Posted on 10/15/2007 4:51:49 PM PDT by kristinn
Initial reports over the weekend were that 12 year old boy Graeme Frost was going to walk point yet again for the Democrats on Countdown tonight. However, MSNBC informs us that his parents, Halsey and Bonnie Frost, are stepping up to the plate, sort of. They're going on with Softball with Keith Olbermann.
From the Countdown blog at MSNBC:
Tonight we'll have the parents of the child who started a thousand smears. You remember Graeme Frost, the 12-year-old boy who was held up as an example of someone whom S-CHIP would be a great help to and who the radical right wing decided to smear. Tonight Keith will sit down with his parents and get their real story.
Also we'll have much more on the Thomas Ricks article that led the Washington Post this morning...if we've beaten Al Qaeda in Iraq, why don't we get out? Did we beat Al Qaeda in Iraq? Lots of questions...we'll have answers tonight.
Plus...we'll have an in depth discussion regarding Rudy Giuliani's comments that he would keep America safe from an Extra Terrestrial attack. All that and a preview of Matt Lauer's exclusive interview with Senator Larry Craig (yeah, we got him!). It's must see TV, kids!
It may be too late for the Frosts, however. The Democrats are rolling out a new S-CHIP family. And this time they swear they're truly needy. From the Politico:
Democrats profile another SCHIP family
Michelle Malkin, meet Bethany Wilkerson.
Bethany is the latest child being profiled by Democrats arguing for an override of President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program bill.
Malkin, the conservative blogger, made waves last week when she investigated the finances of Graeme Frost's family after 12-year-old Graeme, an SCHIP recipient, gave the Democratic radio address. While conservative bloggers mounted a campaign to dig around in the Frost family's life and question the policies that led the family to subsidized health care, liberals pushed back.
This week, Democrats have brought forth the Wilkerson family, whose two-year old daughter Bethany is covered by SCHIP and had life-saving heart surgery when she was an infant. On Monday the Wilkerson family held a conference call, sponsored by USAction, a liberal grassroots advocacy group lobbying in favor of the $35 billion SCHIP expansion.
For the record, the Bo and Dara Wilkerson say they make $34,000 in combined income from restaurant jobs in St. Petersburg, Fla. They rent their house and the couple owns one car, which Bo calls "a junker." Malkin and other bloggers have revealed over the past week that the Frost family owned two properties, as well as a couple cars, and had a $45,000 income. The accusation against Democrats, and by extension the Frost family, is that they are too middle class to be granted any subsidized health insurance for their children.
The Wilkersons said they are fully aware of the possibility that their finances and personal lives may be investigated by opponents of the SCHIP bill.
"We rent a house, we have one car that is a junker. Let them dig away," Bo Wilkerson said. "I have $67 in my checking account. Does that answer your question?"
The Wilkersons will participate in an SCHIP rally in Washington on Tuesday, plan to lobby several House offices on Wednesday, and will be in the House chamber for the override vote on Thursday. They also plan to appear with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at a press conference.?i>
All of this effort, including using children on SCHIP to promote the expansion of the program, seems unlikely to change any votes in the House, where Democrats are still well short of an override. Stay tuned to see if bloggers pick up on the Wilkerson family story.
Those of us at FR are still looking for that penumbra emanating from the Constitution that says federally funded health care is authorized. In the meantime, watch the Democrats' human shields for nationalized health care in action tonight on MSNBC at 8 p.m. EDT.
P.S. Check out these two threads about national health in Britain:
Dental Patients Pull Out Own Teeth
and
Nurses Did Not Wash Hands, Blamed for Deaths of 90 British Patients
The Freeper report that started it all:
The Not So Poor 12 Year Old Who Rebutted Bush on SCHIP Veto
A way to do a credible interview would have been to ask the Frosts if they think S-CHIP should be means tested. Another question would be do they think its fair to ask taxpayers to subsidize a family with over $400,000 in property, three SUVs and which has chosen to send their children to private schools on partial scholarships. One more would be to ask Halsey Frost why a man with his skills and experience doesn’t get a job with a remodeling company. The Baltimore-Washington area is filled with houses that folks pay top dollar to renovate or upgrade. Instead of being a stay-at-home handyman he could be pulling in good money and getting company paid health insurance for his family. A meanie question would be why he and his wife believe the taxpayers should subsidize their lifestyle choices.
