Why???

I have been watching the local TV news here in the Chicagoland area and just saw a news conference about this story.

Two beautiful little girls, 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias, 2nd grade classmates, are dead, murdered by an unknown assailant in a wooded area near a bike path in a north suburban park in the city of Zion near the Illinois-Wisconsin border. The coroner said that the initial examination of the bodies yielded no evidence of sexual assault. They were both stabbed multiple times. The police currently have no leads. If you have any information, call police at 847-872-8000.

This kind of thing has to make any normal person sick. Stories like this are becoming all too common. Please pray for the families and friends of these two little girls. And to whoever did this, may you soon face justice.

Blogging for (MSM) Dummies

I just read an excellent article on blogging by Superhawk over at Rightwing Nuthouse, which "Fisks" a clueless NYT piece by Adam Cohen (NYT registration required). Even the comments Superhawk elicits are intriguing.

Hat-tip: Pat Curley of Brainster's Blog.

Here's One Sure to Get Your Blood Boiling!

If you haven't read this article from Tony Snow yet, you really need to click on the link and do so!

Senators Byron Dorgan, John Kerry and Richard Durbin pulled a fast one last week on their congressional colleagues. They tried to bury forever documents alleging that senior government officials tried to transform portions of the IRS and the Justice Department into a goon squad for attacking political enemies and aiding political friends.

Naturally, they didn't declare their intentions openly. Instead, Sen. Dorgan attached an innocent looking amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill that will fund government operations after September 30...

Who could these three Senate Jackasses be trying to protect, pray tell?

...Former FBI Director Louis Freeh insisted on the appointment of an Independent Counsel in 1995 after learning that then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros shuttled payments to his mistress without reporting them to the IRS. Once the news went public, Cisneros resigned from office, his previously promising political career in tatters. He later admitted to a misdemeanor and paid a fine of $10,000. President Clinton pardoned him in 2001.

Dorgan's bill would shut down the 10-year probe conducted by Independent Counsel David Barrett's investigation, but it would add something unprecedented in the case of special or independent counsels: it would prevent the publication of the counsel's report on the case. A decade's worth of investigations — sworn testimony, documentation of alleged abuses, grand-jury proceedings, etc. — would vanish without a trace.

In this instance, that would mean burying charges that key officials in the Justice Department and the IRS abused their power by going easy on Cisneros and targeting political opponents of Bill Clinton. Those charges — not the Cisneros case — have served as the focal point of Barrett's investigation for the last several years.

This story is dynamite! Read the whole thing! Then act to make certain this cover-up is never allowed to stand! Tony Snow provides contact information for the key Senators and House Members involved.

Hat-tip: My Dad! (Again.) Thanks!

More News You've Probably Never Heard...

BLOGGER X: Have you been following the big Hillary Clinton fundraising scandal?

JOE AVERAGE: The what???

BLOGGER X: The Hillary Clinton fundraising scandal. There's a trial about to get under way on Tuesday in Los Angeles related to it. You mean to tell me you haven't heard anything about this?

JOE AVERAGE: No.

BLOGGER X: Guess you get your news from the network newscasts or CNN then, huh?

JOE AVERAGE: Yeah. And I read several major newspapers, too! Well, not the whole papers, but the top headlines. I also listen to NPR. I thought I was keeping myself well-informed! I know all about how George W. Bush is the worst President in world history, that Tom DeLay is a crook and John Bolton is the meanest man alive, about how badly we are losing the War in Iraq, how the Republicans want to destroy the Constitution to steamroll extremist right-wing judges onto the bench so they can force their ultra-reactionary Religious Doctrine on unsuspecting Americans, all about how terrible this depressionesque economy really is and how Bush wants to destroy Social Security, but I haven't heard a thing about this. Are you sure it's real???

BLOGGER X: Figures!

******************************

Yes, folks, it is real. And it is about to blow up in Hillary's face, in spite of what the mainstream press does or does not do with this story.

I just love this particular quote from the AP story linked to above:

"David I don't think deserves to go to jail," co-organizer Aaron Tonken said in a recent interview from prison, where he is serving 63 months for unrelated charges of defrauding charities of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Nothing like a great character witness ready to go to bat on your behalf, huh?

Hat-tip: My Dad! Thanks.

Happy Mother's Day!

A very happy Mother's Day wish goes out to all of the Moms out there and to all of those that love them!

May God bless you, one and all!

Name That Hypocrite!

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) just won a premium spot on my list of favorite Senators with this ongoing feature on his official Senate website!

Hat-Tip: Will Franklin.

