Posted on 11/01/2005 9:07:27 PM PST by 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 Baltimores Democrat Mayor, Martin OMalley, 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 Democrats 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 OMalley 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 OMalley. Subsequently, Democrats in the state legislature asked for a full investigation of the Governors 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
Great write-up, but you left out one twist:
MD4Bush (O'Doherty) worked for Democrat Duncan...Democrat Mayor O'Malley's Democratic Gubernatorial primary competition in 2006.
So this was a fight between 2 Democrats that was gamed to blame a GOP'er (NCPAC and Governor Ehrlich).
The Washington Compost "slanted"?
Hell man, they're a damned site more than "slanted", they're a long toothed hit-man for the DNC.
It sure would be nice if MSM did a little story on the intentional deception of the Post and the DNC in cahoots with one another................ We KNOW that won't happen.
Semper Fi
BTTT
Thank you. Thank you.
NOW, this "breaking news" story finally makes sense to me.
All the other posts on the topic were written assuming people already knew what was going on.
Let them, and then they can continue to watch their stock value decline. I would imagine that about now the stockholders are getting a little upset and sooner or later there will be a shakeup that will stun everyone.
"When we obtained copies of the chat room messages between NCPAC and MD4BUSH, it was clear that they contained potentially newsworthy information," Brenner said. To verify their authenticity, he said, "someone acting on behalf of MD4BUSH provided reporter Matt Mosk with the sign-on information necessary to view the messages on freerepublic.com."
What was or is the WoPo responsibilities in insuring the password or the posts, they received was not illegally obtained. Since they did not verify who MAD4BUSH was?
Seems the WoPo in some deep dodo here!
They're nailed. Signed, sealed, delivered. As predicted.
A look back at the past:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1341711/posts?page=29#29
Could we get WBAL to:
- out Wilson's lies?
- unravel the layers of Schumer's aides identity theft of Lt. Gov. Steele's credit report?
To discover it's a dirty trick by a Democrat operative that the WAPO cannot hide because they were so intent on fingering Republicans and FReepers as culprits. Oh the horror!
Thanks for the ping!
Back when Steffan was let go and for the few weeks thereafter, I was quite frankly worried that this would completely die out, yet another unsolved conspiracy on the part of the 'rats. Now I have new hope!
Indeed it is!
For me, if this thing blows wide open, it will be sort of a bit of poetic justice. Who can ever forget the so called "Pentagon Papers?"
Are we going to see a thorough internal investigation by the WP and p0ut the DUMS name in big black letters for everyone to see.
I talked to them at the rally too. A couple of determined reporters. Relentless.
BTTT!
Too bad nothing is going to come of it.
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