[mattdono]

I guarn-damn-tee you that this shmuck has never actually read the initial posts.

These morons could NOT possibly have read these posts and come away from the posts with that understanding.

So, let's get this straight:

1. MD4Bush did all of the rumor-mongering
2. MD4Bush is a dem plant (named Ryan O'Doherty)
3. MD4Bush at the time was a paid democratic official
4. Steffen was fired for the appearance, not the actual, but the appearance of having been "rumor-mongering".

Period. End of story. All they have to do is READ the public posts of MD4Bush and it is pretty easy to see!

Don't believe me, though, that it was MD4Bush that was slamming O'Malley...

Amazing that they could take Kerick down sooooo easily-- yet O'Malley still roams unscathed. Should send a note to Kerick, Baltimore is looking for a Police commissioner, it doesn’t matter if you cheat on your wife
Source: Post 71 of 153 Double affair laid bare: Kerik cheated on wife with Judith Regan and correction officer

This is, as far as I can tell, THE FIRST reference to marital indiscretions on the part of this O'Malley character. In that entire post, there is ONLY 1 reference to O'Malley and it is made by MD4Bush.

It isn't until FEBRUARY 8TH, 2005 that MD4Bush triplicate posts (at 11:05:05 PM EST, 11:13:59 PM EST, and 11:14:48 PM EST, respectively) the alledged conversations between NCPAC and himself. In one of these "private" emails (FREEPmails) there is some banter that Duncan is holding the MO'M story until the primaries (clearly refering to the marital allegations).

The O'Malley issue isn't a topic of discussion, feverish debate, or notable mention of discussion by NCPAC. It is, at most, a passing jab at O'Malley.

Really, what else is there to know? Ok. You want to go a little deeper? Ok. Let's do that.

The closest thing to outright "rumor-mongering" that NCPAC is remotely involved in happned on this thread: Attn: MD residents - Norris & O'Malley traveling/party pals, posted on 08/13/04. The story is a rumor, to be sure. And, the rumor regards both O'Malley and former Policy Chief Norris. On the same day of the original thread (08/13/2004), NCPAC makes a post on the original thread, but it is poking fun, at best. One of the (many) rumors was that O'Malley had an affair with a reporter named Sade Baderinwa. So, NCPAC pokes fun and says:

I have a glossy of SB [Sade Baderinwa] from her TV11 days. Am thinking of taking it to one of MO'M's concerts and asking him to autograph it for me.

(Note: The "MO'M's concerts" reference is to Mayor O'Malley's band that he plays in from time to time).

Now, I don't think that can be called "rumor-mongering" of any accord. Poking fun? Sure. Making a joke at some else's expense? Certainly.

But, "rumor-mongering"? Get real.

It isn't until the 26th post that was posted on 02/10/2005 (Link) that the rumor mill is cited...well, re-cited. Post 26 (made by Iam1ru1-2) reiterated the rumor about an alledged affair the O'Malley had with Sade Baderinwa. In fact, the post is actually a repost from the website Bestandworst.com, which is a sort of rumor mill.

That's it. That's the extent of NCPAC's "rumor-mongering.

So, out of the, literally, hundreds of posts that NCPAC has made, that is the ONLY reference to O'Malley to anything to do with O'Malley's marital situation.

NCPAC does concur with a post that called O'Malley "a complainer and a whiner" (#5 by spiffy). But, no marital implications. (Ironcially, spiffy rhetorically asked on the same post the afterthought in parantheses, "(He can't track me down, can he?)").

Hmm... That post was made all the way back in 1/7/2004. Wonder if the O'Malley gang was indeed seeking out political foes. It should be noted that MD4Bush registered 10/7/2004, which is several days after the election. That's pretty odd. Someone that was supportive enough to take on the name "MD4Bush" joins one of the premier conservative forums after the President has already won re-election. It should also be noted that it was only weeks after SIGNIFICANT national exposure due to the Dan Rather/Memogate situation. (We all know it now, but it looks to me that this was a very planned operation by the Maryland democrat party. Talk about dirty tricksters.)

That takes an interesting turn, because NCPAC actually admits that he has worked for many different candidates, including Ehrlich. He did so on Post #231 of a thread titled "Are the "red states" in jeopardy for Bush?" (Click here for the link to his comment).

