Time's Joe Klein (file photo at right) has a bit of a hypocrisy problem. After earlier saying he wanted to "throw up" after seeing President Bush showcase "snowflake babies," children adopted as frozen embryos, during a ceremony marking his veto of a bill to expand federally-funded destruction of embryos for medical research, Klein professes disdain not at Democratic partisans who used 12-year-old Graeme Frost to plug the vetoed SCHIP expansion, but conservative bloggers who brought scrutiny to bear on Frost's parents, Democratic officials, and a lapdog liberal media that uncritically relayed the Frost family's account.
Here's the relevant bit from a July 2006 edition of the "Chris Matthews Show":
And there's another aspect to this as well. That photo-op, this week with all of those babies made me want to throw up. It is so transparently political and cynical. I mean, you know, I think that the real thing that the Republican campaign Karl Rove is flying into is whether the level of his cynicism about all of these issues, and these sorts of photo-ops is gonna become an issue in this campaign itself. Are people gonna say, ‘How dumb do they think we are?'
But now that Republicans and conservative bloggers were asking the same question vis-a-vis the Democrats parading Graeme Frost and his family as a poster family for SCHIP, it's a different story to Klein and the gang at Time's Swampland blog.:
Paul Krugman has a terrific column--reinforcing Karen's Swamp outrage the past few days--about the Republican propaganda campaign to discredit a child. Krugman's larger point is that this is business as usual for the latter-day Republican Party and also for much of the mainstream media. (Did CNN really buy the GOP disinformation? If so, shame on them.) My hope is that the stakes are high enough, and public interest will be intense enough in 2008 to undermine the effectiveness of slime campaigns. In the past--Willie Horton, impeachment, Bush's anti-McCain slime in 2000, the Swift Boats in 2004--I've tried to respond rapidly to this sort of stuff. I've got to say, though, the Graeme Frost campaign is about the lowest and skuzziest I've seen so far.
Klein's colleague, Karen Tumulty, went as far as to describe conservative blogs raising questions about the Frost family as "The Swift-Boating of Graeme Frost."
Other liberal outlets, such as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann are still running downfield with Graeme Frost, hoping to score a touchdown with a veto override.
Darleen Chick of Protein Wisdom noticed that young Frost will be a guest on Olbermann's October 15 program, where the virulent conservative-hater will take the opportunity once again to bash the vast right wing blogger conspiracy for being sub-human. Liberals in the media remain committed to sharpening the old Gingrich Era-saw about conservatives and Republicans being heartless child-haters.
Chick notes, correctly, that conservative critique has not fallen on young Graeme, but rather his parents and political exploiters (like Olbermann) on the Left who (should) know better:
Seems Halsey isn’t above hiding behind his son again and letting mush-brain Keith Olbermann pimp the hapless child on TV because you know, as the Left Truthiness states, Graeme has been “swiftboated”.
As those who actually live in the real, adult world know, “swiftboat” is really about the inconvenient airing of uncomfortable facts.
This last is pretty snort-worthy:
Watch this 12 year old boy call out the Neo-cons tomorrow night on Countdown.
Where are the adults in the Left? Ones that find using a child as human shield less than honorable?
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Klein....get over it, the WWW "scrutiny" is here to stay..
October 15, 2007 - 15:12 ET by JayTeeWhatsamatterwithyou Klein ?
Somebody else hitting home runs besides you ?
Someone caught your "pop up" and put you out ?
Get used to it, you're not the only psuedo Journalists on the block now, and you can't compete with the Truth. Some of the "scrutiny" involved publishing already public records, I hardly classify that as an "Attack" on a 12 year old....and Kein of all people should recognize an "attack", as he originates them weekly.
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
We have this Via the Swamp
October 15, 2007 - 15:21 ET by Right2thePointWe have this Via the Swamp today
The march of the children on the health care veto
by Matthew Brown
And the kids keep coming.
First, there were Graeme and Gemma Frost, the Baltimore children who
were hospitalized for months after a 2004 car crash, but who have been
seen more recently in the company of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Then came Abby, Josh, Latoya and Kevin, all "vetoed" by President
Bush, according to a television advertisement produced this month by
liberal groups.
