Republicans: Typos prove Talking Points Memo was forged

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All they need for a perfect conspiracy theory is Dan Rather.

Could this be more of Karl Rove's handiwork?

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/416virea.asp

Questions about the genuineness of the memo intensified when, later the same day, the far-left website Raw Story published, for the first time, a JPEG version of the scanned memo, which it said " source on Capitol Hill has leaked." The print version of the memo, as posted on Raw Story, was identical to ABC's "exact, full copy of the document," except that the four typos that ABC had identified with a "sic" were all corrected. Interestingly, however, the fifth typo--"applicably" instead of "applicable" in the sixth paragraph--which ABC did not so identify, was not corrected in Raw Story's "leaked" version of the document.


THESE MYSTERIOUS CORRECTIONS raised obvious questions. Who created the second, corrected version of the memo? Why would they have taken a Republican-created memo and re-typed it, eliminating typographical errors, before "leaking" it?

More basic features of the memo also raised questions. There is nothing on the face of the memo to indicate who authored it. Contrary to normal congressional practice, not only is it anonymous, but it is on plain white paper, not the letterhead of any congressional or Senatorial office. It could, literally, have been created by anyone.

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Faced with growing questions about its story on the memo, ABC News backed off. An ABC spokesman told blogger Josh Claybourn that ABC never intended to suggest that Republicans created or distributed the disputed memo, but only that some Republicans received it on March 17. In Claybourn's words: "ABC tells me they never meant to imply Republicans created the memo." ABC's revised position is, of course, ridiculous. They described the memo as "GOP Talking Points on Terri Schiavo." But the fact that ABC has backed off its original report indicates that they have no idea who created the suspicious memo.