Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Still More on the Schiavo Memo:
[1]Mickey Kaus (Slate), no Republican loyalist, writes (go to his post
for many links):
Non-fake but inaccurate! WaPo's Mike Allen reports that the
now-famous Schiavo "talking points" memo came from freshman GOP
senator Mel Martinez's office. So that mystery is cleared up. The
memo wasn't a fake. But Allen doesn't come off looking too good in
this latest account. a) The memo was apparently not "distributed to
Republican Senators by party leaders," as Allen's initial story,
sent out through the Post news service to other papers, reported.
It was--at least judging from today's account--handed to one
Democratic senator, Tom Harkin, by one freshman Republican senator
(who isn't in the party leadership); b) Allen doesn't explain why
he told Howie Kurtz he "did not call them talking points or a
Republican memo" when he had in fact done just that in the news
service draft; c) Even the later, more "carefully worded" account
Allen published in the Post itself was apparently wrong. Allen
wrote
In a memo distributed only to Republican senators, the Schiavo case
was characterized as "a great political issue" ...
This is almost the reverse of what Allen now reports. We know the
memo was distributed to at least one Democratic senator. We don't
know whether it was distributed to any Republican senator other
then the senator whose staffer wrote it (although it's hard to
believe it wasn't given to at least some other GOP lawmakers).
Allen's story left the now-unsupported impression that Republican
senators were conspiratorially reading the memo amongst themselves;
d) ... [W]hatever legitimate valence Allen's 'memo' story had
depended almost entirely on the impression that the memo revealed
and represented the strategy of the GOP leaders who pushed the
Schiavo bill. If all that was involved was a staff memo Martinez
gave to Harkin, Allen's story was way out of whack. The memo wasn't
close to being worth the play it got in WaPo or in Douglass'
report. (It's not worth the current Senate investigation either.
What's the crime--politicians considering politics?) ... Update:
Reader V.H. notes that Allen refers to Martinez as "the GOP's
Senate point man on the [Schiavo] issue." The Philadelphia
Inquirer's Steve Goldstein named him as one of three point men
(along with Frist and Santorum). That's a point in Allen's favor,
making Martinez more of a Republican "leader" on this particular
issue at least. But he's still low on the GOP totem pole. Allen
still lacks evidence that Martinez even shared the memo with other
Republicans, much less that it reflected the thinking of any other,
actual "party leaders." And it still wasn't a scandal if it did.
... P.S.: Did GOP Congressional bigshots really care much about the
views of Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, whom the memo mentions
prominently? That seems more a Martinez-centric concern. . . .
References
1. http://slate.msn.com/id/2116317/newallen
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