The Washington Post is reporting that the legal counsel of a Republican senator said he was the author of the infamous “GOP Talking Points Memo.” This news definitely will be all over the blogosphere. Great topic for the blog round-up today on MSNBC ( Let me know if you blog about this. Your site could be featured on MSNBC today.).
My liberal readers are such sweet folks, in their own way. A couple of them made haste and posted a link and story blurb in comments last night, bless their hearts. One fan prefaced the blurb with this comment: “[I]n case you really cared…” He assumes I don’t care because a conservative wrote the memo. The implication is that I don’t criticize conservatives. Unfortunately, this liberal reader hasn’t been reading the posts on George Bush and his wrong-headed amnesty-for-illegal-aliens, where I am not shy about expressing my dismay toward the man I voted for.
In the same vein, I noticed that liberal bloggers aren’t commending me for criticizing Bush, either. A few of them implied that I was some GOP lapdog, but when I chastise my fellow conservatives, they’re not interested. But I’m digressing, aren’t I?
Back to the memo and my coverage of the scandal. First of all, I never stated nor implied that a Democrat authored the memo. My focus was the anonymity of the memo and the media’s reliance on it. And believe it or not, I didn’t think a Democratic congressman would do something this blatant. So, for the record, let it be known that I never accused the Dems of anything. I accused the media of being sloppy for referencing a piece of paper that they couldn’t prove to be what it was purported to be.
Re-read the post GOP Memo Hoax? I wrote, “What could be more newsworthy than newspapers relying on a phony memo? The burning desire for dirt on Republicans regardless of the source is how Dan Rather got into trouble.” Whether the memo was written by a Republican or Democrat, the media should have been more open and honest in its reporting, and I stand by that. The second post on the topic is Blogger Gets Burned.
Disclaimer off. From the Washington Post :
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.”
Whatever they say. But the story is still not over.
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Blogger buzz: Michelle Malkin:
Sen. Mel Martinez told the Washington Times he did not see the Schiavo memo until ABC News and the Post publicized it. But Sen. Tom Harkin told the Post that when Martinez handed him the memo, “[Martinez] said these were talking points — something that we’re working on here.”How could Sen. Martinez describe the contents of the memo if he had not seen it? And who is “we?”
Then there’s Brian Darling, Martinez’s legal counsel (until last night, when he resigned). According to the Post, Darling is taking the blame for authoring the Schiavo memo.
The story as we currently have it does not account for the two versions of the memo, the second of which corrected three of the typos in the first draft. I have no idea what that means, except that the story as we are currently getting it from the AP, the Washington Post, and Senator Martinez does not account for all of the known facts.
More links to follow.
Update: Ed Brown says, “…The power of blogs is over-rated….Blogs have the same problem the ‘MSM’ has when it comes to source verification and validation, fighting deliberate hoaxes, biases, etc.”
Update II (4/7): I got an honorable mention for Worst Blog of the Year. Solid.
(Deleting overnight comment spam and troll missives is akin to emptying an overflowing garbage can. The stench is quite unpleasant. My detractors must be bored this week. Consequently, all comments will be moderated. Comments will be approved ASAP, so please don’t submit twice.)
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La Shawn:
Congratulations again for all the “hate mail” - it demonstrates that people really DO fear that your opinions are being read, and respected, by a lot of people - including me.
Concerning the “Memo”, this is not rocket science - politicians saw a chance to focus on an issue they cared about, and did a “litmus test” of the politics involved - isn’t this what politicians do?
Quickly, I saw it and did a quick entry on Vision Circle.
The only reason I did was because of the heat generated towards me when I mentioned that something didn’t seem right about the memo and the memo denial.
I imagine the hate mail can be tough to read but as Frank says above it means you’re striking a nerve and that’s one of the reasons to blog, isn’t it?
LaShawn, I love this blog, but wow “the story is not over” - really it is. Unless, the left gets the ability to “run with this” the way our side did when we pushed the fake memo.
The story over?
I don’t think so. As uncorrelated points out, there is a single transmission point between Martinez and Harkin. After that things get really interesting. The memo apparently gets edited, passed around, represented as a GOP leadership memo. The only people who could have done this are democratic staffers. The post also notes the strange dichotomy between Dem apoplexy on “how” the Republicans got a hold of their memos (from an unprotected server). This ain’t over–not by a long shot.
Coming clean on this issue at this time was smart timing on the GOP’s part as any coverage would be minimal given the MSM’s focus right now on the death of the Catholic’s god.
