McConnell Aide Keeps Dissembling About Role In Smear Of Graeme Frost
October 16, 2007 -- 11:55 AM EST // //

Here's a bit more on the hapless Don Stewart, the aide to GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell who has now admitted that he tried to get mainstream reporters to pick up on the bogus smear of 12-year-old Graeme Frost and his family.

In addition to the article in Kentucky's Courier-Journal I referenced below, Stewart has also published a letter to the editor in the same edition of the paper. In it, he purports to "clarify" his office's role in the pushing of the smear:

McConnell aide clarifies

At the end of last week, left-wing bloggers thought they had a great story. Citing anonymous sources, some claimed our office played a role in encouraging conservative bloggers to criticize the Frost family, whose son recently gave the Democrats' radio address on the issue of health care. While we regularly read and comment on blog posts -- even raising doubts last week about blog posts claiming the Frost family was ineligible for SCHIP -- bloggers had been commenting on this issue long before we raised any questions about those posts. In other words, blogs neither needed nor received any assistance or encouragement from this office.

Then a liberal talk-show host and a liberal opinion columnist at The New York Times, parroting the same anonymous sources, also credited our office with playing a role in starting the investigation.

While that is not the case, our office did play a significant role in making sure the mainstream media knew there was nothing to the complaints against the Frost family. As I pointed out to reporters -- more than a week ago -- the family is "legit," and there is "no story" there. Most reporters agree with my assessment, which is why only left-wing columnists and bloggers and others who seek political advantage seem to still be interested.

DON STEWART

Communications Director

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell

This is pretty stunning. Stewart, McConnell's aide, is now trying to pretend that the only role he played in this was to call reporters off the story. But this is plainly false. Stewart himself admitted to the paper in an interview that he sent an initial email alerting reporters about the "information" contained in the wingnut assault on the Frost family. As Matt Corley notes over at Think Progress, the email contained this line: "Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?" In other words, Stewart initially was ratifying the winger storyline about the Frosts.

What's more, Stewart's attack on New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is similarly bogus. Stewart's letter says that Krugman claimed that McConnell's office had "started" the investigation. But that isn't what Krugman said at all. Rather, Krugman wrote that Stewart sent an email to reporters repeating the wingnut smears -- which is exactly what Stewart did.

Let's not lose sight of the key point here: Mitch McConnell is the GOP Senate leader -- a very powerful and high-profile post. Yet his office followed the lead of a whackjob like Michelle Malkin, suggesting to mainstream reporters that they go after the Frost family without bothering to check the facts first. His office only called reporters off the story after it became obvious that Malkin and company had laid a real stinker on McConnell's desk -- in other words, only after the potential for embarrassment loomed. Sorry, but that's what happened. End of story.

To reach the homepage of this blog, click here. Comments section temporarily disabled.

---

---