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

It seems Senate Inferiority Leader Harry Reid (Jackass-NV), called President Bush a "loser" in front of an audience of high schoolers.

How quaint.

The equally infantile responses seem to flow into one's mind, don't they?

"I know you are, but what am I?"
"It takes one to know one!"
"Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle!"

But I like this one the best:

Want to see a real loser, Senator Reid? Just find the nearest mirror!

Hat-Tip: Betsy Newmark via Lorie Byrd at PoliPundit

Bloglighting - PoliPundit

In the first of a new and soon-to-be regular feature here at The Right Place, I will focus my attention, and hopefully yours, on the best blogs that I have found in my frequent travels through the blogosphere.

There can be no choice to kick off this new feature other than PoliPundit, the site to whom I owe my very existence as a blogger.

PoliPundit is easily one of the premiere political weblogs on all of the world wide web and helped me and many other conservatives get through the often bitter 2004 election season. I began reading PoliPundit when I stumbled across it while searching for more details on the Ra^thergate scandal (a term coined by a PoliPundit reader, no less) early last September, but it wasn't until late October that I first posted a comment on a PoliPundit thread under the pseudonym "Mr. Right" (which I couldn't believe no one had taken on before me). This led to a bubbling desire on my part to get more involved in the effort to get out the Conservative vote and to keep the light of truth shining on the Liberally biased mass media and the Democrats, which, in turn, led me to start my own blog. So, in a very real sense, I owe an awful lot to all of the folks at PoliPundit, bloggers and fellow regular commenters alike. Thank you!

PoliPundit is a group blog made up of 5 incredibly talented bloggers, starting, naturally, with PoliPundit, a self-described "non-white recent legal immigrant" residing in the State of Washington. Beyond that, however, not much is known of the mysterious "Poli" including his or her gender! But two things are certain, Poli knows how to blog and Poli knows how to spot blogging talent in others! PoliPundit also is responsible for starting Wictory Wednesdays, in which this blogger is a proud participant!

Lorie Byrd is from North Carolina and is a stay-at-home mother to 4-year-old and 8-year-old girls. She is also the wife of a former marine who served in the Gulf War, which gives her a unique perspective on defense and national security matters. Lorie's contributions to the blogosphere often include a wide mix of pop culture and politics and she is very gracious about linking to other bloggers, like myself. In fact, she is one of the folks whom I deem responsible for putting me on the map - thanks, Lorie! Lorie also has her own blog, Byrd Droppings, which I highly recommend.

D.J. Drummond hails from Houston, Texas and is a gifted writer with a knack for contributing detailed analyses of a variety of news-related events. He is also quite the history buff, which helps to hone his perspective. D.J.'s own blog, Stolen Thunder, is another blog well-worth a regular read.

Jayson Javitz is an attorney and investment manager from Sacramento, California, and a personal favorite of mine. He is often somewhat abrasive and loaded with sarcasm, much like myself. On top of it all, Jayson, who is nothing if not prolific, somehow manages to regularly update his own fabulous blog, Political Vice Squad, which is another daily must read!

UPDATE 5/5: Terrible news - If you want to check out Jayson's own blog, Political Vice Squad, you better hurry! The good news is, he is staying put at PoliPundit (thank God)!

Alexander K. McClure lives in Pennsylvania and is the poll-watcher and political race junkie of the group. Alex is in all his glory when election season heats up, but still pops in from time to time to whet our appetites with the latest polls and news of who is or isn't running for what office come the next round.

PoliPundit is a daily must read for me. If I can get on the Internet, it is usually my first stop. If you, like me, are a Conservative political junkie, I cannot recommend it highly enough! So what are you waiting for? Go check it out!

More bloglighting to come...

War on Terror Update: Don't Tell Anyone, But We're Winning!

The mainstream media and their good friends in the Democrat Party must be on the verge of tears today, as America received not one, but two items of great news in the War on Terror!

First, there is this story about the apparent poor state of morale of the Iraqi Terrorists, oops, I mean "insurgents." Who, by the way, are still beating us no matter what you read, damn it!

Then, there is this gem about the capture of another key al-Qaeda figure in Pakistan. Note the reference to the "deeply conservative" Pakistani province in the fifth paragraph. A not-so-subtle attempt to link American political conservatives to al-Qaeda militants, maybe? Cute, huh?

Woe is the media. But don't cry for them, they can still bury it somewhere near the obits or the cookie recipes. That way no one will notice we're winning! Ssssshhhh!

