The Swift Boating of Graham Frost (FR Mentioned; TV Networks Stalking Frosts)

Time Magazine ^ | Thursday, October 11, 2007 | Karen Tumulty

[kristinn]

Since then, Frost and his family have been introduced first-hand to something else that most kids his age haven't: the reality of how brutal partisan politics can be in the Internet age. It started over the weekend, when a blogger calling himself Icwhatudo put up a post on the conservative website Freerepublic.com noting what he had found by scavenging around the internet: that Graeme attends a private school, lives in a remodeled house near one that had sold for $485,000 in March and is the child of parents whose wedding was announced in the New York Times. The post also noted that his father purchased a $160,000 commercial space in 1999.

SNIP

And while they are still uninsured, they claim it is most certainly not by choice. Bonnie Frost says the last time she priced health coverage, she learned it would cost them $1,200 a month.

In short, just as the radio spot claimed, the Frosts are precisely the kind of people that the SCHIP program was intended to help.

SNIP

While the family continues to support the vetoed bill that would expand the program to 4 million more children, they are hoping to remove themselves from the middle of the storm. After giving a few interviews, Halsey and Bonnie Frost now say they don't want to say anything more, though network camera crews have planted themselves in front of their house.

SNIP

Politics has never been a gentle game. As far back as 1895, satirist Finley Peter Dunne's fictional saloonkeeper Martin Dooley observed that women, children and prohibitionists would do well to stay out of it, because "politics ain't beanbag." But surely, even Mr. Dooley could never have imagined a day would come when a mere seventh grader could be swift-boated.

[VR-21]

That's the other one. I think they used the same little girl to do basically the same ad, but with an ice cream cone. The little girl talked about how much worse nuclear fallout is for children than ice cream. I remember my parents, who were died in the wool Democrats were disgusted by it.

They were both approved for the campaign by Bill Moyers (the PBS demagogue) who was then LBJ's Press Secretary I think.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

You are kidding, right? Or are you really saying that everybody who owns a house can get a mortgage where the cost of the interest payments are less than what you can get from another safe investment?

Yes. That's the dirty little secret that's kept from the average person. Wealth builders use OPM (other people's money) and their own, to achieve their wealth.

[Danette]

The Frost’s are doing some TAX dodging manuevers.

I think the Frost's want the heat off. We're getting too close to their real financial situation.

[JRochelle]

They need to just get some good auto insurance.

If they would have been responsible and had that, the kids would have been covered when they were in that accident.

How stupid can you be if you have kids, don’t have health insurance and then don’t even have good enough auto insurance to cover everyone?

[shhrubbery!]

What’s unfortunately getting lost in the shuffle is the problem that formal income is the only criteria for eligibility for this program.

Yes, that'ss an important point. I'm not sure it's getting "lost in the shuffle," however.

Michelle Malkin and others have made prominent mention of the need for asset-testing.

The Bush administration should not be giving states like Maryland SCHIP "waivers," whereby those state bureaucrats get away with handing out federal taxpayer $$$ to people who live comfortably.

But I find it telling that the "scholarship" story keeps shifting.

Note, the Frosts and the DBM are not longer using the word, "scholarship" -- the Dem-scripted word is now "financial aid"). This smells ... like something rotten.

[jennyjenny]

Agreed!

[icwhatudo]

I think this is what you may have been referring to:

See post 105 of Kozak

But this donation was for a different school.

[ArmstedFragg]

“Financial aid” is the phrase used on the school’s website. They note that it’s means based, and that it can cover students up to $160,000 parental income.

[Suzy Quzy]

You need to send that info to icwhatudo!!!

[GovernmentShrinker]

“Financial aid” is a pretty standard term for both colleges and private schools. Packages can include scholarships, loans, tuition waivers, etc. The term “scholarship” usually applies to a specific funding program which has specific criteria for eligibility, and many schools have a whole array of such “scholarships” (e.g. sometimes named and funded in memory of a student who died), which form part of some students’ financial aid packages. I don’t see anything suspicious in the use of the term “financial aid”.