The real damage of Rathergate is that we so distrust our media to present anything resembling truth. However, if this were a democrat memo, there would be no discussion of it whatsoever. What makes it news is that it hurts Republicans. I tend to believe that there was a Democrat memo circulating with Anti-Schiavo talking points. Why would the Schiavo issue be any different? This is a non-starter. No matter what actually happened the MSM will spin it negatively to Republicans. This story was always over.
Kathy - I watch Fox most of the time and have to disagree. Fox is clearly part of the MSM and they ran the story promoting the memo as a Dem fake on several occassions.
Ok Mel Martenez (R) wrote the memo, ….. So What.
He said they were talking points, yeah so what does that mean ..well, like maybe everyone for the bill is on the same page ?
The MSM was so obscessed with making sure that the on going court-ordered execution in Florida takes place and how dare the Republicans order and get their facts straight at the same time, in order to ensure that a disabled woman has her due process rights guaranteed. Which of course they were not.
but the memo is what bothers the Libs, sorta like taking a page out of ‘Fat-Teds’ own book, sorta like all the talking points the dems passed around about Abu Ghraib prison and they ‘made’ sure that all these Liberal Nit-wits mentioned the word attrocity and the Presidents name in the same sentence, (they need talking points because they have always had problems putting coherrant sentences together.) when questioned on anything pertaining to the ’so-called’ lets make a scandal democrat leadership, which was nothing more than an anti Bush push during the election.
This is pure politics, its OK for the moronic-left to have talking points but No no not the other side, the good guys are not allowed. Afterall if the public actually knew what the demcrats were up to there would be only one left in congress. Which would probably be Ted Kennedy because every alumni needs a class clown.
Andy Peireder wrote: “The memo apparently gets edited, passed around, represented as a GOP leadership memo. The only people who could have done this are democratic staffers.”
Please substantiate that comment — it reeks of hysterical conspiracy theory.
For the record, I don’t buy for one second that Mel Martinez didn’t know anything about a memo — not even that it existed! — that he just happened to hand to one of the few Democrats who was allied with on the Schiavo issue. Give me a break. If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
And LaShawn, since you proclaim so loudly on your post about this issue that you never suggested it was Democrats who had perpetrated this vile act, and now there is substantial evidence that it was in fact a Republican responsible for it, why aren’t you denouncing posts such as Andy’s? It seems to me that he should be roundly derided for failing to take note of the facts that all you bloggers hoped so earnestly would come to light.
What is the big deal ‘Still’ or whatever, Yes a Republican staffer sent out a memo. So What..
This not an area that the dems are lacking in is it ?
The bottom line is the Republicans were trying to save a LIFE .. do you understand that. It was so important to the dems they didn’t even bother to show up for the vote.
OF course we all know what side the democrats come down on don’t we.
Since it made sense everybody ought to know it was generated by the Republicans, NONSENSE always comes from the left anyway. Right ?
Mark,
I’m not sure where to even begin with that last post. Please find out how many democrats and how many republicans failed to show up for the vote before irresponsibilty levelling the unilateral claim that “the dems didn’t even bother to show up for the vote.” (You should have no problem finding them.) Then find a way to expain why if voting against Congressional intervention was such an egregious abuse of Terri’s rights, there has been virtually NO condemnation of the several Congressional Republicans who voted against teh bill. Then explain why if liberals as a group are such bad people, a number of them voted in favor of intervention. Your blanket statements are nothing but an appeal to your emotionality on this topic.
Well still, there are some Republicans that are that in name only, they are basically your garden variety low-life liberals no two ways about it. They have no moral fiber no backbone and follow ‘Fat-Teds’ lead on every point.
However we were talking about the ….Memo generated by a Republican staffer, which pointed out that it would be a good idea to follow for , what else political reasons. Well Gooolly shame on us we got caught trying to save a young girls life, and the ones the ones backing down from it are just that spine-less. Not however trying to ensure the taking of life as do Fat-Teds crowd.
Mark,
Are you aware of the contents of the memo? It wasn’t about saving Terri’s life, it was about how Republicans could use Terri’s plight as a way to score points with the religious Right and make Democrats look bad. So it wasn’t that you got caught trying to save a life, it was that you got caught exploiting this poor woman’s tragedy. Mel Martinez got caught doing something very, very immoral. And you resort to calling Democrats names in response. It’s unfortunate your emotions cloud your reason so badly. I think reasonable people on both sides of the spectrum can agree that the memo was written in poor taste and with depraved indifference to Terri Schiavo. Please, save the carpet bombing of liberals for an issue where it might actually have import. I eagerly await your next hysterical response.