BTW: What's the over/under on any of the "Big 3" network newscasts leading with either one of these stories tonight? I'd put my money on Lynndie England as lead if I were a betting man!

Wictory Wednesday: April 27, 2005

Today, instead of money, the Wictory Wednesday bloggers are asking for your time and effort in lobbying the Senate to help end these ridiculous, unprecedented judicial filibusters holding our Federal Appellate Courts hostage to the whims of the minority party and their absurd far-left financiers!

You can find the necessary contact information for your Senators as well as any other Senators you feel it may be worthwhile to contact here.

Just remember, please, to be polite and courteous. It makes all of us, especially you, look a whole lot better and tends to elicit a more desirable response.

You may want to concentrate your effort on those GOP Senators who may be on the fence on this issue and need to be reminded by their constituents, election volunteers and donors what it is we expect in return for our money, our efforts on their behalf and our votes! (And that is, of course, representation for our views and loyalty to our party and our President on key issues such as this.)

Among the GOP Senators who could use your encouragement the most (BE NICE):

Sen. Lincoln Chafee, RI
Sen. Susan Collins, ME
Sen. Mike DeWine, OH
Sen. Chuck Hagel, NE
Sen. Gordon Smith, OR
Sen Olympia Snowe, ME
Sen. Arlen Specter, PA
Sen. John Sununu, NH
Sen. George Voinovich, OH
Sen. John Warner, VA

Please note that AZ Sen. John McCain is likely a lost cause on this issue, but you may still want to contact him with your opinion, particularly if you reside in Arizona!

It may also be worth your while to signal your support for John Bolton to be confirmed as U.N. Ambassador to Sen. Voinovich, Sen. Hagel & Sen. Chafee at the same time.

Contacting a reasonable Democrat or two or those Democrats representing red states may not hurt either:

Sen. Max Baucus, MT
Sen. Evan Bayh, IN
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, NM
Sen. Thomas Carper, DE
Sen. Kent Conrad, ND
Sen. Byron Dorgan, ND
Sen. Tim Johnson, SD
Sen. Mary Landrieu, LA
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, CT
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, AR
Sen. Ben Nelson, NE
Sen. Bill Nelson, FL
Sen. Mark Pryor, AR
Sen. Ken Salazar, CO

You can find all the latest on the confirmation battlefront at ConfirmThem.com.

***********************************************

Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He'll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He'll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.

Wictory Wednesday: April 13, 2005

Today we are proudly blogging in support of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or NRSC!

The 2006 mid-term elections present the GOP with a unique opportunity to gain an even stronger majority in the U.S. Senate, closing in on a filibuster-proof majority that will remove the last vestiges of power from a thoroughly unworthy version of the Democratic Party that has become a sad and sorry lapdog for the angry and coarse factions of the far-left, devoid of meaningful ideas and dedicated to nothing more than reflexive negativism and obstructionist tactics.

The seats that are up in this next election cycle are as follows:

Republicans (15):

AZ - Jon Kyl
IN - Richard Lugar
ME - Olympia Snowe
MS - Trent Lott
MO - James Talent
MT - Conrad Burns
NV - John Ensign
OH - Mike DeWine [May be vulnerable]
PA - Rick Santorum [Targeted by Democrats]
RI - Lincoln Chafee
TN - Bill Frist [*OPEN SEAT - Retiring]
TX - Kay Bailey Hutchinson [May run for Governor]
UT - Orrin Hatch
VA - George Allen
WY - Craig Thomas

Democrats (17):

CA - Dianne Feinstein
CT - Joseph Lieberman
DE - Thomas Carper
FL - Bill Nelson [May be vulnerable]
HI - Daniel Akaka [Turns 82 in 2006]
MD - Paul Sarbanes [*OPEN SEAT - Retiring]
MA - Ted Kennedy
MI - Debbie Stabenow [May be vulnerable]
MN - Mark Dayton [*OPEN SEAT - Retiring]
NE - Ben Nelson [May be vulnerable]
NJ - Jon Corzine [Running for Governor]
NM - Jeff Bingaman
NY - Hillary Clinton
ND - Kent Conrad [May be vulnerable]
WA - Maria Cantwell [May be vulnerable]
WV - Robert Byrd [Turns 89 in 2006]
WI - Herb Kohl

"Independent" [Caucuses with the Democrats] (1):

VT - Jim Jeffords

As you can see, Republicans have fewer seats to defend again this time around and tend to do better in mid-term elections than Democrats. The Democrats also have more Senators who would tend to be looked upon as vulnerable this cycle. We MUST take advantage of this unique opportunity to put an end to their stonewalling once and for all!

