Apr 07 2005
Martinez Staffer Admits to Writing Memo
The “fake” memo? It isn’t fake.
Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo
1 hour, 15 minutes ago Politics - washingtonpost.comBy Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer
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.”
I’m so angry right now, I could scream. I think memos like this call into question the motives of pretty much everyone involved, whether they were altruistic or not. This memo will be held up forever as a sign of what was really at stake in this case. It will also be reported again and again by the mainstream media as the “real reason” they did what they did. In one fell swoop, Darling has discredited everyone that fought night and day for Terri’s life.
There are a lot of right-wing bloggers who have lots of apologizing to do. Particularly the ones who accused Democrats of writing the memo because it looked like a knee-jerk caricature of what Democrats think of Republicans. You guys know who you are. Now wipe the egg off your face and write those apologies, lest you be exactly what you accuse others of being.
Source: Yahoo
April 7th, 2005 at 10:43 am
I haven’t even heard about this until today.
I have to agree with you, Vin, that it does make Republicans and their motives look bad, but just like everything in the news it will pass. I don’t think this is like the Dan Rather thing where people were purposefully trying to mislead people, and nothing illegal was done here either.
But, that still doesn’t make it right. Republicans need to hold themselves to a higher standard than what they say Democrats do/say/etc. You can’t do the right thing for the wrong reason and expect people to respect you for it later.
April 7th, 2005 at 10:54 am
I doubt you’ll see much in the way of apologies from those that were loud and angry about it being a bogus memo. Expect much hemming and hawing, a bunch of arguing over semantics, but no apologies. There’s still a chance, see, that Darling was paid off by the Dems, or that some traitorous intern wrote it, or George Soros! Or something.
April 7th, 2005 at 12:20 pm
The memo written by Mr. Darling was dumb, shortsighted, and distasteful. He deserved to get fired for stupidity! He did the right thing by resigning. I know the media and the DNC will jump all over this for months to come. Some Bloggers, and Senator Martinez may be discredited, should apologize, but thatÃs where it should end.
The Terri Schiavo case has been in the media for several years now. I doubt that most U.S. Senators, some who have a long track record of ìpro-lifeî views, and some who have made their views public on the Schiavo case years ago needed a stupid memo that claims some political advantage for a certain stance to make up their minds.
Mr. DarlingÃs memo also contradicted the polls at the time. The polls showed that the vast majority of Americans believed that Congress was wrong to interfere in the matter. I believe that most Senators would give the polls more consideration than a memo written by an aid for a first term senator.
The memo was wrong, no question! ItÃs also disheartening for ordinary people with no political agenda, who feel strongly about an issue to think that everything boils down to politics. The sad reality is that in the U.S. Congress, it usually does