Posted on 12/17/2005 10:40:39 AM PST by conservative in nyc
As Republicans and conservatives zero in on the identity of the mysterious Internet visitor who coaxed an aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. into spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a question is blossoming in political circles.
Does the identity of MD4Bush, the surreptitious user of a conservative Web site, matter? If revealed, will the knowledge change the public's perception of O'Malley or Ehrlich?
Some political experts say that the answer to both questions is yes and that it's worth following the plot turns in the increasingly convoluted saga. If MD4Bush turns out to be a Democratic Party official with links to O'Malley, they say, the story changes drastically. O'Malley's reputation will have been stained, they say.
"If it was a setup, that's got lack of ethics written all over it," said Donald F. Norris, a public policy professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. "If you set a guy up to get him, that's political dirty tricks. Whose hands are dirtier? Any benefit that would have accrued to O'Malley's campaign because of the dirty tricks of Ehrlich now bite the mayor in the you-know-what."
But others say that the identity of the Internet user is a political sideshow with little impact in the race for governor. O'Malley is seeking the Democratic nomination against Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan for the right to run against Ehrlich.
--Snip--
Yesterday, Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for freerepublic.com, disclosed more details. He said three Internet provider addresses were used by MD4Bush -- one in Pasadena, one maintained by The Washington Post in Bowie, and one in Baltimore. The Post has acknowledged that a reporter logged on as MD4Bush earlier this year to verify the postings' authenticity.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
On the con side, Baltimore political consultant Julius Henson was quoted by the Sunpaper as saying "I don't know really at the end of the day what the whole exercise is about." And, of course, ACTING executive director of the Maryland Democrat Party, Derek Walker said he didn't think the story was important.
MD4Bush Ping!
They still can't get it right on who was spreading rumors.
At some point, MD4Bush's actual IP address needs to be made public.
Once the actual IP is public, *other* websites will be able to do log scans to see if they've been visited by this Democratic Party activist.
That will generate more evidence against the Washington Post, too.
Of course it impacts the race, the MD DNC is furious that they're the new Watergate bad guys. Believe me, the heads are going to roll over there soon, a bloodbath extraordinaire. What did OMalley know and when did he know it?
This plus the DNC's racist treatment of Steele are big news, and huge tools for Reps. in MD. Let's hope they have the spine to really use them like the Rats would.
Which is the real story, conveniently ignored: The WaPo colluding with a Democratic operative to make public private conversations-- without the Dem operative and the WaPo, there wasn't exactly a "smear campaign," now was there?
As Republicans and conservatives zero in on the identity of the mysterious Internet visitor who coaxed failed in his attempt to coax an aide to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. into spreading rumors about Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley...
Absolutely correct!
The WaPo (and the NYT and most Lib media) colludes with Dem. operatives, publishes Top Secret info, publishes outright lies, incites riots, promotes race baiting, coddles terrorists, etc.
Thanks goodness for the internet, cable news, and talk radio. Wave goodbye to old media...
Good riddance to our Fifth Column.
Your noses are getting longer, Dave & Doug. By the way, why does it take two reporters to report on what WBAL has already released as news?
Earth to Dave and Doug: Steffan NEVER spread any rumors about O'Malley. Only MD4BUSH raised the subject. He tried to trap Steffan into agreeing with his rumors, and Steffan consistently refused.
Liar, liar, pants on fire. If I were you, I would ask your editor for another assignment, or you are liable to end up as part of a criminal investigation alongside that criminal instigator who works for the Washington Post.
I will say I am a regular on FR but I never got hooked on following this whole matter. I understand I could go back and read the 20-30 megs of posts on the subject but I am not sure I would be ahead of where I am right now. And that is-
What is this all about? Could some kind soul please give me a one-two paragraph summary of the meaning/importance of this thing.
I don't live in Md so is it in any way important to me?
My thanks.
Click on the MD4Bush link at the top of your FR forum, follow the link suggestions for background info. Jim Robinson's post 70 is a good backgrounder.
Is this possible if MD4Bush has a dynamic IP Address, which most individuals do?
Most will have a finite range of IPs even so, easily searched.
Basically a Democrat got a Free Republic account, pretended to be a Republican ("MD4Bush"), and exchanged a series of FREEPmails with someone on FR who was an aide to the Republican Governor of Maryland, Bob Ehrlich. The Democrat brought up some marital rumors about the Democratic Mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley (who is running for Governor) so he could get replies from from the Republican aide (Joseph Steffen, "NCPAC" on FR) discussing them, then he ran to the Washington Post with the FREEPmails, and a WaPo employee logged on with the same ID as the Democrat to "verify" them, and then published a story about the whole thing, resulting in the resignation of said Ehrlich employee. It was a setup.
The story was mis-reported initially as the FREEPmails being public "blog" or "bulletin board" postings rather than private FREEPmails by people that didn't understand what FR was.
Basically what's happened recently is that the ID of the Democrat is being narrowed down and it's increasingly clear it was in fact a Democrat.
However, despite the hopes of a lot of people, it's clear this story is FAR too complicated for the average Maryland Democrat or undecided (heck, it seems nobody on FR outside of MD understands the story) to understand or care about it, and it's going to end up being politically irrelevant. The only people who care about or understand the story in Maryland are people who were going to vote Republican anyway.
And despite various noises about what the WaPo did being illegal I'd put the chances of any prosecutions or successful lawsuits from any of this as about 0%.
Anyone interested, the emails I sent took a couple of days, but they finally "bounced back". Interesting. That's only happened when my kid hacked servers in Big China.
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