Glib you are(maybe I should Capilize,here) Still, but we learned from the best, but in your case and I got to say you are the first lib I have run into anywhere that actually can stay on topic.
As far as making the dims look bad they do a good job on their own, and any memo would add any weight to that, I mean look at the leaders you have there. Or should I say lack of leadership is there any wonder you keep losing elections ? Just look at the mantra of your party if its bad for America it is good for the democrats, and Hanoi John kept saying he had a plan obviously not enough people could believe that loser.
But as far as carpet bombing naw just a few hand grenades. Carpet bombing comes later.
Certainly I am aware of the contents of the memo, it was sent to all of us Republican operatives, and the one you read in the Washington comPost is false.
The bottom line, still is this is politics down and dirty your side has fired its best shot in November and we still(OOOps ) won all the same.
Keep spinning eventually you may even believe what you are saying.
La Shawn,
I’d take being rated next to Power Line an indication that you are pretty good company. Congradulations. You now grouped with three lawyers in three piece suits.
Mark,
Your posts are difficult to read. I’m not sure where one sentence ends and the next begins.
I don’t understand how you can say I’m “spinning” anything. I stated that the contents of the memo dealt with political strategy, not saving Terri’s life as you suggested. In calling the memo “depraved,” I suppose I did inject some opinion into my post, but I think that reasonable people would agree with me and I certainly don’t think that rises to the level of spin.
On the other hand, it was you, not I, who said that Democrats like an issue when it hurts America, John Kerry was a communist or traitor, and that (apparently) I think all Republicans are operatives. That’s spin, my friend. If you want to talk about the memo, bring it on. But I suspect you’ll be unable to calm down enough to talk about it like an adult.
“This news definitely will be all over the blogosphere.”
I like how the “MSM” corrected the “self-correcting blogosphere.”
Ref: Worst blog-I’m sorryI went to the site and read the comments. As a retired military, it really pains me to think that brave men and women die almost daily; defending the right of the scum posting their filth on that site to do so. Thanks for your efforts in making the world a better place.
@ Actus: For too long, the MSM couldn’t tell us the source of the memo and were even caught restating their claims yet declining to correct earlier statements when confronted with the contraditions. Then finally, the “culprit” admits to the MSM for starting this whole mess and the MSM gets credit for self-correcting the blogosphere?
Yup, that’s the ticket. After all the sturm und drang over wanna-be journalists getting access to WH briefings, seems to me that the MSM failed miserably to get to the bottom of this in a matter of a day or two. With all the available resources at hand and no one thot to question all 535 members? Yeah, right.
Too bad JP2 killed this juicy scandalette. Even so, the MSM’s got some ’splainin’ to do still.
Actus, there you have it, “Not quite a fake, but inaccurate” http://www.washtimes.com/national/pruden.htm
Excerpt:
The clamor intensified, and this week Brian DeBose, Steve Dinan and their congressional reporting colleagues for this newspaper, being brighter and bolder, did what it apparently had not occurred to The Post or ABC News or other “mainstream” news agencies to do. Our worthies polled every Republican senator, asking bluntly: “Have you seen, produced or distributed such a memo?”
To a man and woman, the 55 Republican senators said no to all three questions. This was no surprise, but we knew this would smoke out the facts, which had been submerged for a week in the usual cesspool reeking of media bias and distortion. That’s exactly what happened. …
Also I think I should refer you to an interesting post on the top 10, 12, 15, scratch 20 categories of MSM/DNC bias. Just click on the comment by The Cassandra Page just below my previous post.
“Have you seen, produced or distributed such a memo?”
To a man and woman, the 55 Republican senators said no to all three questions. This was no surprise,”
So we know at least one of those, Martinez, is lying. Because he has seen, produced or distributed it. I wonder why the GOP isn’t in such a hurry to claim they had anything to do with this. Is it because the guy who owned up to it had to quit / was fired?
You obviously have no experience in an office setting where proposals and whatnot are circulated — moreso in DC where practically more dead tree products get shredded than gets generated in most parts of the world.
In my small-business company, I’ve lost count of times where I don’t even recall a draft passing thru my hands.
