[concerned about politics]

Holy crap. What is MD4Bush? I've been busy for so long, all I had time for was a quick lurk. Drat!
Please, fill me in?

[conservative in nyc]

Short summary:

Mr. Steffen is a Freeper, NCPAC. He posted a comment on a thread about rumors that Baltimore's Mayor O'Malley (D) had an affair with a Baltimore TV anchor who moved to New York. MD4Bush had a damaging FReepmail conversations with NCPAC, which were released on Free Republic around the same time the Washington Post first blamed Steffen and Free Republic for spreading the O'Malley rumors.

Free Republic wasn't the first or only place these rumors were spread, but the Baltimore Sun (and to a lesser extent, the Washington Post) have been blaming NCPAC and Free Republic for spreading them when, as best we can tell, all he did was comment on the rumors.

[Bogey78O]

To add what the previous poster told you Steffen was encouraged to "do like Rove did"(MD4Bush's phrasing) and spread rumors that may or may not be true. He was led into a conversation and goaded into making certain comments.

Do a FR search and you'll see how it all went down and how he was clearly set up.