The Schiavo Memo Revisited.
Well, we all know the source of the Schiavo memo now. It came from the office of Mel Martinez Republican senator from Florida. Mel's senior cousel has resigend. Michelle Malkin is not satisfied, because of contradcitory statements made by Mel Martinez and Tom Harkin. She wants to know more about the authorship of the memo. There was a tip coming from two sources inside Mel's office indicating the author was a young renegade from Senator Reid's office.
The contradictory statements that Michelle has noted is Martinez's explanation of why he handed such a memo to Harkin. Martinez states he did not look at the memo, but Harkins says he was told that the memo was talking points [Mel's office] they were working on. Michelle finds contradiction here. I don't think so, Mel knew they were Schiavo talking points; but, did not know the exact wording and content of the talking points. It is sloppiness on Mel's part.
My previous note on the memo said we should not assume "senate leadership" meant Republican senate leadership and while I did not and do not see this as accusatory it may have been taken that way. At the moment I wrote that, the newspapers were backing off earlier stories saying the memo was distributed by Republican senate leaders to Republicans. It was not! The evidence at the time was unclear as to who wrote it and who distributed it and all I was doing was to note it was not yet clear it was a Republican memo.
Perhaps is not an accusation it leaves it as a question.
What is clear is that Republican leadership did not write the memo nor did they distribute the memo to any Republican senator let alone all of them.
What Michelle also makes clear is Mr. Martinez may need to clean out his office a bit.
The contradictory statements that Michelle has noted is Martinez's explanation of why he handed such a memo to Harkin. Martinez states he did not look at the memo, but Harkins says he was told that the memo was talking points [Mel's office] they were working on. Michelle finds contradiction here. I don't think so, Mel knew they were Schiavo talking points; but, did not know the exact wording and content of the talking points. It is sloppiness on Mel's part.
My previous note on the memo said we should not assume "senate leadership" meant Republican senate leadership and while I did not and do not see this as accusatory it may have been taken that way. At the moment I wrote that, the newspapers were backing off earlier stories saying the memo was distributed by Republican senate leaders to Republicans. It was not! The evidence at the time was unclear as to who wrote it and who distributed it and all I was doing was to note it was not yet clear it was a Republican memo.
What commentators fail to note it says only "party leaders". Why must we assume it was REPUBLICAN party leaders? Perhaps the story is true, party leaders did distribute the memo that is leaders from the other party!
Perhaps is not an accusation it leaves it as a question.
What is clear is that Republican leadership did not write the memo nor did they distribute the memo to any Republican senator let alone all of them.
What Michelle also makes clear is Mr. Martinez may need to clean out his office a bit.
posted by Marcus Aurelius at 2:52 PM
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