Rush takes a step up to attack a 12 year old

Rush Smears 12-Yr Old: ‘They Filled His Head With Lies Just As They Have Some Of These Soldiers’ Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted the right wing has been orchestrating a coordinated effort to smear a 12 year old recipient of SCHIP. These conservatives have been propagating baseless “facts” to suggest that young Graeme Frost was actually a rich kid being pampered by the government. Rush Limbaugh has joined in the smear campaign. On his radio show yesterday, Rush introduced his hit job on Graeme by saying, “I had some rudimentary information on this two weeks ago, and it wasn’t enough for me to trust going with. But since then, it has been verified, and most of it’s been verified by a ‘Freeper’ at Free Republic.” Apparently, a posting by a “freeper” is all Rush needs for confirmation. Rush proceeded to recycle the myths that Graeme and his sister must be fat-cat recipients of government welfare because they attend “one of Baltimore’s expensive private schools” and own a house in a decent neighborhood. As we noted yesterday, Graeme has a scholarship to the private school. His sister’s tuition is covered by the state due to her brain injuries, and the house was purchased for $55,000 in 1991 when the neighborhood was not as safe as it is today. Limbaugh then tried to draw a parallel between Graeme and his “phony soldiers” remark: So the bottom line for me is: They can’t rely on truth to make their case for their cause. They have to lie. Be it about me, be it about their own voters (such as the Frosts) be it about President Bush, they must lie — and anybody who stands in the way of their succeeding with that lie becomes an enemy, becomes a target. That’s where I and my buddies in talk radio come in. We are a thorn in their side because we represent the truth they are trying to hide, the truth that they are lying about, and they have to do something about it — and they have to do that by lying. […] They send the kid out to lie. They filled this kid’s head with lies just as they have some of these soldiers about me. Put lies in the kid’s head or put it on the script that he’s reading. He goes out and reads it. He’s 12-years-old! They will use anybody! They’ll corrupt anybody, to get where they’re headed. That’s who they are, folks. Listen to it: Go to the link for the audio The real “bottom line” is: Rush propagates baseless information from a “freeper” to attack a 12-year old, fails to determine the facts for himself, and then accuses others of not being able to “rely on truth to make their case.” When right-wingers attack soldiers who disagree with them on Iraq or kids who disagree with them on health care, that is indeed where Rush and his “hate radio” buddies “come in.” The right-wing attack machine personally assaults anyone for daring to disagree.