You know, I expect all of the abhorrent things that people like Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and the cacophony of the right-wing blogosphere do to people that get in their way. Their assault on twelve year old Graeme Frost is disgusting, but not overly surprising. The worst thing is when the traditional media outlets start reporting with a wingnut point of view.
From ThinkProgress:
CNN’s John Roberts reported: “Some of the accusations [against the Frosts] may be exaggerated or false. But did the Democrats make a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child?” A CNN political analyst then placed the blame squarely on the Democrats’ shoulders:
I think in this instance what happened was the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done on this young man, his situation, his family. […]
More and more, Congress is acting less like a deliberative legislative body, and more like a political campaign. We’ve been seeing the politicization of every aspect of government.
There was no "tactical error" on the part of the Democrats. Graeme is the perfect example of why we need to have S-CHIP in the way that the bi-partisan Congress passed it. Their vetting of the Frost family was perfectly sufficient, the problem was when bloggers and pundits on the right cherry picked information to damage the reputation of this boy and his family.
As for "politicization," George Bush made the decision to go nuclear when he vetoed this overwhelmingly popular bill. Americans are by and large in favor of what Congress set out to do. The health care problem is out of control in our country and we are grateful that they are starting to help those who can hardly help themselves. These children are too young to have to be burdened with our failed system of privatized health care. It is our duty to make sure those that have the least among us and especially the most vulnerable be able to obtain medical care.
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