The Political Chase

McConnell aide acknowledges boosting smear campaign of Graeme

Don Stewart, Communications Director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted in an interview with the Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) that he alerted reporters about the smearing of Graeme Frost by wingnut bloggers such as Michelle Malkin (here, here, here, here, and here).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children’s health insurance program.

ThinkProgress first reported having evidence that McConnell’s office was directly involved in the smear campaign, but there has been no public acknowledgment by the top Senator’s office until the Courier-Journal’s interview with Stewart.

Stewart said he called the dogs off when he later determined the allegations being made by the over zealous prevaricators were baseless, but having done so does not absolve him of his reckless, knee-jerk actions.

Hours later, he said, he sent two follow-up e-mails waving reporters off.

“Forgive me if I already told you this, but a blogger that I trust (and who hadn’t written anything on this issue yet) tells me that after spending a lot of time on this, they now believe there’s no story there, that the family is legit,” Stewart wrote in one e-mail, according to the text he provided to The Courier-Journal. “So I’m passing that along to the folks I wrote to this morning. Fair is fair.”

Only a dolt would characterize the situation as “fair is fair.” It is unconscionable and reprehensible that a top aide to the highest ranking Republican in Congress would not check the facts before bolstering a campaign. Moreover, the fact that Stewart obviously could not have cared less that his target was a 12–year-old boy, should be strongly rebuked by McConnell. Any punitive measure short of terminating Stewart would be a tacit approval by McConnell, and indicative of McConnell’s values and ethics.