Posted on 11/01/2005 8:04:52 PM PST by No Longer Free State
Governor Ehrlich's Chief Counsel has sent a letter to the co-chairs of a legislative committee investigating hiring and firing practices of the Ehrlich administration.
Included in that letter obtained by WBAL News, Jervis Finney provides the co-chairs with documents he says he uncovered during his investigation into the identity of "MD4Bush".
He points to a now-former State Democratic Party official Ryan O'Doherty who he says sent an email to party supporters hours before the Washington Post published it's first story about the rumors about Mayor O'Malley.
That email document reads:
"There will be a big story in the Post either tomorrow or Thursday that credits Governor Ehrlich's staff for creating and spreading the nasty and untrue rumor about our Mayor and his family. Steve asked me to contact you to see if you could show your disgust by calling into WBAL Radio after the story hits. The guys on WBAL obviously could try to protect Ehrlich, so we need as many folks as possible to call 410-467-WBAL. I will e-mail the story to you as soon as it hits and read it carefully and then call in and raise hell. Don't call in until after the story is published in the Washington Post - It is top secret!"
The Governor's chief counsel, in his letter, then points to an email circulated just after midnight the day the O'Malley story was run in the Post. He says it is an e-mail sent to members of the media with a cropped picture of Governor Ehrlich with Joseph Steffen that was sent from the email address "smitty_1945 @ Yahoo.com". The email had the header ...James Smith.
Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith says that is not him and he has never been connected to that email address and he has never had or used that email address. He says he is not the James Smith in the header of that document.
WBAL News has called Ryan O'Doherty and he has not returned the call.
In a written statement to WBAL News, Jervis Finney says:
"The e-mail raises serious questions about the former Maryland Democratic Party official's involvement in the MD4Bush conspiracy. That is all we will say now. The General Assembly's Personnel Committee, utilizing its subpoena power, is empowered to learn the truth about this matter."
To: NCPAC
Nah. I'm not really active as a volunteer or anything But I read some of your comments about Keyes you said you work on a lot of campaigns and in MD doing special ops, reminded me of Rove. I agreed with the stuff you said about Keyes and Mike Steele. Shame that one nutcase doesn't get it. Anyway, just like bloggin away. We gotta be real about 2006 gonna be tough. Might need to play dirty. Most recent campaign activity: Me and my buddies went to the dem debate party at a bar in baltimore heckling Kerry, O'Malley and all the other dems kept giving us dirty looks, we just kept heckling like we were at an O's game.
26 posted on 10/15/2004 2:25:11 PM CDT by MD4Bush (Bush must win)
(Example/note dirty tricks suggestion and pronouncement"Bush must win" a warning for future reference about stealth trolls)he posted private messages here:
next post but dated
02/08/2005 10:14:48 PM CST by MD4Bush
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1246101/posts?page=27#27 Post added on a old thread..note reaction of freepers who by this time were madly searching for his posts)
Already Zotted twice. Comment #3 removed and this one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1510902/posts?page=38#38
Rumours exist about O'malley having affairs. These rumours were either created by GOP operatives or already sort of existed.
The democrats are worried that these rumours will turn into a real story.
The GOP, naturally, wants these rumours to become a story.
A lying scumbag registers at FR, befriends in some manner Steffan, and gets Steffan to admit in various ways that in fact the GOP is well aware of these rumours and in fact is trying to get the rumour out in order to damage O'Malley.
The lying SOB takes the proof to the news in order to pre-empt the story from rumours about O'Malley into GOP operatives peddling smears about O'Malley.
If that narrative is basically correct, then besides using poor means to an end (although stuff that is really not that immoral by political operative standards) then essentially MD4Bush did a good job, and Steffan got caught with his pants down providing info to someone he shouldn't have trusted.
I really don't know what the big deal is. It sounds like MD4Bush pulled off a real coup. I have a feeling that if a FReeper did a similar thing over at DU that a sizeable number of FReepers would be applauding him.
Probably testing for IP posting ban?
Well, we know Ryan O'Doherty and his MD Dem buddies are avid readers of FreeRepublic, so I'd like to be the first to say thanks for being so stupid and leaving a trail that implicates the entire Maryland Democratic Party leadership. Also, discovering that the Washington Post uses Democratic party operatives as sources for their hit pieces on Republicans will do wonders for their journalistic credibility.
I can see you have not read it all.
BUMP!
Let me also express my sincere gratitude to them for being so stupid.
OK, what don't I have right?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1494651/posts
Ehrlich asks panel's help on MD4Bush
THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | September 30, 2005 | S.A. Miller
Posted on 09/30/2005 11:28:05 PM CDT by TBP
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s chief legal counsel is asking lawmakers investigating the firing of state employees to also help expose MD4Bush -- the Internet chat-room visitor whose remarks were the catalyst for the probe.
Chief Counsel Jervis S. Finney told Sen. Thomas McLain Middleton, a Charles Democrat and co-chairman of the Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections, to use subpoenas to "seek the truth as it relates to MD4Bush."
MD4Bush prodded longtime Ehrlich aide Joseph F. Steffen Jr. into a chat-room discussion in February about rumored infidelity by Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a Democratic candidate for governor.
snip
Nam Vet
Does anyone know how long O'Doherty has been a "former" State Democratic Party official? It would be interesting to find out why this is the case.
Nam Vet
Clearly the Wash comPost is involved in this story. It is the only way that Steffen could have been 'outed' so quickly.
That, to me, is the real story here, and I'm wondering how the connection can be confirmed.
If it turns out that O'Doherty has a close affiliation with O'Malley's campaign, that would be a gold mine, an absolute gem... and enterprising FReepers have the resources to investigate this, the original thread has an impressive array of information on O'Doherty.
No, a Democrat operative made the whole thing up, then contacted a Republican on this site to plant the BS. When the Republican said something along the lines of 'I heard a rumor like that', the Democrat took the planted story with entrapped response to the Washington Whore Post and said "Look, the Republicans are planting rumors about O'Malley". Republicans took the hit, but now the truth is coming out.
I doubt you'll see this explained in the Washington Post.
That, to me, is the real story here, and I'm wondering how the connection can be confirmed.
You are absolutely right. If the Post's sources for a hit piece aimed at Gov. Ehrlich are Democratic Party operatives, that's a big story.
What you posted isn't what happened at all.
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