All the same, I find it interesting that Harkin — the sKerry-esque combat pilot hero in ‘Nam — finally had to burn his MSM/DNC cohort(s) in order to save the Dems from getting blamed for “creating” the memo.
Couple of weeks late for Harkin to come clean in admitting where he got it from, doncha think? Oh wait, that’s right, it’s an evil Rove scheme. Talk about an insignificant document turning into a storm by omission.
“In my small-business company, I’ve lost count of times where I don’t even recall a draft passing thru my hands.”
So in other words, the “55 senators know nothing about it” assertion is meaningless. Fine.
The MSM took a swipe at blogs, via Mel Martinez; and his pal, Harkin. They shur stayed quiet for two weeks, huh? And, then Mel hops on board Dr. Frist’s plane load of senate players who attended the Pope’s funeral. (Interesting. About as interesting as the fact that it’s two months since Kerry promised to sign his 180-release form. But, heck? What’s the rush?)
If this was meant to hurt bloggers, I don’t see how. And, from The Anchoress, you can connect to “grandma’s well-being” … she got airlifted out of the hospice to UAB, where she’s being given great medical attention. BLOGS WORK. The MSM doesn’t.
What da ya want? More balloons? Or more story?
Floriduh still isn’t a happy place.
Fine?? All the reports indicate that most of the 55 haven’t even seen, let alone heard about, it prior to it blowing up.
For one, Martinez is as junior as they come, with no leadership position. And Darling is obviously a product of our fine education system, given the typos. What? Don’t they teach you how to use a spell checker in law school?
Secondly, maybe he lied when he initially said he had no knowledge of THAT document. If so, he will have some ’splainin’ to do with his constituents. But then again, maybe he didn’t recognize the document, as bandied about, as the same one he handed to Harkin. If so, why? Who knows? Do you care?
Only when Harkin cited Martinez as the source did Mel go back and query his staff. Or did you miss that point?
Afterall, the MSM/DNC has shown a couple of versions of the ONE “memo”. How can that be? I’d be more interested in finding out who made edits to the original & sloppy draft.
But that’s irrelevant, just as the fact that Sandy snuck 5 “identical” copies out of the archives. If identical, why take 5 out when 1 would suffice? Then he could run off as many copies as he wished and no one would ever be the wiser!
Or is he so cheap, he’d rather make copies on YOUR dime, rather than his? Hmmm, lessee a copy for himself, a copy for Jamie, a copy for Slick, maybe a copy for DNC and a backup?
“For one, Martinez is as junior as they come, with no leadership position. And Darling is obviously a product of our fine education system, given the typos. What? Don’t they teach you how to use a spell checker in law school?”
I think they’re both experienced in washington. One is a former bush official, the other is an ex lobbyist. “no leadership position” but he was the point man and sponsor of the legislation in question.
“Afterall, the MSM/DNC has shown a couple of versions of the ONE “memo”. How can that be? I’d be more interested in finding out who made edits to the original & sloppy draft.”
Around my small office we work from several versions of documents. we do share drafts outside the office, but we’re usually not in the hurry that these guys are, so we do actually know what we’re doing.
Nice twist there.
As I recall, the MSM/DNC reported one document, a talking point memo — IOW the final product — yet their solitary evidence came in multiple versions?
Or are you claiming that more than one talking points were circulating the Hill amongst the GOP? How come no one reported that angle?
With regards to the actual substance of the so-called memo, macht’s nichts. Just political hardball that backfired on MSM/NBC. At least you concede a draft can slip out.
As for their past lives, the point has been made ad naseum for those unaware of who Mel was prior to running for office.
“As I recall, the MSM/DNC reported one document, a talking point memo – IOW the final product – yet their solitary evidence came in multiple versions?”
I don’t know if they reported solely a final product. they reported what was being distributed. more than the final product is distributed.
“Or are you claiming that more than one talking points were circulating the Hill amongst the GOP? How come no one reported that angle?”
I’m assuming that like most offices, they make drafts, and sometimes distribute drafts. Its SOP around my office. And also we don’t put our names on things till they are final.
” Just political hardball that backfired on MSM/NBC.”
Are we talking about hte martinez memo. Are you really serious that thats how you think this has ‘backfired’? you’re a loon.
Loony is as loony does.
FACT (or as we are currently lead to believe): Martinez gave a draft to Harkin and Harkin passed it around to slam the GOP. That’s political hardball, nonetheless ironic/hypocritical for someone supposedly on the same side in this issue — saving Terri and making sure it doesn’t happen again under these circumstances.
