JohnnyBz00LS
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Posted on Thu, Apr. 07, 2005
Schiavo memo’s author confesses
Aide to Florida senator resigns after attempt to rally ‘pro-life base’ backfires
By Mike Allen
Washington Post
WASHINGTON – The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., admitted Wednesday 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 Wednesday night.
Brian Darling, 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 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, D-Iowa, who had worked with him on the issue. After that, other Senate aides gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and the Washington Post.
Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore Schiavo’s feeding tube. “He said these were talking points – something that we’re working on here,” Harkin said.
The mystery of the memo’s origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of a brain-damaged woman.
Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush’s National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.
The staff of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, at the request of a Democrat, spent a week trying to determine the memo’s origin and had come up empty, said an official involved in the investigation.
The unsigned memo – which initially misspells Schiavo’s first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill – includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy “a great political issue.”
“This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy,” the memo concludes.
It asserts that the case would appeal to the party’s core supporters, saying: “This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.”
The document was provided to ABC News on March 18 and to the Post on March 19 and was included in reports about congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. Bush returned from an Easter holiday in Texas and signed the bill about 1 a.m. on March 21.
While a convienient scapegoat, I'll give the guy credit for standing up like a man and taking the blame, not very typical of Republicans. :F
Schiavo memo’s author confesses
Aide to Florida senator resigns after attempt to rally ‘pro-life base’ backfires
By Mike Allen
Washington Post
WASHINGTON – The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., admitted Wednesday 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 Wednesday night.
Brian Darling, 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 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, D-Iowa, who had worked with him on the issue. After that, other Senate aides gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and the Washington Post.
Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore Schiavo’s feeding tube. “He said these were talking points – something that we’re working on here,” Harkin said.
The mystery of the memo’s origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of a brain-damaged woman.
Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush’s National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.
The staff of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, at the request of a Democrat, spent a week trying to determine the memo’s origin and had come up empty, said an official involved in the investigation.
The unsigned memo – which initially misspells Schiavo’s first name and gives the wrong number for the pending bill – includes eight talking points in support of the legislation and calls the controversy “a great political issue.”
“This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy,” the memo concludes.
It asserts that the case would appeal to the party’s core supporters, saying: “This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue.”
The document was provided to ABC News on March 18 and to the Post on March 19 and was included in reports about congressional intervention in the Schiavo case. Bush returned from an Easter holiday in Texas and signed the bill about 1 a.m. on March 21.
While a convienient scapegoat, I'll give the guy credit for standing up like a man and taking the blame, not very typical of Republicans. :F