You can help by donating to the NRSC. Your contribution will benefit the GOP's efforts to take stronger control of the U.S. Senate and help put it to work for the American people, rather than leave it vulnerable to continued partisan bickering and unconstitutional filibustering of highly qualified judges who fail to pass the far-left's litmus tests!

And, as always, remember to vote - you CAN make a difference! In light of what we have seen in recent years, we must remember that the only good Senate Democrat is a FORMER Senate Democrat!

***********************************************

Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He'll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He'll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: Source Identified, GOP Senator Embarrassed, Implicated Staffer Resigns!

In case you have been living under a rock somewhere, let me begin with the main development of the past 24 hours: The "memo," it seems, was written by Brian Darling, a now former (thank God!) legal counsel to freshman Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez.

Before I go any further, I wish to take this opportunity to say several things on this matter:

First of all, I did not update this blog earlier because I simply have not had any time! I was not "hiding" from anyone or anything! Some of us have to work for a living, and not all of us have cushy jobs with free access to our blogs from work! I did not get home last night until around 10pm (CDT) after working a 9+ hour day. I usually hit the internet at night, but could not follow my routine because I had to be back at work by 9am, so I took a shower and went to bed early. I did not even find out about the update on the memo's true source until this morning as I hurried out the door to work after oversleeping and caught a discussion about it taking place on Laura Ingraham's radio show while commuting. I was due to get off at 5pm, but did not get out until after 7:30, nor home til sometime after 8pm and had not eaten since breakfast, so guess where my priorities were? Please forgive me for not blogging on this sooner, but my schedule simply did not permit otherwise! I have a life outside of the internet! You will notice, please, that I did not get to discuss the developments that occurred regarding this article in the Washington Times or any blogger comments about it in the interim, either. This post could probably say much more, but I keep getting interrupted and have to get to bed before too much longer as I work again at 9am. Real life, go figure!

Before I go any further, I would like to state, for the record, that the use of the word "fake" to describe the "memo" was incorrect. I wish to note, however, that this document was, as it is being described, in no way shape or form an official "GOP talking points memo" or any other sort of official communique! Still, any statements or implications previously printed by me alluding to the memo as a "fake" or a possible Democrat dirty trick, I now hereby retract in light of the recent facts in evidence. I apologize for any errors in judgment on my part and any distress that may have resulted from such errors. (There, was that so hard my little MSM friends?)

Next, Sen. Martinez ought to embarrassed and ashamed! Even if his claim that he did not read the memo is true, and, absent any evidence to the contrary, I will take his word for it that he did not, it remains that he should NEVER have handed any papers to anyone from the opposition party without full knowledge of the contents! To do so was foolish, reckless and borderline incompetent!

And furthermore, while some apologies are due, the revelations that have come to light STILL DO NOT EXONERATE THE WASHINGTON POST OR ABC NEWS ON A NUMBER OF ISSUES RELATED TO THIS MATTER!

But first, let's get up to date on the latest, shall we...

From the Mike Allen article in Thursday's Washington Post:

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.

Martinez... said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.

...In a statement issued last night, Martinez said that Harkin asked him for background information on the bill and that he gave him what he thought was a routine one-page staff memo on the legislation. "Unbeknownst to me, instead of my one page on the bill, I had given him a copy of the now infamous memo that at some point along the way came into my possession," the statement said.

...Martinez said Harkin called him about 5 p.m. yesterday and told him that the memo had come from his office. Martinez said he then called in his senior staff and said, "Something is wrong here." He said that Darling later confessed to John Little, Martinez's chief of staff, and that he said he did not think he had ever printed the memo.

"It was intended to be a working draft," Martinez said. "He doesn't really know how I got it."

Reached by telephone last night, Darling said it would not be appropriate for him to discuss the matter at this time.

Okay, that answers some of the questions raised, but not all!

Next stop Powerline, where both John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker and Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson have plenty to say on the matter. Scroll down to "Mystery Solved" where Hindrocket nails it:

Mike Allen, the Post's reporter, has previously said that the memo came from a Democratic Senator who said he got it from a Republican Senator. That is consistent with the current AP account. But the story that Allen wrote with a Post colleague on March 19 is not consistent with the current version of the facts. On March 19, Allen wrote:

Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters. The memo singled out Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record) (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year and is potentially vulnerable in a state President Bush won last year.

