Rachael Maddow on "The Slime Machine"

Maddow on Countdown: “Twelve year old Graeme Frost, meet Cindy Sheehan, meet 9/11 widows, meet Staff Sgt. Brian McGough, meet Michael J. Fox, meet the kids who were targeted by Mark Foley, meet Jack Murtha. I mean, Graeme Frost as a twelve year old now joins an esteemed list of Americans who have been personally attacked, personally slimed, called liars and cowards and frauds, and threatened for daring to publicly espouse a view that the right disagrees with. I mean, just when you think you’ve found the person who they can’t possibly slime, I don’t know, say a twelve year old kid just out of a coma, turns out yeah, the bar does actually go that low, it’s just astonishing.”

My take? Rather than debating the merits of an issue, the Right Wing slime machine prefers to attack the messenger. It's become their modus operandi; avoiding the issues and engaging in personal attacks. I know there are sincere conservatives out there somewhere and the conservative take on issues is worth consideration as often as not but their party has been hijacked by the shrill Coulter Republicans. As long as they're comfortable allowing Coulter, Limbaugh, Hannity, Bill O'Lie-to-Me and their ilk to act as the voice of their party, they're doomed.

You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Here's a bit from TIME Magazine, who's reporters spent a little more time investigating the story:

"It turns out, however, that not everything about the Frosts' life pops up on a Google search. While Graeme does attend a private school, he does so on scholarship. Halsey Frost is a self-employed woodworker; he and his wife say they earn between $45,000 and $50,000 a year to provide for their family of six. Their 1936 rowhouse was purchased in 1990 for $55,000. It was vacant and in a run-down neighborhood that has improved since then, in part because of people like themselves who took a chance. It is now assessed at $263,140, though under state law the value of that asset is not taken into account in determining their eligibility for SCHIP. 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.

These are the people that the Right Wing slime machine characterizes as "socialist patsies". I hope they're proud of themselves and their failed attempts to spin the story. For myself, I'm ashamed that the dialog has crept this low. These are real issues and they involve real people who deserve to be treated with more dignity that the Right is capable of extending. Now, because of the Right Wing Slime Machine, their address has been published and they receive death threats - all because of a knee jerk reaction on the Right as it instinctively attacked the messenger rather than trying to make the case that the SCHIP program is not a good policy decision. Pray that these people never disagree with YOU.