Swift Boating the Children

By: Teddy
Published On: 10/9/2007 8:02:25 PM

Twelve-year old Graeme Frost and John Kerry have something in common: both are victims of a well-orchestrated Republican character assassination based on lies.

Apparently young Master Frost's radio address two weeks ago, pleading for President Bush to sign the bi-partisan SCHIP bill passed by Congress was too touching and effective for the hard right.  As so often is the case with these ideologues, their response to a statement of principle which does not please them was not reasoned debate, but slashing personal attacks on the bearer of what they regarded as bad news.
Mark Steyn in "The Corner" of The National review on 7 October 2007,
(http://corner.nation...=), wrote "The Democrats sign up a sick kid to read their Saturday morning radio address... and the rest of us heartless bastards on the right were no doubt too busy laughing to pay attention" but, fortunately for the lazy R-wing-pundits the hard right blogosphere dug into "the facts" about Frost and his family, and decided that the Frosts were far from "poor." ABC of the mass media picked up on the story and gave it wider currency.

According to information culled by "icwhatudo" at Free Republic, Daddy Frost was revealed not to be a simple poor artisan, a "woodworker," but owner of a design company operating out of some commercial space which Mr. Frost senior owns, the Frosts live in a 3,000 square foot home in a tony neighborhood, and the two Frost children, having recovered from the horrific car accident which caused their use of the SCHIP program, now attend a very expensive private school where the tuition is $20,000 a year, and so on... ha, ha! A "new definition of working families" Democrat-style, ha, ha!  See, this proves the Republican contention, that the SCHIP program is being expanded to help well-off folks who have NO need for tax-payer funded health care, they simply chose not to buy health insurance and are now parasites on sneakily growing socialized medicine.

Investigative reporters (or, if you prefer, snooping gossipers) from the right-wing publications and talk show hosts, learning the above facts, began harassing the Frost family with phone calls. The right-wing noise machine relentlessly assaulted the Frost family, spreading the de-bunking story far and wide in the inimitable malicious fashion customary with Malkin, Wizbang, Free Republic, Weekly Standard, and so on.  And why not, the above details about the Frosts pretty much undercut the whole Democratic scenario, don't they?  Or, wait: is this the true story, or just carefully tailored distortions pared to fit and crammed into the Republican-designed shoe of falsehood, as Cinderella's step-sister cut her toes to make her foot fit the glass slipper?

Here are the facts: 12-year old Graeme has a scholarship to Baltimore's Park School, so that, although the school costs $15,000 a year, the Frosts pay only $500; his sister attends a special school which helps her with her brain injuries, and the state pays the $23,000 annual cost. The "lavish" home in the tony neighborhood was purchased 16 years ago for $55,000 when the neighborhood was anything but tony. The Frosts made $45,000 combined last year, and the State of Maryland found them eligible to participate in the CHIP Program (based on guidelines put in place by President Bush, you see).  Mr. Frost, like many small, self-employed businessmen, cannot afford to provide health insurance for himself and his own family.
(http://blogs.abcnews...)

The right-wing attacks on the Frosts and their son continue. Behold, compassionate conservatism!


Comments



guidelines?? (JScott - 10/9/2007 9:03:49 PM)
"put in place by President Bush"??It was my understanding that the individual states set the parameters and guidelines for SCHIP which is why in Virginia it is around 27K while in other states it may be and is much higher as a cap for the income requirement. Virginia info can be found at the Dept of Medical Assistance Services, maternal and Child Health Division regarding the program.


Guidelines (Teddy - 10/9/2007 9:36:02 PM)
by states within the parameters set by the White House. You are correct in that sense, as I understood it. In any case, the Frosts were eligible, and they accepted the state's help. As would any parent, seeking to help their children.

What struck me in all this hullabaloo is the vicious and relentless attack on the children, not just the parents; the harassment of the parents, the strained attempts to picture them somehow as freeloaders when what they are is a couple trying to live the American dream: to create their own small business, be entrepreneurs through self-help... supposedly fitting the Republican fantasy of standing on your own feet and making something of yourself.  Then, when slammed by a terrible accident which severely damaged two of their offspring, being helped by their community through SCHIP, and telling the world about it, only to be attacked cruelly by the Republican smear machine for not taking jobs with a mega corporation which supposedly (according to the Republican pundits) would provide them with health care through their jobs, instead of having used their resources to establish their own small business.

Under other circumstances, the Frosts would have been used by the Republicans as poster people for rugged American independence. But they made the mistake of making a political statement which did not suit the Bush bootlickers, and now they are suffering for their temerity.  The attacks on the Frosts have been facilitated by the staffs of various Republican members of Congress, and Harry Reid has complained about it; the Republican minority leader has had no response.



How appropriate and "Rovian".... "October Surprise" material (Used2Bneutral - 10/10/2007 8:48:50 AM)
This is exactly the kind of BS that needs to be PUNISHED. The "spin meisters" need to finally be given some serious penalties for these kinds of actions. Too long and too often because it can look like there is a little truth to some microscopic part of their story they go the whole rest of the way seriously damaging the individuals and families involved. If our activist lawyers want a serious challenge and task, then lets encourage them to ride one of these to the ground and empty some political coffers reimbursing the family for the hurt, emotional stress and real damage from this kind of hateful activity. This is a political weapon that causes serious damage in the "name of truth" when in fact it is lies, fabrications, unfounded rumor, and unfortunately actually considered entertainment by some of those that do it.... With the season of "Dirty tricks" upon us and our serious activities designed to "protect the vote", isn't it time ???

