WaPo's Kurtz on Dems Provoking Foley Scandal

Howie Kurtz notes a lot of background material that exonerates somewhat the Republican charge that the Dems were mindlessly trying to push the Foley story. But someone who is a Dem operative was trying to peddle the somewhat innocuous e-mails with a dozen media outlets that are pro-Dem. They didn't bite, but when the insane IMs came out under Foley's address, the maelstrom began to swirl.

However, you might note if you read carefully the following little lede that Howie tucks in deep down in his narrative when he quotes Byron York:

"The List, a document naming allegedly gay Republican congressional staffers that has been e-mailed to a number of conservative groups in the last few days. According to a report by David Corn, a writer for the left-wing magazine the Nation, anti-Republican 'gay politicos' sent the list to several social-conservative organizations -- among them Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the Southern Baptist Convention -- in hopes of setting off 'a civil war within the GOP, to turn the anti-gay social cons against the GOP's Velvet Mafia.'

"As it turned out, at least two organizations apparently deleted the e-mail. . . But the campaign to spread The List is accomplishing something. It is offering clues about who is behind it. The version of The List sent to at least some of the conservative organizations originated from the e-mail address hprf@yahoo.com. That is the address of a California-based group, the Health Policy and Research Foundation, an organization devoted mostly to work involving AIDS, that is run by a businessman and former Democratic National Committee staffer named Rick Reidy."

Oh, a DNC staffer trying to out gay Republicans---known as gay-bashing unless you are an exempt leftie agitprop cadre.

No comment from the assiduous Howie Kurtz, who lets the incriminating para elide without comment.