Democrat Official Outed as ‘Sleaze’ Source on Mayor O’Malley: Washington Post Ignored Story It Had

Special to FreeRepublic ^ | 1 November, 2005 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[Congressman Billybob]

Thanks to the efforts of investigative reporters for WBAL in Baltimore, which has just broken the story, the former third-ranked official for the Democrat Party in Maryland has been outed as the original source for sexual slanders against Baltimore’s Democrat Mayor, Martin O’Malley, who is currently running for Governor.

The original stories in February in the Washington Post blamed the kerfuffel on Joseph Stefan, then an aide to Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. The aide was terminated from his position as a result of his name (but not the Democrat’s name) coming out at the time.

Source: www.wbal.com/shows/Smith/ Transcript should be up, shortly.

Personal note: much of the back story on this subject occurred on FreeRepublic.com, known as FR. I have written on that website, and been a speaker at several rallies in D.C., for that website and its founder, Jim Robinson. My association with the website has lasted over seven years.

Steffan was a participant in that website a year ago, under a screen name. He got into a PRIVATE conversation by “Freepmail,” a person to person communication system on that website, with someone whose screen name was MD4Bush. This person represented that he was a staunch Republican, in a state where Republicans are in a distinct minority.

MD4Bush, in this private exchange, made several salacious sexual charges against the Mayor of Baltimore. MD4Bush, it now turns out, was Communications Director for the Maryland Democrats when he signed up on FR and as his first participation began pushing rumors that “O’Malley was cheating on his wife.” Steffan did not rise to the bait on most of the charges. But he responded (shades of the Libby investigation) “I heard that, too,” with respect to one.

Within minutes of the last private communication, two reporters for the Washington Post wrote a story outing Steffan by name as an aide to Governor Ehrlich (a Republican) for dealing in rumors about O’Malley. Subsequently, Democrats in the state legislature asked for a full investigation of the Governor’s staff. The speed with which the Post had the story suggests that they used MD4Bush as their source. And they must have had some reason for believing that their source was reliable.

In short, it is highly likely that the Post knew they were getting information from a then-Democrat staffer in order to attack a Republican staffer and the Governor he worked for. The understanding of the story would have been much better, and the story would have been far more honest, if the Post had reported that part of the story.

But they did not. That suggests that the Post story was deliberately slanted to harm the Republicans and protect the Democrats, when they knew from the get-go that this was a set-up by a Democrat.

John_Armor@aya.yale.edu

[Congressman Billybob]

Freepers were on top of this story when the entire national and Maryland press, except for some intrepid reporters for WBAL (whom I met at the last D.C. Rally), were ignoring it. You were right in your instinct that this was a set-up job by the Democrats.

Congratulations to the latter-day "Buckheads."

John / Billybob

[MJY1288]

This has not been a Red Letter day for the RATS :-)

[Americanwolf]

CB..Thanks for the good piece! :)

[nopardons]

bttt

[MJY1288]

Delay has the Judge Hammered

Harry Reid gets fitted for his Straight Jacket

and the Maryland DNC gets Freeped

Life is good :-)

[mr.sarcastic]

That suggests that the Post story was deliberately slanted to harm the Republicans and protect the Democrats, when they knew from the get-go that this was a set-up by a Democrat.

This is key, and bears repeating until we are all blue in the face because the Post and Sun will conveniently ignore this fact.

[swheats]

The only play the dems had left today was to go in secret and ask for more punishment.

[MJY1288]

LOL, Nothing I saw today was anything close to a Party ready to become the majority. They looked more like a death row inmate ordering a 45 course dinner for his last meal :-)

[MJY1288]

BTW, How the heck are ya?

Cheers!

[doug from upland]

Calling them RAT bastards is not a slur. It is the simple truth. This great nation is not safe until the DemocRATic Party is dead.

[timestax]

Communist DemonCRAPS up to their old dirty tricks. Such tricks worked in bye gone days, BUT WILL NOT WORK THESE DAYS, DUE TO THE INTERNENT AND ALSO DUE TO FREEREPUBLIC.

[Kryptonite]

Compost expose' bump

[swheats]

LOL and a cig after each course.

I'm doing better, thank you very much. For awhile there I could only shake my head and walk away muttering something unintelligible from what I'd been hearing on the news.

Of course Mike you're always doing WELL. You must have democrats for breakfast or a big huge bowl of Wheaties. :)

[weegee]

Media Schadenfreude and Media Shenanigans PING

Thanks to the efforts of investigative reporters for WBAL in Baltimore, which has just broken the story, the former third-ranked official for the Democrat Party in Maryland has been outed as the original source for sexual slanders against Baltimore’s Democrat Mayor, Martin O’Malley, who is currently running for Governor.

The original stories in February in the Washington Post blamed the kerfuffel on Joseph Stefan, then an aide to Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich, Jr. The aide was terminated from his position as a result of his name (but not the Democrat’s name) coming out at the time.

[MJY1288]

Watching the Dems implode is food for my Soul ;-)

[conservative in nyc]

MD4Bush Ping!

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping.

A big rat has been nailed and had the red hot light of Freeper Truth shined on him. Below are a couple of hits from a Yahoo search on this pos.

McKay Ponders Political Future (washingtonpost.com)
... Ryan O'Doherty of the Maryland Democratic Party said, "We don't see a shift at all in Southern Maryland ... "He's done a great job serving his community," O'Doherty said. " ...www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27889-2005Jan21.html - 46k - Cached - More from this site - Save - Block


Kerry General Election Maryland Campaign Organization
... Communications Director. Ryan O'Doherty. Staff Assistant ...www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/kerry/kerrgenmd.html - statement. ...baltimoresun.com/sports/baseball/bal-md.settle18jun18,0,6349180.story - More from this site - Save - Block

[zip]

ping

[CounterCounterCulture]

* bookmarking *

[Lancey Howard]

Good editorial. Nicely done.

That suggests that the Post story was deliberately slanted to harm the Republicans and protect the Democrats,

"Suggests"?? When was the Post ever not a well-known, brazen propaganda rag for the DNC? Seriously. Did that paper once feign non-partisanship or something? Lies and distortion have been that paper's stock in trade as far back as I can remember. This latest stuff is nothing new or surprising.

Still, I suppose it never hurts to keep pointing it out.

Regards,
LH