Was the Schiavo memo a fake? (WaTimes)

[Rose Siding]

snip>
A survey by The Washington Times found that every Republican said the memo was not crafted or distributed by him or her. Every one of them said he or she had not seen it until the memo was the subject of speculation in major news organs, particularly ABC News and The Washington Post.
.....

The Times surveyed all 44 Democrats and the chamber's one independent, and only one of them, Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, said through a spokeswoman that he saw it circulated on the Senate floor.

"He said that the memo was being circulated by Republican members on Thursday before we went out of session, and that is when he saw it," said his spokeswoman, Allison Dobson.

Two Democratic offices refused to respond — Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat — the latter even as he continued to accuse Republicans of being behind it.

"We will not participate in the survey. News outlets have investigated and authenticated the memo was real and came from Republican sources. We have no further comment," said spokeswoman Tessa Hafen. "If you want more information on the memo, you should work on finding the Republican who wrote it."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20050406-124141-1831r.htm

Go Harry Go

[davidinalameda]

1. gee, the Repukes denying that any of them wrote or distributed the memo

go figure

[MessiahRp]

2. Gotta love it when they have their

right wing lying media go and lie so much that people think the truth is a lie. That's how you get out of trouble these days. I remember as a kid being taught that telling one lie leads to bigger and bigger lies and gets you into bigger and bigger trouble.

When you run everything telling bigger and bigger lies just leads to dumber and dumber people who believe the lie.

Rp

[Demit]

3. Maybe the Moonie Times can also work on who leaked Valerie Plame's

name from the WH. Or are their investigations always finished when they ask Republicans did they do something and "every one of them" says no? Dipshit paper.

[RaleighNCDUer]

24. I'm sure they're working on it, and we'll get the results of their

investigation as soon as they can find a Democrat in the White House to blame it on.

[w4rma]

4. You'd have to be pretty gullible to believe this Moonie Times spin that

there is any doubt that this memo to politicize the situation is real.

[Avalux]

5. This is Rove's MO

All questions lead back to him.

[Skinner]

6. What a crock!

"A survey by The Washington Times found that every Republican said the memo was not crafted or distributed by him or her."

Are these people morons? They said they didn't do it, so it must be true!

[Festivito]

14. Every Repub in America? Rove? Every Rove assistant?

I doubt it! They're being given wiggle room on this.

Who was seen distributing the memo? No one talking?

[TahitiNut]

17. "Are these people morons?"

Yes. :shrug:

[RobertSeattle]

7. And what if the opposite had occurred? (If it was a (D) memo...)

The RW outrage industry would be in overdrive.

[Orrex]

8. Sure Republicans say...

that they didn't write it, but have openly condemned its content?

[colonel odis]

9. oh well. if they say they didn't do it, i guess they didn't do it.

yeah, right.

[caligirl]

10. An embarrassing moment this am, one of those threats made

against Michael Schiavo came from a San Francisco woman, who had written it on line, the FBI arrested her according to KTVU Ch. 2 morning news.

[Debi]

11. Yea Tom Harkin!

At least one Democrat is willing to say, "Yeah, I saw it".

Was every one else in the bathroom at the time? :eyes:

[Rose Siding]

15. Harkin's credible as he's the dem who supported

the Sunday Schiavo bill.

[Debi]

23. Yeah, you can't win them all.

He obviously believes that this was a disability issue (and I don't agree with him there).

However, he is not the only Dem that voted for the bill yet he's the only Dem who saw the memo. Have the others explain that.

[Tempest]

12. McCain did not deny it came from the GOP

McCain was asked about the memo on one of the Sunday talk shows two weeks ago and he did not deny it came from the Repugs.

He hinted it came from the RNC.

[MADem]

18. Well, there's a bit of plausible deniability!

If Closet Ken's crew wrote it, then the GOP legislators can legitimately say THEY themselves had nothing to do with it.

People are getting sick of this parsing horseshit.

[underpants]

13. Sen. RobBennett is right! (this WT article is almost Onion-esque)

Bennett is right this does stink like the CBS memos AND the Niger yellowcake document--both clearly fake and both used/produced from the Bush WhiteHouse/campaign (same thing)

[leftchick]

16. proof once again...

that every repuke is a Liar and the WT is their mouthpiece.

[Pachamama]

19. Sure, just like torture going on at Gitmo & Abu Gharaib "happened" to be

similar in their techniques (just due to a few bad apples), its just coincidink that all the Republicans from Tom Delay to Frist to all the talking conservative heads just "happened" to all be saying the same things verbatim...Amazing....there must be some kind of telepathic connection going on....Or is it that GOD told them to say it?

:eyes:

[fryguy]

20. well maybe no republican member of the house or senate did write it...

but that leaves off all their staff and the hundreds, if not thousands, of lobbyists and "journalists" they have working for them . . . how about surveying all of them?

