Ehrlich wants to determine if rivals exposed former aide (NCPAC/MD4Bush - Free Republic Mentioned)

Baltimore Sun ^ | 03/25/05 | David Nitkin and Andrew A. Green

[conservative in nyc]

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday he wants to determine whether Democratic rivals were behind exposing a former administration aide who participated in Internet rumor-mongering about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley that the governor says he knew nothing about.

A place to start an inquiry, he said, was a threatening e-mail he received last month from Michelle Lane, a friend of the aide.

--Snip--

Lane wrote the governor that she would release more damaging messages between her and Steffen - the first few were the "tip of the iceberg," she said - if the governor and his staff did not stop trying to implicate her in how the Steffen story wound up in The Washington Post and later in other news outlets. She said she was the subject of a "whisper campaign."

--Snip--

A letter released by the governor's office yesterday shows how Gil Genn, a lobbyist and former Democratic delegate, tried to help Lane get her job back after she was fired from a high-level job in the children's office in 2004. Genn wrote to the governor, saying Lane was terminated because she was critical of the appointment of Floyd Blair, the Ehrlich pick for Baltimore social services director who the O'Malley administration contended was unqualified for the post.

--Snip--

[Lane's lawyer, Daniel M. Clements, "who has represented several former state workers who claimed they were illegally fired because of political affiliation"] said Lane was not MD4BUSH, the still-anonymous FreeRepublic.com member who some believe entrapped Steffen, writing as NCPAC, into a conversation about the O'Malley rumors. In exchanges between NCPAC and MD4BUSH, Steffen said there was a coordinated effort to give the rumors "float."

[conservative in nyc]

More on Rumorgate. The bracketed language was edited from another paragraph, since we need to excerpt Baltimore Sun articles.

The article also says that the Lane-Steffen "e-mails" were "not part of the disclosure of 14,500 documents two weeks ago in response to several media groups' public-records requests for Steffen material, presumably because they were transmitted between two private e-mail accounts."

Ms. Lane denies being MD4Bush. The plot thickens...

[conservative in nyc]

MD4Bush Ping

[conservative in nyc]

Cheat sheet for lurkers and FReepers not paying attention to the NCPAC/Rumorgate saga:

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.

The Baltimore Sun and (to a lesser extent, the Washington Post) seem content to give the impression that NCPAC spread the rumor on this "conservative Web site" first. It was on USENET about the same time it was here, and in Dave Hughes' DCrtv.com Mailbag before xcullen posted it here. It was also posted on DU.

Questions lurking reporters 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 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?

[Anti-Bubba182]

"Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday he wants to determine whether Democratic rivals were behind exposing a former administration aide who participated in Internet rumor-mongering about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley that the governor says he knew nothing about."

We already know the answer and it yes. If they want specifics, subpoena Jim Robinson for the FR posting logs that apply.

[conservative in nyc]

Do any of the MD Freepers know who this Gil Genn is? Is he involved with mddems.org at all?

[Anti-Bubba182]

There were some references on Google to him being a lobbyist.
Ther was not much on him.

[Stellar Dendrite]

Can't he get MD4Bush's IP address and go from there?

[conservative in nyc]

JimRob has the IP info, but is waiting for a subpoena before he will release it. No one has dared subpoena JimRob yet.

The USENET IP addresses of people spreading the MD4Bush rumors map back to the same person or persons involved in other Baltimore (and Ehrlich) smear campaigns. That information is public, and can be found at groups.google.com. It's funny how the MSM hasn't reported on that angle yet.

[Shermy]

There's mention of him running as a Democrat for the "House of Delegates"

[Shermy]

http://www.gazette.net/200315/weekend/a_section/153529-1.html

April 11, 2003

Cozying up to Kendel

What exactly was Gil Genn talking to Kendel Ehrlich about in the basement of the State House on Monday? Maybe medical marijuana, who knows? But for Genn, the consummate lobbyist and former legislator from Bethesda, the way to the governor's heart is not through his stomach, but maybe via another organ.

