The lowlife part was that MD4Bush made those 'private' freepmails public and claimed that Steffen had been spreading rumors on FR, when it was MD4Bush who was spreading the rumors, trying to get Steffen to say something on the thread about the Mayor. I don't think Steffen ever did say anything specific on the thread, only allusions, he mentioned specifics in Freepmail which no one else but MD4Bush was supposed to see.
I remember reading the e-mails when they were posted on the WBAL site, and IIRC, Joe Steffen absolutely did not take the bait.