NCPAC also opines, with some "smart" information, about Erlich's intentions for 2008.

One has to wonder if he was targeted.

Then, it culiminates in the NCPAC (Steffen) resignation on 02/08/2005. NCPAC makes it clear that he resigned and that the MD Governor had nothing to do with the alledged "rumors" and admits that he doesn't know what "private emails" that the reporter is referring to. Presumably, it is referring to the "emails" (actually and supposedly FREEPmails between MD4Bush and NCPAC) where NCPAC spreads rumors.

Here is the question: if NCPAC didn't POST rumors (either by posting fallacious threads or promulgating them with rumor-based comments within threads), how could he even remotely be referred to as a "rumor-monger"? How?

Second question: how can ANY reporter believe the supposed emails (FREEPmails) posted by MD4Bush that give the appearance that NCPAC might have said something disparaging or remotely referring to O'Malley and the potential that his political rival (Duncan) was waiting to drop a heavy story until later...how could that be considered "rumor-mongering, 1) on it's face and 2) by the source of the post (MD4Bush) attribute the comments to NCPAC?

I mean, what is going on with these people? A guy that was pretending to be a conservative guy the whole time he was posting on a conservative, for quite a while, ends up being a paid democrat operative...THEN, that paid operative posts (and, essentially, introduces) supposed email exchanges between him and NCPAC...AND we are supposed to believe who?

MD4Bush, a paid democrat political operative, is the credible source to have introduced the supposed "damning evidence" of NCPAC's "rumor-mongering" by citing emails, not actual posts that NCPAC made?

MD4Bush, a paid democrat political operative, posts an email that may or may not have been NCPAC's actual comments and that's confirmed "rumor-mongering"? What?

MD4Bush, a paid democrat political operative, is the source for the rumor-mongering, not NCPAC.

Anyway following this story can see that..EXCEPT for the The Capital Online Editorial board. I'jits.

[conservative in nyc]

Wonder if the O'Malley gang was indeed seeking out political foes. It should be noted that MD4Bush registered 10/7/2004, which is several days after the election.

Last I checked, we held elections in November, not October.

Steffen also mentioned some facts about the reporter who allegedly had the affair with Mayor O'Malley in that August 2004 thread: that she had one kid and heard that she had twins, and was hit by a car in a hit-and-run, which added fuel to the fire. But NCPAC didn't start the thread. And the O'Malley infidelity rumors appeared in plenty of other places on the Internet and elsewhere. There is no evidence that NCPAC posted those rumors, either. But the Mayor's own wife mentioned the rumors to the Washington Post in 2000.

[Dems_R_Losers]

Your post leads me to conclude that what likely happened here is that Ryan O'Doherty, in his official capacity as an employee of the Maryland Democratic Party, used its resources to conduct an Internet witch hunt on Joseph Steffen. Remember, O'D was the webmaster for the Dems and so he doubtless knows a lot about who trace people's identities on the Internet. My guess is he started trolling several known conservative message boards and chat rooms until he found Steffen here on FR and then set him up.

This had nothing to to with Martin O'Malley, it had everything to do with the Maryland Democrats trying to set up Joe Steffen to force his firing, because he was purging the state government of Democrat moles and because they wanted to embarrass Gov. Ehrlich. I will never believe that O'Doherty did this on his own, his superiors in the Maryland Democratic Party had to have known about it. And therein lies the scandal. This is a political dirty trick of epic proportions.

Imagine if the communications director for the RNC used RNC computers in 1998 to register on some liberal message boards with fake pro-Gore sounding screennames and then lured Al Gore's chief of staff into commenting on George W. Bush's alleged drug use. Would the media have howled about the rumor-mongering, or would it have gone after the RNC operative for setting the whole thing up and posing online as a Gore supporter? You make the call. My guess is that an incident like this would have led to the firing of several top people at the RNC, huge apologies to Al Gore and his staff person, and official disavowals by the Bush campaign which would have been sneered at by the MSM. This dirty trick would have dogged Bush the entire campaign. That is what SHOULD happen to the Maryland Democratic Party, Ryan O'Doherty, and whoever wins the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2006. But of course, it won't, because we have the "bigger scandal" of Joe Steffen helping to get rid of Democrat moles in state government who were undermining Gov. Ehrlich and giving information to his political enemies.