Bush & Gutter Politics

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.afscmeblog.org/2007/10/11/bush-gutter-politics/

The allies of President Bush who back his veto of bipartisan legislation to provide health coverage to children in low-income families took the politics of personal destruction to a new low this week. Front page stories in the Baltimore Sun and New York Times tell the story. They reveal the behind-the-scenes wheels of a smear campaign, based entirely on falsehoods, to destroy the credibility of a Baltimore family that stepped forward to speak out in opposition to the President’s veto.

The parents of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, and his younger sister Gemma, used the Maryland State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) after their children were seriously injured in an automobile accident. After the accident, Graeme lay comatose, with severe brain trauma. His younger sister was in even worse shape. Both parents in the Frost family work, making a combined income of less than $50,000 a year. On that income, they raise four children. But they could not afford private health insurance.

Thanks to SCHIP, Graeme and Gemma got the emergency medical care they needed. They, and their parents, know the SCHIP program works. Graeme said so publicly, at a press conference with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and in a front page Baltimore Sun story. Later, Senator Harry Reid selected him to give the weekly Democratic Radio Address, and he told a national radio audience about the medical care he received:

Three years ago, my family was in a really bad car accident. I was in a coma for a week and couldn’t eat or stand up or even talk at first. My sister was even worse. I was in the hospital for five-and-a-half months and I needed a big surgery. For a long time after that, I had to go to physical therapy after school to get stronger. But even though I was hurt badly, I was really lucky.

Graeme and his family made a powerful case that SCHIP funding saves lives. So, the President’s allies set out to destroy them. Right wing blogs went into overdrive, questioning the cost of the family’s home, the family income and even the cost of the private school the children attend. Now it turns out, these smears were all unfounded. Yes, Graeme goes to a private school, but his tuition is largely paid through a scholarship.

By targeting a family for speaking the truth about a program the President wants to dismantle, the Bush’s allies crossed the line. Instead of debating this vital program on the merits, they thought they could win by Swift-boating a working-class American family. By mounting a disgusting campaign to smear the Frost family, the President’s backers have gone too far. Their efforts should and will backfire.

President Bush should call this smear campaign off. He should tell Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and Senator Mitch McConnell to call off their dogs and leave this family alone. The brave Frost family has been through enough and doesn’t deserve this for speaking out about a vital program that helped them. The President’s allies have brought Bush-era gutter politics to a new low.

[gratuitous]

1. Yes, Bush and Republicans "should" call off the smear campaign

But why should they? After all, there's no cost to them for this smear campaign. Who is named as the attackers? Michelle Malkin and Rush Limbaugh. Big deal. George W. Bush and Mitch McConnell are named, but hardly connected to the smear even in this partisan (and I mean that in the best sense) essay. The idea that authorship of this smear will be laid at the feet of Bush or McConnell by the popular media is far-fetched, to put it mildly.

There's no political cost to the Republicans for engaging in this most gutter of politics. They get to stand back, looking innocent, while their attack machine savages a 12-year-old, and the major media pretend that Republican officeholders had nothing whatsoever to do with the machine's work. Where are the reporters button-holing high GOP officeholders, demanding they go on the record about Malkin's and Limbaugh's despicable commentary? They sure weren't shy about holding every Democrat they could collar accountable for Move On's ad, so I don't buy for a second the notion that it's not the media's job to get after elected officials for someone else's pronouncement.

Make it cost them something, and maybe, just maybe, the Republicans will straighten up a little bit (apologies to Sen. Craig, who apparently can't even think straight).