetitive area wag". Does the Post or Sun know who he or she is? Have they bothered to ask their own staff or the owner of the DCrtv.com site?

2) A simple USENET search of groups.google.com shows that a person or group of persons has been spreading bad news about Baltimore on USENET and their own websites. The Baltimore Sun itself reported on one of those person or persons' websites on August 7, 1998. Are any of the persons named in that article responsible for spreading the USENET O'Malley infidelity rumors  beginning last July 25? Is there any evidence that NCPAC, MD4Bush, or the other posters on the Free Republic threads were involved in the USENET postings?

3) The Baltimore Sun should have the logs for the O'Malley infidelity posts on their website. If they do, what does the Sun know about the persons spreading the rumors? Can they trace the posts back to NCPAC? "a repetitive area wag"? Someone else?

[expatpat]

Olesker's still beating his dead horse, I see.

[conservative in nyc]

PING.

What happened and why we care:

Steffen is a Freeper (NCPAC) and the Baltimore Sun and (to a lesser extent) the Washington Post have blamed Free Republic and NCPAC for spreading rumors that Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley had an affair with a news anchorwoman. NCPAC only commented on those rumors, which seem to be as prevalent in Baltimore as Giuliani infidelity rumors were in New York City during his marriage to Donna Hannover. But Giuliani never held a news conference on it or tried to use the rumors for personal gain.

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..Is there any evidence that NCPAC, MD4Bush, or the other posters on the Free Republic threads were involved in the USENET postings?.."

Good point. Unfortunately, the investigation needs to subpoena FR for the MD4Bush log info to cross check. They show no signs of doing so.

[sam_whiskey]

What's the significance of Baltimore's mayor in the first place?? That's what I've never understood since this got started. Why's he worthy of rumor-spreading to begin with??

[conservative in nyc]

Olesker's going to beat this horse until it's really, really dead. We can try to point him and his MSM friends in the right direction. They seem to be blinded by NCPAC's e-mails at the expense of the forest - who REALLY was behind spreading the rumors.

Olesker and the Baltimore Sun have a feud with Governor Ehrlich (the Ehrlich administration refuses to allow anyone to speak with Olesker and another reporter because they think Olesker has been sloppy in reporting).

[conservative in nyc]

Mayor O'Malley is supposedly very charismatic, and interested in running for governor in the next election. Governor Ehrlich is the first Republican Maryland governor in 35 years or so. At the end of the day, this is also about Democrat hacks being weeded out of their do-nothing jobs in the state bureaucracy as well.

[speedy]

Man, this Olesker guy has some issues. He sounds like a typically deranged DU poster. Hard to believe they pay him for this drivel. I never heard of him before this Steffen thing came up -- is he one of the Rats "new breed" or just another decomposing lefty journalist trying to squeeze a few more years out of his obsolete profession?

[BigSkyFreeper]

Olesker's still beating his dead horse, I see.

[Mo1]

Seems like it .. it also seems like they don't really want to know who MD4Bush is

[TBP]

Jim really should tell us who MD4Bush is. I suyspect a Democrat operative, likely affiliated with Doug Duncan. After all, Duncan benefits from the rumor (hurting O'Malley) and from trying to tie it to Gov. Ehrlich (hurting the Governor.)

[BigSkyFreeper]

it also seems like they don't really want to know who MD4Bush is

Protecting the identity of some Democrat screwball as it were, while at the same time, that unknown Democrat continues to bring down the Republican party in Maryland.

[Norman Bates]

"...documents the Ehrlich administration reluctantly released Friday."

Now how did The Sun know that? Were they rubber-stamped "Reluctant Release" by the governor's office? This is the type of subtle bias which has always turned me off to newsmedia.

Just the facts, folks. Just the facts.

[DJ MacWoW]

Do reputable reporters use the term "dirtball"? Another reporter making his own scandal to report. If you can't find real news, make some.

[Katya]

The Md gazette had a piece a few weeks ago, stating emails from MD4Bush originated from the mddems.org. Haven't heard anything further regarding this.

[TBP]

The Md gazette had a piece a few weeks ago, stating emails from MD4Bush originated from the mddems.org. Haven't heard anything further regarding this.

Do you have a link to that story? Thsi would be a great thing to publicize.

My personal suspicion, as I said above, is that it's a Duncan supporter trying to harm Ehrlich and O'Malley at the same time.

[conservative in nyc]

To be fair, Olesker is a columnist, not a reporter. He has more latitude to be childish and call people names.

Katya - I can't find any such article from the Maryland Gazette. Please post a link to it, if you have it.

[enots]

Baltimore Mayor, Martin O'Malley is the (very corrupt) Maryland Attorney General, Joseph Curran Jr.'s son-in law.

Curran is getting up in years and more than likely will hand off control of the Maryland Democratic Party to O'Malley.

Curran and his buddies, Mark & Gilbert Sapperstein control the state of Maryland.

As the MD. Attorney General, Curran is the muscle behind the Sapperstein's

Sapperstein's are also best of buddies with O'Malley.

If the Republican's are going to torpedo O'Malley's run for Gov. of MD. one way would be to get indictments against the Sappersteins.



These two post will give you a snap shot of Maryland politics in a nutshell

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1337171/posts?page=1

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1360653/posts?page=2

[DJ MacWoW]

To be fair, Olesker is a columnist, not a reporter. He has more latitude to be childish and call people names.

You made me laugh. :)

[Katya]

This is the thread that Jim Robinson originally posted with the link to the article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1347080/posts