McConnell staffer's reported admission offers NY Times opportunity to update article -- will it?

An October 16 article in The (Louisville) Courier-Journal -- highlighted by blogger Greg Sargent -- reported that "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's [R-KY] 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." The 12-year-old, Graeme Frost, had delivered a Democratic radio address criticizing President Bush's veto of a bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The article added that McConnell's communications director, Don Stewart, "said he also wrote a follow-up e-mail later the same day that said a blogger he respected had determined that there was no story and that 'the family is legit.' " Media Matters for America noted that, in an October 10 article by David M. Herszenhorn about attacks on Frost by "conservative bloggers" and others, The New York Times reported that "Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance, have backed off." As evidence, the Times reported that "[a]n aide to Senator Mitch McConnell ... expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts." But the Times has yet to follow up on that report and has yet to note that, notwithstanding the aide's "relief" over the office's not having issued a press release, the office did in fact pass on to reporters challenges to claims about the Frosts' financial situation, according to the communications director, as reported by the Courier-Journal. Moreover, the communications director's reported acknowledgment constitutes evidence that McConnell himself did not tell the truth in an October 12 interview, as noted on October 16 by the blog Think Progress.

As Media Matters noted at the time, according to an October 8 post on ABC News' "Political Radar" blog citing a report by senior political correspondent Rick Klein, McConnell's spokesman "declined to comment" on the charge "that GOP aides were complicit in spreading disparaging information about [the] Frosts"; specifically, the blog stated that Klein reported a claim by Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), that a Senate GOP "leadership aide" had sent an email to reporters "summing up recent blog traffic about the boy's family."

In addition, in his October 12 column, Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote that "an e-mail message from the office of Mitch McConnell ... sent to reporters and obtained by the Web site Think Progress, repeated the smears against the Frosts."

On October 16, Think Progress noted that in an October 12 television interview, McConnell said that "[t]here was no involvement whatsoever" from his staff -- "None." But as Media Matters Senior Fellow Duncan Black noted on his Eschaton blog, in an October 17 article noting McConnell's October 12 denial, the Courier-Journal reported that "McConnell knew last week -- at a time when he was denying it -- that his staff had sent e-mails encouraging reporters to look into the background of a 12-year-old boy used by Democrats to support expansion of a health-care program." The October 17 article added that "McConnell declined comment on the matter last night."

Now, according to the Courier-Journal, McConnell's spokesman has acknowledged passing on to reporters "questions bloggers raised" about the Frosts -- in other words, despite a staffer's reported "relief that his office had not issued a press release," a spokesman nonetheless had conveyed right-wing criticisms of the Frosts to reporters.

From the October 16 Courier-Journal article:

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.

But Don Stewart, the Kentucky Republican's communications director, said he also wrote a follow-up e-mail later the same day that said a blogger he respected had determined that there was no story and that "the family is legit."

Stewart said there was no effort by McConnell to discredit 12-year-old Graeme Frost, of Baltimore, or cast aspersions on the family.

"It would be kind of hard to 'slime' somebody when I was telling reporters there's no story here and the family is legitimate," Stewart said yesterday.

McConnell's alleged role in depicting the Frosts as something other than what they claimed to be has been fodder for The New York Times op-ed page, bloggers and Democratic officeholders, among others.

Stewart's comments were the first detailed explanation of the role McConnell's office played in the controversy.

Matthew Miller, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an e-mail yesterday that "spreading false rumors about a 12-year-old boy is despicable for any reason."

"No matter how McConnell's office spins it now, the e-mail makes clear that they were part of the campaign to smear a child who had the nerve to stand up and say children's health insurance shouldn't be cut," Miller said.

McConnell is opposed to bipartisan legislation that passed the House and Senate to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, intended to assist those unable to afford private health insurance. President Bush vetoed the bill and awaits a House attempt this week to override his veto.

From the October 17 Courier-Journal article:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell knew last week -- at a time when he was denying it -- that his staff had sent e-mails encouraging reporters to look into the background of a 12-year-old boy used by Democrats to support expansion of a health-care program.

In an interview Friday with WHAS-TV reporter Mark Hebert, the Kentucky Republican said his staff had not been involved in trying to push reporters to look into the financial situation of the boy's family.

But McConnell's communications director, Don Stewart, said in an interview Monday with The Courier-Journal that he had told McConnell about the Oct. 8 e-mails sometime around Thursday, the day before the interview with Hebert.

Stewart also said, however, that he had told the senator he had sent follow-up e-mails within a matter of hours warning reporters off of the story because "the family is legit."

McConnell declined to comment on the matter last night.