April 11, 2005

The Prowler at the American Spectator explains that that albatross "GOP" talking points memo on the Schiavo matter wasn't fake, but it was inaccurate;
apparently a staffer of GOP Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida coughed up the fact that he had prepared it, given it to Sen. Martinez (who didn't really read it himself, it seems), but who gave it to Sen. Tom Harkin...who then "leaked it" (like a good, loyal Dimocrat) to fellow Dem Sen. Harry Reid...
I think. (Frankly, I'm a bit confused still. LOL)
So, even though it technically originated in the office of a GOP senator, it wasn't written on an official Senate letterhead with the usual signatures and protocols and no-one on the GOP side of the Senate had read it or used it to pass the Schiavo Amendment.
The Spectator asks,

While it is clear that the Martinez office was the source of the memo, questions remain. For example, Why, when it now is clear that the Washington Post and ABC News both got tipped to the memo by Democrats, did both initially report that the memo was being handed out by Republican leaders to Republicans?

Prowler also points out that neither ABC nor the WashedUpPost can produce a copy of this infamous "memo," even though ABC had a "copy" of it posted on their website for 3 weeks--What's up with that?
I have another question:
Why would Martinez or even a member of his staff prepare such a "ham-handed" analysis of the Schiavo issue when Sen. Martinez was from the very state in which Terri Schiavo's case was unfolding?
Martinez was more than familiar with the flurry of activity in Florida to save Terri, including passage of a law to do just that by the Florida legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush's efforts to enforce that law or otherwise protect Ms. Schindler-Schiavo's life anyway the state could.
Would the Senator from Terri's state have to say things like these taken from that "memo?":
"This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.

This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats."
This is all too sophomoric and simplistic, even for the self-absorbed US senators and sounds like an excerpt from "Senate Politics for Dummies."
I don't think we've heard the end of this story yet and No, Dems, I'm not eating crow because we Republicans supposedly embarrassed ourselves saying it was a fake!
Either the memo was fake or the staffer Brian Darling who admitted to "creating it" was a plant or both!
Brian Darling isn't darling at all!