[goodboy]

21. this is absolute garbage...(nt)

[Heidi]

22. Circling the wagons should be an event in the Olympics.

Just like closing ranks.

[daleo]

25. Is the Wash Times story a fake?

How many times can we go around the block on these things. I guess it is encouraging to see the right wing has tin foil hats too.

[proud patriot]

26. LOL ..Randi is going to eat this up

she had ABC send her a copy the memo .

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. The perfect Tom Tomorrow CARTOON for this charade:

It's good to see that the Dems are standing up to the lies this time. The whole Moonie Times "argument" is a bunch of neocons saying "Wasn't ME! WHAT memo? Nobody HERE but us chickens!" Did they try to pressure the editors or owners of more reputable papers into backing down from the claims of authenticity? I'm betting they felt them out for this possibility at the very least, met resistance, and had to settle for the Moonie Times. Plan B is probably in the works, though...and Tom Tomorrow knows how THAT works (except that it sure wouldn't be Wolfie and the Dems aren't backing off):

"Scandal in the modern era"
http://www.workingforchange.com/comic.cfm?itemid=18799

[democrat in Tallahassee]

28. so, the dems knew that this shiavo thing was going to backfire and wrote

a memo before they knew it would backfire to make the repugs look bad?
I wish we were that devious.

[MsMagnificent]

29. Hey, it worked for Rathergate

why not use it for this scandal? There's no reason to let a convenient, tried & true, perfectly good "EXCUSE" go to waste!

Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

:sarcasm:

[rocktivity]

30. "Repubs Deny Existence of Schiavo Memo" is what the headline should be

I know reporters generally don't write their own headlines, and that headlines are supposed "snappy" and attention-grabbing. But it so much to ask that they also actually have something to do with the story as well.

Fifty-five Republican senators deny having seen the memo--fine. But since when is that grounds to even imply that it's fake? I mean, gee whiz, think about it--IT WOULD BE IN THE SENATORS' BEST INTERESTS TO DENY HAVING SEEN IT!!! After all, if they had seen it, the next question would have been "Where did you get it from?" and then "Were you on the Senate floor at the time?" And from there, maybe it could be found out who DID write it. Everyone denies seeing the memo, therefore it might be fake? In other words, maybe--just MAYBE, the fifty-five senators LIED to you, you Moonie morans!!!

:grr:
rocknation

[despairing optimist]

31. I saw Santa leafletting my neighborhood a while back . . .

He could have been dropping anything. It was on his own time. He could have hit the Capitol too. I mean, how do I know?

[enki23]

32. that's why delay had (or so he said) to order his staff not to circulate

right? his staff were circulating a "fake" memo. what, i wonder, do they mean by "fake?"

[NVMojo]

33. Harry Reid Spokesperson: Schiavo Talking Points Memo Authentic

The Washington Times asked all 55 republican Senators if they had personally gotten a look at the alleged GOP Talking Points Memo on Terri Schiavo. Not one single Republican Senator would say that they had seen the memo before ABC and the Washington Post had been promoting the story.



From the Times story published on Monday, "A survey by The Washington Times found that every Republican said the memo was not crafted or distributed by him or her. Every one of them said he or she had not seen it until the memo was the subject of speculation in major news organs, particularly ABC News and The Washington Post."



Now Harry Reid spokesperson Tessa Hafen says she the memo is authentic and came from the GOP while refusing to answer any other questions.


more...

http://www.nationalledger.com/scribe/archives/2005/04/harry_reid_spok.shtml

[The Doctor.]

34. Well duh...

such a thing does leave a trail.

Someone has to 'fess up.

Reminds me of a bunch of kids.

[Cha]

36. Or a bunch of

crazed fascists who are bent on destroying America!

[rzemanfl]

35. Isn't the Washington Times Sun Yung Moon's? If the question

was asked it was probably like this, "all your Republican colleagues deny having seen this, do you too?"

[Frances]

37. I think that the news media should keep reminding people

of Tom DeLay's tape.

If the liberals truly controlled the media, you would hear Tom Delay's voice over and over and over the way you heard about the Buddhist Temple over and over and over in 2000.

[johnfunk]

38. The National Ledger=Amateur Hour

From the article linked above:

The Washington Times could only get Sen. Tom Harkins to say the he saw it "circulated on the Senate floor"

It's Harkin, not Harkins.

And they seem awfully enamored of Powerline and the Moonie Times.

[wallwriter]

39. It's like asking who farted

Not me!

[RobertSeattle]

40. COOL - DU Laughs Last

I'm sure there will be other threads on this, but this will nicely completel this thread....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32554-2005Apr6.html

Author Of Schiavo Memo Steps Forward
Sen. Martinez's Counsel Cited Upside for GOP

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A01

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.