In fact, if the current AP account is correct, the amazingly inept "talking points memo," which got the number of the Senate bill wrong, misspelled Terri Schiavo's name, and contained a number of other typographical errors, did not come from "Republican officials" or "party leaders," but rather from an anonymous, unknown staffer. Senator Martinez himself--forget about members of his staff--is a freshman senator, in office for three months, not a "party leader" or "Republican officials." (The plural in the Post's original article is interesting.) Also, the reporting by ABC and the Post suggested that the memo was widely or universally distributed among Republican senators, while a survey reported by the Washington Tmes indicated that none of the 55 Republican senators had seen it. So, if the current AP story is correct, it confirms that ABC and the Post misreported the story--in the Post's case, in an article that was picked up by dozens of other newspapers off the paper's wire service.

The latest story also confirms how absurd it was for ABC, the Post, and other news outlets to label the anonymous memo a "GOP talking points memo." We have no idea who the unidentified Martinez staffer is, but he apparently was not authorized to speak for his boss, and most certainly was not empowered to speak for the leadership of the Republican party. We'll try to track him down and get his story, but in the meantime, this story serves as an object lesson in how the mainstream media can take a dopey, one-page memo by an unknown staffer and use it to discredit the entire Republican party.

(Emphasis added.)

In "Speaking For Me" Big Trunk points to a fine article by Mickey Kaus in Slate, entitled 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) The whole "memo" fuss, as played up by WaPo and ABC's Linda Douglass, was wildly overdone even if the memo was a GOP leadership document... But certainly whatever 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?)

(Emphasis by author.)

Lorie Byrd from PoliPundit has posted updates here and here.

Notice, please the infantile nature of many of the trolls on the second thread in particular. But they are mild compared to the foul garbage that beset Michelle Malkin! (Foul language alert!) As usual, she responds with class and dignity. More proof that many of the goons and loons on the left have absolutely ZERO CLASS! Are they entitled to a little gloating here? Why, yes, quite frankly, they are! Are they entitled to act like potty-mouthed pre-teens? Absolutely not! Keep it clean and civil, folks, otherwise you risk looking like the soreheads, cranks and nutjobs too many of you apparently are!

From Michelle Malkin's first Thursday post on the relevant subject, The Schiavo Memo and the Search for Answers, there is this:

For me, the salient questions always centered on what exactly ABC News and the Washington Post knew or didn't know before they hyped the GOP politicization angle in the midst of the wrenching Schiavo debate.

A related issue was ABC News' and the Post's mischaracterizations of their own reporting. ABC News insisted it never said the memo was distributed by Senate Republicans even though Kate Snow said just that. Allen repeatedly denied that he reported the memo was distributed by GOP "party leaders" even though a widely-published article carrying his byline said just that . After this blog and others pointed out the discrepancy, Allen himself requested that his initial claim be retracted .Post editors, however, concluded that a retraction was not warranted.

Well, now we know the truth. Thanks to the Associated Press, with the Washington Post bringing up the rear. And, gee, it only took 18 days to nail down a story that differs in key respects from what Snow and Allen reported on March 19 without adequate substantiation.

(Emphasis added.)

Ah, the pesky truth! The left just wants to gloat that many of us were convinced the memo was some sort of Democrat dirty trick, and got it wrong, while ignoring the fact that what we were really chasing all along was, in fact, accountability on the part of the mainstream press! Don't believe me? Go back and read, and don't just see what it is you want to see, read it all!

Michelle Malkin also has a second related Thursday post, The Schiavo Memo: GOP Cover-Ups? in which she asks tough questions about the false leads given to In the Agora's Joshua Claybourn about 2 weeks ago. But, I guess the left still thinks we're being unfair and are all strictly on a VRWC witch hunt here!

From Jim Geraghty at NRO/TKS:

To the credit of the Washington Post’s Mike Allen and the mainstream media reporters who insisted it was a GOP memo, the author was a Republican, Brian Darling, legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida. Darling has since resigned, according to the Washington Post. It does not appear to have been a Democratic dirty trick, as many bloggers speculated.

To the credit of the skeptical bloggers, to say that this memo was authored by ‘party leaders’ is stretching the term beyond recognition. And stating that it was distributed to all GOP senators sounds just wrong, it appears it was just given by Darling to Martinez.

In this blogging world, sometimes you’re going to find a superscript ‘th’. And sometimes you’re going to find a muddier situation, in which a foolish GOP staffer tried to play Karl Rove to the whole party without using spellcheck or checking bill numbers. But I think the bloggers did their job well in this one.

MORE:

Mick Wright at Fishkite: See here, here, here and here.

Joshua Claybourn at In the Agora: See here and here. (That last one is an apology to ABC News!)