"There's a second floor [in the State House] and there's a second floor [in the Governor's mansion]," Genn said. "I'm lobbying her here to get to him over there."

"She sleeps with him," chimed in WTOP radio political commentator Mark Plotkin.

[maica]

I heard bits of the Governor talking with Ron Smith and his Friday co-host, Tom Shaller (?sp) a lib. At the end of the conversation, Gov Ehrlich said he would like Shaller to help him to uncover who was MD4Bush. Shaller said he would help in exchange for the Governor cooperating with him.

It was a curious interchange.

[advance_copy]

http://www.gazette.net/200346/montgomerycty/state/186930-1.html

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) asked for the state ethics inquiry in September after learning that Genn, an Annapolis lobbyist and former Democratic delegate from Montgomery County, is a registered lobbyist for Diebold Election Systems Inc. and Science Applications International Corp.

He was a Delegate from Montgomery County before becoming a lobbyist. I'd bet he has ties to the Doug Duncan, Montgomery County Executive, who is likely to challenge Martin O'Malley for the DUmbocRAT nomination in 2006.

[advance_copy]

Interesting that the Baltimore Sun actually mentions MD4Bush and asked if Lang is the one. Of course, her lawyer denies it, and I never thought she is MD4Bush. I'm still thinking that's one of the WaPo reporters (notice WaPo never mentioned MD4Bush in their article yesterday), and that may be also what the BalmoSun is thinking. It would be quite a scoop for them if they could bust the WaPo for posing as FReepers and entrapping Steffen. Liberal bias plays second fiddle to the Sun's rivalry with the Post.

[advance_copy]

Oh, and let me also speculate that WaPo reporters calling themselves MD4Bush likely would have been working in cahoots with their star source, Michelle Lang, who was obviously disgruntled over being fired from the Maryland government. It looks to me like Lang was booted because she CYA'd problems with foster kids and then spent eight months failing to fix them. If I'm right about that, it would surely behoove Governor Ehrlich to tell the press about it.

[advance_copy]

One more thing for posterity and the reporters who are reading these threads (hello reporters); why doesn't anyone in the press find out why Lang was really fired instead of taking Genn's word for it that she's a "whistleblower".

[RebelBanker]

I have lost it now, but JimRob mentioned in an earlier thread that Lang is not MD4Bush and (IIRC) that MD4Bush is a guy. The gut I am getting is that the subject stealth troll is tied to Doug Duncan and managed a great two-fer: spread some slime on Martin O'Malley and blame Bobby Ehrlich for it.

[conservative in nyc]

That's a nasty rumor. Why would the MSM print that (about the wife of a Republican governor) but not the O'Malley rumors?

[conservative in nyc]

Jim Robinson posted the MD4Bush info on this thread.

[conservative in nyc]

Jim Robinson didn't think Ms. Lane was MD4Bush. And she probably wasn't. But we learned from the various articles that:

1) Ms. Lane was in original picture of NCPAC and Gov. Ehrlich anonymously sent to the press. She was magically cropped out.

2) Ms. Lane is now cooperating with the Washington Post. When did that start? The WaPo hasn't told us.

3) Ms. Lane's attorney, Daniel Clements, has deep ties to the Maryland Democrat Party. He was the last MD Democrat governor's personal attorney. He also represents other fired Maryland employees.

4) Ms. Lane ran to a Democrat lobbyist, Gill Genn, to try to get her job back.

Something stinks here.

[advance_copy]

Something stinks here.

Yep, smells to high heaven. The other thing we cannot forget is that MD4Bush put private FReepmail messages from/to NCPAC on a public thread at precisely the same minute that WaPo published their first article quoting those messages. MD4Bush was either someone working closely with WaPo (Lane denies it through her lawyer) or it was WaPo itself. My money is on the latter.