I know this is an over-used example by me, but two years ago Delegate Mark Sickles was the recipient of a "Robo-call" to his district voters the night before the election that stated he had died and to go ahead and vote for the "other" guy on the ballot.  Mark has neither the time nor the money as well as the addition resources to deal with the political sensitivities involved to pursue this for the small return it may normally gain. This is where the power of the Internet, the Blogosphere, and quite frankly the courts needs to come to serious task. We need to stop this and punish what may have been considered a "Joke" but is actually a felony in terms of "Voter Suppression", "Fraud", and direct interference in the democratic process which our kids are dieing to protect for the rest of us.....



Wonder what the poorer Republican families.... (Dianne - 10/10/2007 8:09:51 AM)
think of this?  They are probably too busy being scared by Rush, Sean, et. al., that we are going to be attacked by someone.  Truly the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face.

The Dems should be appealing to the eligible (poor) Republican electorate who don't have health insurance.  But maybe they are too busy being "educated" by Rush each day. 

Thanks for a good story Teddy.



Socialized medicine! (Teddy - 10/10/2007 1:37:39 PM)
is the bugaboo. The propaganda machine of the right has so brainwashed the middle and working class Republicans that they cannot recognize where their own best interests lie... Not to mention being hammered every Sunday to submit to authoritarianism, and so they meekly (and self-righteously) swallow the distortions and the assaults on reason fed to them by Rush, etc.

These are exactly the bloc of voters that Jim Webb says should return to the Democratic Party, and whom he has said he intends to bring back into the fold.  It will be a hard sell to these too-often gullible, deliberately misinformed, frequently disappointed, and now sometimes paranoid worriers striving to make ends meet, frightened by the rapid changes of modern life, and too busy struggling to survive to have time to pay attention (and think for themselves). Or so it seems to me.



Teddy I hear you (JScott - 10/10/2007 4:44:23 PM)
Teddy I hear you. I was one of those you referred voting mostly independent over the years but supported Webb all the a thought I would be returning to the Democrats until witnessing this Congress. Webb and Mark warner are unique Virginia Democrats most people in the middle or moderate can get behind, heck many Republicans I know supported Webb and will support Warner as long as Pace stays out but seeing Reid and Pelosi and all this gargage I am back to keeping everything on the table. Statewide I see many like myself leaning against the far right, statewide, but will never vote for HRC in the national election. I knwo its sounds really aweful but if you do the calling and canvassing like we have here outside Richmond you would see how really split and confused people really are this time around.


bigotry (skews13 - 10/10/2007 12:51:21 PM)
it's the underlying percurser of republicanism.i don't use the term conservative,because thats just a sugar coating of who these people really are.growing up with a "conservative" father in the 1960's.i saw first hand what these people supposedly "stand for".unadulterated hatred of all things "not"WASP.beleive it or not. there are some of these people that think general lee is still in the wood outside of the appomatox courthouse.
  when bigotry,and paternalistic myopia are your guiding principals.then you have lost your moral compass,and surrendered any sense of "principal" you may have possesed.


bigotry's tree (JScott - 10/10/2007 1:55:50 PM)
The tree of bigotry has many branches. We must remember that we should be seeking the truth out with the heart of a man not the brain dead organ between our ears. Why? Because our head allows us to lump all people into groups as we attack a group as a whole instead of as individuals. This started with bigots lumping all blacks into a single group regardless of who they were and now we have progressed to lumping all Democrats and Republicans into the same narrow minded view. Do the Republican even at this point have any concensus on a candidate? No. Why? Because not all republicans can be lumped togther anymore than all Democrats can. In fact most people can't get over the fact that there are actually African American Republicans? Why is that? Is it bigotry that causes us to associate them to the Democrats? Admittedly maybe the old Democratic Party was a champion to that community and thats why but there is an arguement being made that that community is being replaced by the Hispanic, the new championed cause, and yet they to have supported Republicans in the past. Now of course its children. Look Washington is about policy whatever side one supports we need to remember we should not be dividing people into camps or groups but take a person for who they are. Let the politcians be the partisan baffons while the rest of reach some common ground together, especially over issues relating to the children. The Frost situation is indicative of everything that is wrong with those seeking only to inflame and divide and some of us are taking the bait. Forget conservatism or liberalism because what should be incapsulating us is we are Americans and both parties have forced us into a domain of forgetting that.


Individual responsibility (Teddy - 10/10/2007 2:49:41 PM)
and individually earned rewards or punishment is the democratic, enlightened way, and it's very very hard to achieve. I have never forgot that, when the Soviets invaded the Baltic States at the beginning of World War II, they swept up and shipped to Siberia verious classes of citizens as groups because they feared these groups generically, and one of those groups was stamp collectors (I was a young stamp collector myself).  The Communists were afraid that stamp collectors might have a broader world view than that of the general public, and might have connections abroad. 

This mentality informs many extremists, both left and right, who are quick to categorize "those people" (of whatever kind) and condemn them en masse without a trial, not for anything they actually have done as individuals, but for what the condemner FEARS they might do by virtue of their associations.