RightPundit: See here, here and here.

Will Franklin at WILLisms.com: See here.

LaShawn Barber: See here.

Ankle Biting Pundits: See here.

ALSO:

The Washington Times: Martinez says his staffer produced Schiavo memo

There also appears to be a TON of great material at Ra^thergate.com, but I have already stayed up most of the night to write this update, so I bid you adieu! I must get at least SOME sleep and get back to the pain in the butt reality that is my life!

I may update this further later on if I can find the time...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: WaPo Admits Errors, Refuses to Print Correction!

Howard Kurtz's column in today's edition of the Washington Post, after fawning on and on over the retiring Ted Koppel, features this three paragraph update on the Schiavo Memo Scandal:

The flap about a Washington Post report on an unsigned strategy memo in the Terri Schiavo case, which the paper said was "distributed to Republican senators," isn't going away.

It turns out that The Post's news service put out an early version of the March 20 story -- published by numerous other papers -- that said the talking points, which touted the Schiavo case as a political opportunity, were "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders." GOP congressional leaders say they never saw the document, whose author remains unknown. Post reporter Mike Allen, who was unaware the news service had distributed the earlier version, said last week that the paper was careful not to say it was "a Republican memo."

Kate Carlisle, the news service's managing editor, says Allen's report was sent out at 9:07 the night before and "we weren't notified that changes had been made to the story after we got it." Despite criticism from bloggers, and Allen's request for a correction, Carlisle said no correction was warranted. Late Friday, the news service sent out an "advisory" saying: "The version of the article published by the paper did not specify the authorship and noted that the memo was unsigned. The authorship remains unknown." The advisory did not retract the assertion that "party leaders" had given out the memo.

(Emphasis added.)

Yes, you read that correctly! The Washington Post is now admitting that it put out a poorly worded and misleading story that was picked up all over the country by countless publications, broadcasters and other news services and was used repeatedly by Democrats and their allies to bash Republicans... but its own news service's Managing Editor is refusing to print a correction, despite the fact that a reporter whose name is attached to it as a co-author has requested that they do so! Un-be-liev-a-ble!!!

Kurtz also appeared on his weekly online Q&A session earlier today, and, unlike last week (when he dodged the issue entirely), actually took one whole question regarding the matter. He did not, however, say very much:

Ft. Belvior, Va.: Please address the discrepancy between the memo story that appeared in the print edition of the Post, and the version distributed through various wire services with the byline "The Washington Post" instead of a specific reporter. The wire service reports specifically claim the memo was distributed by Republican leaders, which differs significantly from what the Post printed. Thank you.

Howard Kurtz: I address this in my column today. The Washington Post's news service, which sent out an early version of the story, has now moved an advisory correcting some, but not all, of the Post reporters' story that appeared in a number of other newspapers but not in The Washington Post.

Later in the session, there is this interesting little exchange:

Washington, D.C.: I've heard the suggestion from some people that we ought to watch the newspapers very closely this week, as elected officials may try to release stories that they'd like to have buried by coverage of the Pope's death and the appoitment (sic) of a new pope.

How cynical is this? How likely?

Howard Kurtz: Hey, if I were about to plead guilty to something, I'd do it now.

Hmmmmmm......

Let us take you around the blogosphere for reaction.

First stop, Michelle Malkin, who has two posts on the subject so far today. In the first, she notes that at least one of the papers that ran with the WaPo's discredited version of the story, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had already printed a correction this morning:

A Washington Post article about congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo case published March 19 in the Post-Dispatch included a description of a memo asserting that the action could benefit Republicans politically. The article said the memo was "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders." A later version of the story did not specify the authorship. The authorship remains unknown.

In the second post, Malkin shares the Kurtz Post column and then opens up her blog for a short time to comments, a rare event (and one can certainly see why with plenty of off-topic meanderings by trolls quite evident throughout the thread).

Next, we check in at Power Line, where John "Hindrocket" Hinderaker writes in a post headlined The Post Explains, Sort of:

So what we and Michelle Malkin wrote last week has now been confirmed. But Ms. Carlisle's position makes no sense at all. How can a correction not be in order? The Post sent out a story that said, in part: "Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue"... The Post now admits that "the authorship [of the memo] remains unknown." So the original story was wrong, and a correction is necessary--not only by the Post, but by every newspaper that ran the incorrect story, and by the many columnists that picked up on the fake story and used it to beat up on the Senate Republicans.

One of Hinderaker's Power Line cohorts, Scott "The Big Trunk" Johnson, has a column out today in The Weekly Standard regarding both The Post's and ABC's handling of the memo flap (prior to today's events) that is well-worth reading.