No one ever claimed, much less pointed to multiple drafts circulating. If that draft was the sole document that made the rounds, who made the edits and why? If Martinez and Darling had enough sense to duck and hope it would blow over, why on earth would they correct the typos & bill # and recirculate it?
As I’ve said before, the substance of the memo is insignificant with regards to partisanship and typical. It certainly doesn’t rank as some ominous Rovian plot to destroy America. The issue is why the obscurity and multiple backtracking as to source and circulation, once it landed in the hands of the MSM/DNC.
Is it normal practice for the MSM/DNC to take a sloppy Exhibit A, clean it up and represent it as Exhibit A? Or could it be that the MSM/DNC so-o-o believed their poll results (majority condemning congressional involvement) that by tying the memo to their “reality”, they could possibly further sink the Save Terri and Pro-lifer cause by blaming the GOP? Hence dressing up the memo in hand to make it more credible.
If so, that backfired on them. Otherwise, why would Harkin come clean about where he got it from? I believe that is the little loony detail that you insist on glossing over. Had Harkin kept quiet to this day, conventional wisdom would have settled on it being a MSM/DNC dirty trick and Darling would still have a job.
OTOH, if Harkin had immediately revealed the source, would we even be having this discussion? I think not. It would had a life of 2 or 3 days at most. As it stands now, the bogus talking points meme is fast fading to irrelevance as the world turns.
If Mel thot he could trust and work across the aisle on life-n-death issues, he now knows better. And the pro-lifers are still on track to make hay out of judicial activism. I also imagine Harkin is now on political death watch, meaning he’ll be extremely lucky to survive his next election. How do you like dem apples?
Here’s my new speculation about you — you’ve been likened to a troll. I’m beginning to think that maybe in tandem with the pursuit of your law degree, you work for a small business in the service of MSM/DNC and your job is to sidetrack issues on various blogs.
It’s one thing to not feed a real troll, but you tend to throw out stuff that if left undisputed, could leave a “not fake but inaccurate” or misleading impression in the mind of the casual reader. And you do it so well. In that sense, letting you have the last psuedo-fact is loony.
“As I’ve said before, the substance of the memo is insignificant with regards to partisanship and typical.”
Thats not why people are arguing. People are up in arms because the substance is signifcant.
No, people are up in arms because the GOP plan to make hay over Terri. As if that never happens. Hmmm, I wonder where MLK would be now if JFK was told not to contact him in jail because he’d be accused of making hay.
It is insignificant because the substance is 100% true. Taking action to protect Terri would and did energize the base. Just as true is what is left unsaid, that snuffing her would energize the pro-death base.
It is insignificant because it outlines political truths. Those making hay wanted to merely cast that truth in a devious Rovian light.
I suppose that you think that the GOP erred in energizing the base over Daschle’s obstructionism.
So what. sKerry energized his base in accusing Bush of screwing up the WOT and Bush energized his base in accusing sKerry of flip-flopping. Like I said, the substance is insignificant in terms of the spin that the MSM/DNC tried to put on it.
“It is insignificant because it outlines political truths.”
That’s precisely why it IS significant. Because it means that political, not substantive, decisions are made. I can’t believe this.
And talking points memo are purely and always political, whether substantive or just whistling dixie. Show me a substantive decision that is not political.
The moonbats have argued that snuffing Terri is a substantive decision that needs to be made, as if current laws are sacred. If that’s the case, why bother having a legislative branch since we have all the laws we need and nothing needs changing?
Terri showed that there were flaws in the judicial process. We can either say that’s the way the cookie crumbles, or we can say that something needs tweaking, either way it is a political process. If the majority feels nothing needs to be done, that’s still a political decision. It takes political courage for someone to stand up against 90% or what have you and say this is flawed we need to change it.
In esscence the memo said, “stiffen up and make changes, there are more than enough who will support that action”.
I can’t believe that you might think that there is NO similar memo circulating the MSM/DNC saying we must resist SS reform, even if we have no options on the table and don’t worry, the moonbat base will be energized and the GOP wafflers will be de-energized, thus inclined to change the topic.
Is SS reform substantive? Yes. Is the decision to postpone action political? Yes. Hence that memo would be insignificant with regards to accusations of a nefarious plot to capitalize and politicize on the inevitable fears of SS recipients. There is a base energized by the thot of an ownership society and there is a base energized by the thot of being weaned, or as doom-n-gloomers imply of being yanked, from the goverment’s teat.
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