The school’s website uses the term “financial assistance”, notes that admissions are need-blind with financial assistance awards determined separately, and says 18% of students (25% if faculty children are included) receive financial assistance ranging from $1000 to full tuition.
http://www.parkschool.net/admission/index.cfm?type=list&objectid=232 The whole affair is likely to get ugly, since any private school has a lot of good reasons for not making details of individual students’ financial aid packages public, and this one is going to be under a lot of pressure to do just that.

[boop]

I'm really getting tired of this notion that WE are invading this family's privacy. The Frosts who are long time liberals volunteered to be used by liberal groups like FamiliesUSA and liberal senators. The Frosts imposed THEMSELVES on the public by crying about how awful Bush is that he wont EXPAND the program that ALREADY helped them. THEY presented themselves as just a poor needy family, despite the facts that we now know that they are clearly not and apparently not only have hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity in their house and business but drive a new car. The Frosts are rubbing it in the faces of the American people how they are expecting US to INCREASE what we pay,so that they don't have to be bothered with trifles like providing insurance for their kids.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I am accepting the claim from Reid’s aide that they were not, based on the fact that, with all the attention that’s being focused on this, he’s very unlikely to have made that claim without having made sure there’s evidence to back up its veracity. The political backfiring that would result from the claim later being proven to be materially untrue would be huge, and Reid and Co. know that. I also think the school would have piped up by now, if that statement had been materially untrue. This has got to be very uncomfortable for the school, which is undoubtedly fielding calls from a good number of the parents of the 75% of the student body that are paying full freight. I know that Reid’s staff would have had access to information needed to verify the staement before it was made public, while I know that icwhatudo did not have any such inside access. Even if some of the info Reid’s office relied on is inaccurate or incomplete, I’m confident that the family did not actually fork over anything close to $40,000 in cash to the school each year that the children attended prior to the accident.

[WOSG]

“Was this program intended to bail out middle class families that don’t want to spend money on health care?”

According to Democrats.

From each according to their tax bill.
To each according to how well they slavishly support Democrats!

[sitetest]

Dear shhrubbery!,

Although the construction date of 1936 doesn’t help, the fact that it is a one-bathroom house is actually far worse for the value of the property.

Having actually owned a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, and then later, a four-bedroom, 1.5 bathroom house, I know from painful personal experience that it’s difficult to sell such a home in this area, and that it significantly affects the value of the property.

sitetest

[sitetest]

Dear boop,

Not sure why I’m on the other end of this rant.

sitetest

[WOSG]

Any time a Conservative tells the truth about a Liberal = swift-boating.

Any time a journalist spreads a smear based on lies = DanRathering, MaryMapes-ing.

[sitetest]

Dear shhrubbery!

By the way, every home in Maryland is re-assessed every three years. The assessment of the Frost’s home could be as old as three years.

In which case, the assessment of $260,000 was done before the real estate market fell in this area.

sitetest

[Froufrou]

“Michelle Malkin and others have made prominent mention of the need for asset-testing.”

YES! Believe me, that’s what’s wrong with all this: the Frosts have done nothing wrong. Taken advantage of, bled the system, maybe, but within the law. Rather the way the Clintons operate, you might say, except for that last part...

I have heretofore not even mentioned that there is ‘emergency’ medicaid certification available and hospital workers are there to do it. I don’t begrudge anyone taking advantage of that in an emergent situation.

But we’re looking at four years after the fact.

[VictoryGal]

> My point was that ANY attack on the specific family was unnecessary and distracted from the issue. Frankly, it plays into the Democrat’s hands, and validates their use of the personal to make their point.

I have to agree, and you have to make sure you don’t play their game. The Dims have used the Frosts as pawns, but we are giving them exactly what they want whenever we go after the Frosts and not the Dims. It scatters the message we’re trying to make, and feeds the impression that we’re on a personal attack. And whoever is sending them inflammatory email to the Frosts is not helping anyone.

Distill the facts into a few sound bites, like the fact that the Frosts qualify for the unexpanded SCHIP, and the outside high salary a family could have to qualify under the expanded SCHIP, and just hammer the Dims with that over and over and over on every media outlet looking to inflame. Keep it simple, keep it calm, keep it powerful, keep it out of the personal.

[RDTF]

I wonder how much investigating this reporter did other than the statement from the mother?
BTW- the link that they posted links directly to the thread