Kevin P. Craver at Ra^thergate.com has two posts of his own today. The first, published before he had seen the latest Kurtz column, has this juicy little tidbit:

People are not making as big a deal over media errors post-Memogate because mistakes, bias and arrogance are exactly what they expect from the mainstream press. Getting it wrong and insisting repeatedly that it’s true fits the average American’s perception of the press like a glove.

(Emphasis by author.)

The second, which came after Kurtz's update, features this morsel of wisdom:

So it appears that pride trumps accuracy at the Post. We’re not asking for a full-page, front-page retraction. Is it really too much to ask for a tiny correction totaling two paragraphs to be nestled in small type in the paper’s corrections section?

Newspapers to this day wonder why people don’t call in anymore to point out errors. The staff of The New York Times wonders who no one bothered to call the newspaper regarding Jayson Blair’s many fabrications. The answer is simple, and now even louder and clearer thanks to Kurtz: What good does it do?

(Emphasis by author.)

Right Pundit checks in pre-Kurtz and post-Kurtz.

Fishkite's latest post is here.

***********************************
My earlier posts on this subject are located here:

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal Continues...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Dam Bursts!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Washington Post Gets Snared in a (World-Wide) Web of Lies!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Washington Post Gets Snared in a (World-Wide) Web of Lies!

NOTE: As of 4/4, new updates can now be found HERE.

***********************************
GOTCHA!

Michelle Malkin and John Hinderaker are on top of it again, as they and some other blogging sharpshooters catch the Washington Post red-handed in an apparent lie!

On Thursday, in a post labeled "Is the Post Ducking Responsibility?" (scroll down), Power Line's Hinderaker (aka Hindrocket) points out:

... Allen, like ABC News, took the position that it was all a misunderstanding: the Post had never meant to suggest that Republicans authored or distributed the memo, but only that some Republicans had received it. Allen told Kurtz:

"We simply reported that the sheet of paper was distributed to Republican senators and told our readers explicitly that the document was unsigned, making clear it was unofficial. We stuck to what we knew to be true and did not call them talking points or a Republican memo."

A-ha! Not so fast there, my slippery little MSM eel:

Earlier today, we noted that Michelle Malkin has identified a number of newspapers that ran the Washington Post's story on the memo, but in a version that (unlike the one that appeared in the Post itself) explicitly attributed the document to the party's leadership. The key line from these stories was, "The one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, called the debate over Schiavo legislation 'a great political issue' that would appeal to the party's base..."

Hmmm... Where could all those other newspapers have gotten that impression, pray-tell?

Michelle concluded that in all likelihood, the Post had published this version of the story on its wire service, but then revised the story to eliminate the claim that the memo was distributed by Republican leaders before the story ran in the Post the next morning (March 20).

Oh, and where is your proof, Ms. Malkin and Mr. Hinderaker?

This hypothesis seems pretty obviously correct. And it was apparently comfirmed when blogger Jack Risko found this archived version of the Post's article by Mike Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia, dated 10 p.m. on Saturday, March 19. It includes the discredited language: "A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters."

And, in an update later on in the post:

A reader points out that the Post's original story on the fake memo, which went out, apparently, on March 19, also included this paragraph:

Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

OUCH! Does the defense have anything to say before the blogosphere pronounces judgment? Maybe, maybe not, just don't expect an apology:

Both the Post and ABC now claim that they never meant to accuse the Republicans of authoring or distributing the notorious memo. But neither has printed a retraction, clarification or correction. The Post has done nothing to correct or retract the version of its story that apparently went out on the evening of March 19. And to our knowledge, not a single one of the dozens of newspapers and other news outlets that printed the false claim that the memo was circulated by the Republican leadership has retracted or corrected that defamatory claim.

[NOTE: Hinderaker also announced he was scheduled to appear Sunday on CNN's "Reliable Sources" with WaPo's Howard Kurtz to discuss the memo flap. Unfortunately, he later posted that he had been cancelled due to the network's anticipated wall-to-wall coverage of the impending death of Pope John Paul II]

Michelle Malkin has already posted two follow-ups to the article linked to above. In the first, entitled Will The Washington Post Please Respond? there is this:

I spoke with the Seattle Times' chief copy editor, Jim Mallery, yesterday. He confirmed that this article was excerpted directly from a Washington Post article distributed by the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service. The statement that the memo was "distributed to Republican senators by party leaders" was in the Post's story. It was not added by a Seattle Times copy editor...

