The Right Fumbles on Schiavo "Memo-Gate"

Based on the fragments from the memo that were reported by the Post, I question its authenticity. It does not sound like something written by a conservative; it sounds like a liberal fantasy of how conservatives talk. What conservative would write that the case of a woman condemned to death by starvation is "a great political issue"? Maybe such a person exists, but I doubt it.

Further, the content of the memo is highly suspicious. Why would anyone mix political strategy points--the ones the Democrats want to talk about--with talking points for Senatorial argument? A competent staffer preparing a talking points memo wouldn't do that, but a Democratic dirty trickster would.

If it was a Republican staffer who prepared the memo, he or she should be fired for more than one reason. On the other hand, if the memo is a dirty trick, its footprints are traceable on the Internet.

The memo has three possible origins. The first possibility is that it was created by a low-level Republican staffer. This seems possible, but highly unlikely.

...

The second possibility is that the memo was created by a lobbying group, presumably the Traditional Values Coalition, since most of the content of the memo comes word for word from their web site. But the controversial political observations--"the pro-life base will be excited," etc.--are inappropriate for an organization like the Coalition.

...

The third possibility is that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick. At the moment, that looks most likely.

Doubts are starting to appear in other quarters, as well. Just a little while ago, the memo's authenticity was discussed on MSNBC; the fact that bloggers have questioned the memo's provenance was discussed, and at least one guest expressed the opinion that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick.

Will ABC News officials continue to stonewall, as Dan Rather et al. so famously did just a few months ago? Or will they come clean and promptly issue a correction? What about the Washington Post, which strongly implied in this article that Republicans were responsible for the memo? And what about all the other pundits, from Chris Matthews to Cynthia Tucker, who stated explicitly that Republicans distributed the memo--a statement that an anonymous ABC News official now says ABC News never reported?

You would think the MSM learned something from RatherGate. Apparently not.

However, Republican leadership staffers now believe the document was generated out of the Democratic opposition research office set up recently by Sen. Harry Reid, and distributed to some Democratic Senate staffers claiming it was a GOP document, in the hope -- or more likely expectation -- that it would then be leaked by those Democrats to reporters. In fact, the New York Times stated that it was Democratic staffers who were distributing the "talking points" document.

... certain creepy phrases and inappropriate mixing of "talking points" with political strategy points suggest this memo was written by either A) the dumbest GOP Capitol Hill operative of all time or B) a Democratic dirty trickster.

And, of course, one of Houston's own pre-eminint media "ref-gamers," Anne Linehan:

It's nice to know that Hines reads blogs. Maybe he should expand his horizons and check out some conservative blogs as well. If he had, he might have learned that the memo's authenticity is in doubt, as shown by the Power Line guys, who have dissected and dismantled it, to the point that ABC News may now be backpedaling:

Now:
Author Of Schiavo Memo Steps Forward

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 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.

This little game ought to be about as clear as day for any objective person in the world to see now. Powerline starts cranking up some pseudo-criticism, implying that there's simply no way a Republican can possibly come up with this as their version of "legitimate." Then when the story keeps going round the MSM, other righties pick it up and claim "don't they know there's controversy about this?" as if to prove continued bias.

But now that the memo has proven to be, in fact, the legitimate creation of a GOP staffer, passed by Senator Martinez on the Senate floor?

Silence is all you'll hear out of 'em.

Oh, except for the Powerline gang. To them, the fact that they were proven factually wrong merely serves as an opportunity to shift the goalpost:

Mike Allen has an article in tomorrow's Washington Post, which says that Mel Martinez's "legal counsel," Brian Darling, was the author of the memo. Otherwise, his story doesn't add much that is new, and doesn't attempt to explain the discrepancies between his original reporting and the most recent version. In particular, Allen offers no explanation as to why the anonymous memo was attributed to "Republican officials" or "Republican party leaders," or why it was said to have been distributed "to Republican senators," when the current story provides no support for those statements.

What a load of crock, guys. The real issue here isn't a few snivelling phrases that you find minor fault with ... it's the fact that the junior Senator from Florida is passing memos that politicize the tragic situation of Terri Schiavo, belying the true intent behind the whole circus in the first place.

Typical ... just so freakin' typical.