Cnn Brazile saying it was a high ranking staff Martinez person that made

[rodeodance]

up the talking point memo. Cnnn now

[rodeodance]

1. Babe Bucannan saying it was one low level staffer--it is 'few bad apples"

jarjon again from the Repugs

[hippiechick]

2. Bay Buchanan

n/t

[jonnyblitz]

9. LOL..somebody else called her BABE on here once...

cracked me up :P

[rwork]

3. Yes, but they were so willing

to blame the Democrats for dirty tricks.

[pbartch]

4. A SENIOR MEMBER OF GOP Martinez staff wrote the memo

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050406232709990004&ncid=NWS00010000000001

Updated: 12:36 PM EDT
GOP Senator's Office Is Source of Schiavo Memo

Author of Missive Calling Case a 'Great Political Issue' Resigns
WASHINGTON (April 7) - Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez says an infamous unsigned memo passed around on Capitol Hill emphasizing the politics of the Terri Schiavo case originated in his office.

The memo - first reported by ABC News on March 18 and by The Washington Post and The Associated Press two days later - said the fight going on then over removing Schiavo's feeding tube "is a great political issue ... and a tough issue for Democrats.


"This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue,'' said the memo, which was described at the time as being circulated among Senate Republicans while legislation was being considered to place the Schiavo case under the jurisdiction of federal courts.

Martinez said in a written statement that he discovered Wednesday that the memo had been written by an aide in his office.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[paineinthearse]

5. Nothing in Martinez' "press releases" area yet

[rodeodance]

6. bet he never puts up a memo on this topic (staffer will just fade away)

[Moderator]

12. pbartch

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
copyrighted news source.


Thank you.


DU Moderator

[paineinthearse]

7. Raw Story broke this yesterday

See LBN/Greatest.

[wakeme2008]

8. Today's Tampa Tribune --- Senior Aide

Apr 7, 2005
Martinez Aide Wrote Schiavo Memo
By KEITH EPSTEIN
[e-mail]


WASHINGTON - A senior aide to freshman Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez has admitted to writing an unsigned incendiary memo listing the political advantages for Republicans of intervening in the Terri Schiavo case, Martinez said Wednesday night.

Martinez said he passed along the ``now-infamous memo'' to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, assuming it was an official summary of talking points on the Schiavo bill introduced by Martinez rather than a memo listing the political reasons to support the legislation.

``Senator Harkin asked me for background information on the bill,'' the senator said. ``I took a copy of what I believed to be my one-pager on `The Incapacitated Persons Legal Protection Act' from my lapel and gave it to him.

``Unbeknownst to me, instead of my one-pager on the bill, I had given him a copy of the now-infamous memo that at some point along the way came into my possession.''

The aide, identified as senior counsel Brian Darling, offered to resign. Martinez, who said in a statement that ``this is in no way how I intend to conduct my business as a United States senator,'' accepted.

.....

[janx]

10. COUNSEL TO GOP SENATOR WROTE MEMO ON SCHIAVO

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.

Brian H. Darling, 39, a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group on gun rights and other issues, offered his resignation and it was immediately accepted, Martinez said.

Martinez, the GOP's Senate point man on the issue, said he earlier had been assured by aides that his office had nothing to do with producing the memo. "I never did an investigation, as such," he said. "I just took it for granted that we wouldn't be that stupid. It was never my intention to in any way politicize this issue."

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record) (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.

(More at link)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/washpost/20050407/pl_washpost/a32554_2005apr6

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. That's not what Howard the Putz Kurtz said last week

Doubts Raised On Schiavo Memo
Web Critics Question Authenticity Of 'Talking Points' Aimed at GOP

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 30, 2005; Page C01

Bloggers are swarming around a new target: the Terri Schiavo "talking points."

Fresh from declaring victory over CBS News and its discredited National Guard memos about President Bush, some of the same bloggers are raising questions about a strategy memo, first reported by ABC News and The Washington Post, that cast the Schiavo right-to-die case as a partisan opportunity for Republicans to stick it to Democrats.

"Fake but Accurate Again?" says the Weekly Standard headline on an article by John Hinderaker, an attorney and conservative blogger who had challenged the CBS documents.

While there is no hard evidence that the memo is fake, there are several strange things about it, including the basic fact that no one seems to know who wrote it and that the noncontroversial part of it is lifted from a Republican senator's press release.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11250-2005Mar29.html


Hey Howie, would you like to print a retraction?