Ellie Light speaks

Politico ^ | January 26, 2010 | Ben Smith

[maggief]

EXCERPT

Well, the mystery may be over. A woman who said her name was, in fact, Ellie Light called this morning into the radio show of Michael Smerconish, a national talker based in Philadelphia who has been friendly to Obama, to clear things up.

"I'm only me," she said, identifying herself as a traveling nurse who works for 13-week stretches at hospitals around the country, and whose primary residence is in Southern California.

"I need to own up – I did misrepresent my home town in some places," Light told Smerconish. Her logic in faking the addresses is one familiar to advocacy groups: "If I thought it was written by a neighbor of mine, I would give it more credence."

Light mused on why the letter was so widely circulated: "My letter was pretty darn good. It took a long time to write. I took more interest in honing it than most people take today."

"I don't know why others are not making the observation that, Why are we all abandoning the president we so adored so quickly?" she said.

[jennyjenny]

Do nurses have to be licensed in each state where they work?

[oh8eleven]

She provided a street address on Cherokee Road in Chillicothe and a phone number and verified both her opinion and her street as local.
I just did an AnyWho search and although it's not 100% inclusive, there are five Lights in Chillicothe ... none are named Ellie or on Cherokee Road.

[freespirited]

Looks like damage control BS to me.

I find her story very hard to believe.

[Oztrich Boy]

Light mused on why the letter was so widely circulated: "My letter was pretty darn good. B+ in fact"

[TomGuy]

If she actually is a traveling nurse, then she is working through one or more agencies. Those agencies would have to maintain assignment records.

Investigative reports [are there any remaining?] could easily track her movements and determine whether she was actually assigned to the geographical area when the letters were published.

If Light is who she says she is, the travel records would prove it. If Light isn't who she says she is, the travel records could bit her in the posterior.

This morning on FoxNews, Martha McCallum made the statement to Brent Bozell that a person claiming to be Light denied at least one of the letters by saying some other Ellie Light wrote it. [Maybe there are a bunch of Ellie Lights and they manage to channel each others thoughts.]

[Sigurdrifta]

Does “Ellie Light” speak Spanish?

I ask because this weekend her letter showed up in El Nuevo Herald (the Spanish-language version of The Miami Herald) TRANSLATED INTO SPANISH.

I would be interested to know if people have seen other Spanish versions of the letter in other Hispanic community papers.

I suppose an organization behind this could have produced a Spanish version. But if not, the the Herald editors must have not only not cross-checked the source, but also took the time to translate it and publish it themselves.

Pretty damning.

[Oztrich Boy]

“A traveling nurse!”

Ya know, there's a TV series in there.

[hoosiermama]

The Politico cracks me up publishing such pablum. For all they and Michael Smerconish know, that could have been me calling in claiming to be this alleged Ellie Light.

Let's all call...we could be truck driver, sales persons, air line hostess, etc etc....any one who travels...Lots of people claiming to be L.E. Lite.

[maggief]

It takes much, MUCH less time to verify names, addresses, etc., than via email exchanges to a yahoo account, which resulted in bogus (unverified) data anyway.

I am reminded of the Raleigh News and Observer (who also printed an “Ellie” letter) and their coverage of the Duke lacrosse frame. The NO’s initial report provided little research. Had they bothered to run the name Crystal Gayle Mangum through their own news archives they would have discovered her disturbing past.

MSM serves to advance the preconceived ideological agenda ... facts and verification be damned.

[techcor]

Reminds me of “Life of Brian” ending. “I’m Ellie Light and so’s my wife”.

[Tallguy]

Everything she said is just dem talking points which have been repeated ad infinitum and will be repeated again.

Possibly not. One of the possible outcomes of this little fiasco is that the "Letters to the Editor" section of your local paper may see some procedural changes. That would not be good news for Rahm/Axelrod. They'll have to look for alternate ways to achieve the echo-effect.

[hoosiermama]

Has anyone check her credit record? If she is who she says she is, she’d have a money trail.

[Stentor]

Michael Smerconish

Isn't he a slip and fall lawyer?

[TomGuy]

“13-week stretches” = 4 /year.

Yet there are many more than 4 locations.

A couple of the compilation threads listing the various newspapers had the number around 42 (and climbing).

42* newspapers in 18 states at 13-week stretches would be some 546 assignments. Even if several of the newspapers were in the same geographical area, the numbers don't add up.

[* IIRC, the number I saw in another thread was 68 newspapers and climbing.]

At 4 thirteen-week assignments per year, for 48 newspapers, that would be something like 136 years.

Even if there were multiple newspapers in a geographical area 'of residence', it would take multiple YEARS.

[EggsAckley]

This whole thing is very reminiscent of all the “fainting fans” at the Obama speeches. One or two would have sufficed. But no.....they did it at practically every gathering.

Very similar here........

[Tex-Con-Man]

"Yeah...that's it...I'm a nurse....uh uh traveling nurse..."

[autumnraine]

How does your traveling nurse friend hold a license in all the states she/he goes to?

[tubebender]

I would encourage everyone to contact your local paper and query them what they know about Ellie Light. Include some of the EL threads so they get the message. I have emailed my local paper twice and have not heard back nor are they covering this Spam Scam...

[autumnraine]

“So, on Jan. 7, we wrote her a reply e-mail and asked her to provide both. She provided a street address on Cherokee Road in Chillicothe and a phone number and verified both her opinion and her street as local.”

Give me five minutes and I can give you a ‘local’ in Hoboken NJ. This is the internet and age of Google Earth. Sheesh.

[autumnraine]

“This morning on FoxNews, Martha McCallum made the statement to Brent Bozell that a person claiming to be Light denied at least one of the letters by saying some other Ellie Light wrote it. [Maybe there are a bunch of Ellie Lights and they manage to channel each others thoughts.] “

Well, that explains the story on how we need to start looking at Earth for aliens that came out yesterday.