Now meet Bethany Wilkerson, the latest youngster enlisted by
congressional Democrats or their allies to help build support for the
State Children’s Health Insurance Program. Having suffered from heart
failure as an infant, USAction says, the Florida toddler would not be
alive today but for the government-funded program for moderate-income
families not poor enough to qualifty for Medicaid.
Now Bethany is scheduled to speak at a Capitol Hill rally Tuesday
evening, according to a release this morning by Americans United For
Change.
There
was no word on what the 2-year-old plans to say. But she joins a flurry
of 11th-hour activity in advance of the attempt by House Democrats on
Thursday to override Bush’s veto of legislation to expand coverage to 4
million more children at a cost of $35 billion over five years. (A
bipartisan majority in the Senate approved the expansion by a
veto-proof margin.)
Also the Frost kid is
October 15, 2007 - 15:22 ET by Right2thePointAlso the Frost kid is supposed to be on CountDown tonight according to blogs on the left.
One thing jumped out at me
October 15, 2007 - 15:33 ET by motherbeltOne thing jumped out at me in this story: Klein's claim that Krugman's column highlights "the Republican propaganda campaign to discredit a child."
This is so blatantly false that it shouldn't even have to be refuted. But it is being repeated everywhere, and it should not be allowed to stand, unrefuted. No one, NO ONE has said one single word against this child. Not one.
I just wish Klein or some other outraged columnist would point to one single thing that was aimed at this 12-year-old boy, other than the Democrats' desire for a bullet-proof spokesperson.
I also think it's interesting that this child, a few days ago, was a helpless victim of "attacks" against him. But now, apparently he has morphed into a super-hero, as they send him out once again, this time on Olbermann's show, to "call out the neo-cons."
Apparently there are no adults on the left.
And the same "users" who brought out Graeme will continue to drag out child after child after child, one after another, to make their point.
A grownup somewhere needs to say "enough!" Any takers, Your Speakerness?
PWNED ON HIS OWN BLOG!
October 15, 2007 - 15:36 ET by KeithDear Ken
I hope you guys don't mind but I copied most of your article showing the lying hypocrisy of Joe Klein and reprinted it.....on JOE KLEIN'S BLOG!!!!!
Keith...that's a low blow...
October 15, 2007 - 15:51 ET by JayTeeKlein eating his own regurgitated words, via NB and friends....
that was...was...Uhhh..uhhh...wonderous
What good is a Free Press, if it is a False Press ? David Foote GoE
klein is an example
October 15, 2007 - 15:41 ET by FastEdof what a waste 3 dimensional space, carbon and water can be.
His own problem is that his tiny brain was frozen in the '60's, and he's hoping that global warming will make it work again. Example: the program in place, was the program that helped them in the first place - they are very, very confused.
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V
Sometimes being from Mars helps
October 15, 2007 - 18:15 ET by Lame CherryI frankly know little about the above as it does not interest me any more than this child medical welfare nonsense, but in reading mr. Shepherd's account it is like these people are nuts if you just showed up on this planet from Mars.
Have liberals so fallen in the gutter that they will use any means to an end..........of course the answer is yes as they always have used naked Vietnamese kids to spout anti war venom to the days when terrorist Indians were slaughtering border people to only see the "noble savage" and not the rapine.
Sometimes I wonder though why Conservatives get pulled into this goofy Klein, Matthews and short pants Frost scenario debating it. Let Olberman be something from Oliver Twist in looking like a beast with a kid repeating some doltish lines.
Liberals always have some camera stuck in an 8 year olds face asking them how they would end nuclear war. It is stupid and if Jimmy Carter wants to ask Amy.....let him as everyone sees what stupidity it is.
Fighting over children who are already getting medical coverage so they can get double covered in not needing medical coverage is what the greater share of this is about.........."fer the children" as Bill Clinton would say 20 years ago.
A grand total of 600, 000 nuts will see Klein, Matthews and Olberman in a nation of 300,000,000. These MSNBC nuts are not normal people in talking to people at work or having others in their lives. They sit entombed in their homes, hiding from life, driving some hybrid car, eat tofu and worry about global warming.
They are like shouting down a dry well. Nancy Pelosi might like the echo of her voice in a 12 year old........but then that is the mental development of Joe Klein and ilk.
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