I have not seen the Dems parade out a family/child that they think should be covered by SCHIP but can not get covered. So far, all they are showing us is how well the program is taking care of the constituency that it was designed to take care of.
The entire Left machine is selling the “attack on a 12 year old” which will (or has already) become accepted fact.
Yesterday Howie Kurtz’s show which exists to discuss the MEDIA used this reference. So he was lying in his premise, while he was pretending to be discussing other reportage.
The issue, as you (and most all of the rest of us on FR and elsewhere) have been writing, is that people of means - and owning $100,000 worth of vehicles, a half-million dollars worth of real estate, and a gourmet kitchen for daddy and body art for mommy, qualifies this couple as people of means - should be responsible for securing health insurance for their families.
Any government-subsidized child health care program should only be made available to truly poor families, and not folks who have chosen to blow their money on creature comforts. The Frost parents chose to have four children. Their first responsibility as parents is to provide for their needs first, and not tattoos and SUVs to feed the adults' egos.
Is that a stylized marijuana leaf?
Apparently about 240 families will be in DC this week, visiting congressmen on the day the override vote is set. They ALL have been financed to participate in this “activism.” The Activists of the Left are getting REALLY aggressive, and it is happening without publicity because the Left also control mass media.
West Virginia......
Not much of an interview but still some interesting tidbits about the private school, that they are being helped but no mention of full scholarships or only paying $500. The MSM throwing up scholarships raised more questions: Why is this posh private school raiding the Baltimore public schools for middle class white kids by giving them scholarships? The obvious likely answer is that these “scholarships” are earmarked for those particular children and why and by whom?
Halsey’s saying that they shouldn’t be punished for remodeling the house because he has these special skills to do that himself -— He could use those skills to work for money, too.
The piece brought up that if they’d had to pay for their children’s medical care, they’d have lost their house (and the 3 automobiles, too, maybe). Possibly but that is surely the purpose of insurance. People go on Medicaid every day because their money runs out and the government would like everyone to have long term care insurance because nursing homes are so expensive to the government. Kind of a contradiction in message here.
Also on the assault on “bloggers” and “posters” -— the folks at dailykos should take note. First they come for Michelle Malkin and then they come for you. (Actually, theres been MSM attacks on dailykos already and they were rightly outraged about it.)
The Dems thought they had a needy West Virginia family. They didn’t know they had folks of apparently independent means, and pedigrees, because Dems always think in terms of group identity instead of individual people.
If somebody would mix John Denver and Gilligan you’d have Mr. Frost.
I thought the exact same thing!
Olbermann is an idiot. The people who start smears are the Democrats.
I don’t have a doubt in my mind that they earn more, they just don’t report all their income.
No one can tell me that he doesn’t skim off the top when it comes to his woodworking business. Its too easy.
LOL! (How dare you question America's robed linguists, kristinn)
“They own 100K worth of vehicles.”
And, living in Baltimore, the car insurance is high. No wonder they can’t afford health insurance.
On another note, I want to bust something when I hear an idiot like Olbermann refer to people who ask intelligent, legitimate questions about this program as “sociopaths”. Why don’t you just shut up, Keith? You’ve got precious little to contribute to American society, at any rate.
You’d think the rats would better screen their applicants to do the Rat Rebuttal.
The Frosts already qualify for health insurance assistance. The Democratic proposal would expand coverage far beyond their level. Olbermann doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Hey, I’ll bet the Frosts were thoroughly vetted by the DNC before their son was put on the air.
Curious if they vacationed in the Outer Banks from the OBX sticker on the back of their SUV.
Also curious how a family of 6 can all travel in what appears to be an SUV with two front bucket seats and 1 back bench seat. Anyone know what the make of the vehicle was? I believe it was the mom, son, and daughter in the vehicle at the time of the accident.
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