...It's possible that a Post editor or someone at the Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Service added the phrase "by party leaders" after reporters Mike Allen and Manuel Roig-Franzia handed in their story. It's also possible that the phrase was included in the original copy submitted by Allen and Roig-Franzia. So far, Allen has not responded to an e-mail asking him to explain the discrepancy.

Michelle continues:

I suspect that no one at the Post or ABC News still believes the amateurish, unsigned, misspelled memo was circulated by Republican Party leaders. We may never know whether the memo was the handywork of a Republican staffer or a Democrat dirty trickster or an outside interloper, but clearly there is absolutely no evidence that this was a Karl Rove plot.

Nonetheless, the damage has been done. The memo has been cited hundreds of times to support the argument that Republicans' decision to intervene in the Schiavo case was politically motivated. And neither ABC News nor the Post has admitted any wrongdoing.

The Post can continue to mischaracterize its coverage. It can stonewall, perhaps hoping that its critics will get bored and give up. Or it can own up to its errors.

In her second follow-up, The Washington Post Screws Up Again, Michelle catches another Post big-shot, Chief Political Correspondent Terry Neal, fudging the facts in an online Q&A session!

Meanwhile, Mickey Kaus, a rare voice of sanity at the decidedly left-tilted Slate, comments on the matter (scroll down to "Who Is 'Mike Allen'?") [via Michelle Malkin]

So does TKS/NRO's Jim Geraghty.

Ra^thergate.com's Kevin P. Craver publishes an open letter to the Washington Post that begins:

Dear Mr. Allen, Mr. Getler and Mr. Kurtz:

For the record, I do not think that The Washington Post had the intentional goal of bamboozling the public with its coverage of the "talking points memo" that appears to be a fraud. Regardless, the Post is guilty of two cardinal journalistic sins, namely printing wrong information and not promptly correcting it. Both need to be addressed immediately.

It also includes this passage:

As a journalist and a blogger, I know that the media's job is to present the facts without fear or favor. The GOP has wrongly taken a public relations black eye for something that was not their doing, and the fault lies squarely with the Post and ABC News, which also has done nothing to retract GOP authorship of the memo.

And concludes with this warning:

If no correction is to be run, the blogosphere will do it for you, and the fragile credibility of the mainstream media will show yet another crack.

***********************************
4/2 UPDATE:

Ra^thergate.com checks in regarding the Terry Neal Q&A. An excerpt:

"If there is proof that the Republican leadership did NOT distribute this memo, then yes, Reuters should issue a correction. And yes, washingtonpost.com, I would think, would note in the corrections area that Reuters incorrectly reported that fact. But I still don’t think there’s proof that some in the GOP leadership did not pass the memo around." [Terry Neal]

Didn’t we hear this crap during Memogate? This kind of attitude makes good journalists throw up. So it’s up to the GOP to prove that they DIDN’T write and distribute this memo? So it’s up to anyone wronged by an MSM error to prove themselves innocent? In short, it’s up to the public to do for free what Washington Post journalists are paid to do?

Boy, I’d like to punch my old editors in the teeth right now. All these years, they had me do all this extra work to be able to back up my stories, when checking my facts was in reality the responsibility of the people and government officials I was writing about.

Meanwhile, both Michelle Malkin and Ra^thergate.com suggest we send along some more questions about the memo scandal for Howard Kurtz, for his next online Q&A, seeing as how he ducked them last week. Any bets as to whether or not he will take a few of them this time around?

***********************************
My earlier posts on this subject are located here:

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal Continues...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Dam Bursts!

In Memorium...

Let us pause for a moment to remember a great man, Pope John Paul II, who is, by all accounts, at death's door, and, of course, Terri Schiavo, who passed away on Thursday.

May God grant you peace in the next life and comfort all who mourn your loss in this world. Amen.

What a sad week this has been.

The Schiavo Memo Scandal: The Dam Bursts!

NOTE: As of 4/1, new updates can now be found HERE.

***********************************
Kurtz Responds, Bloggers React!

The Washington Post's own Howard Kurtz, who earlier this week refused to respond to numerous inquiries about his newspaper's role in the "GOP" Schiavo Talking Points Memo scandal during an on-line Q&A session, finally published an article addressing the matter Wednesday. Many of the bloggers leading the crusade for answers and accountability in the matter were less than impressed with his efforts. I urge you all to take a few moments now and read the article for yourself.

John Hinderaker responds at Powerline in a post labeled "Talking Points Story Goes up in Smoke." (Scroll down.)

The bottom line: both ABC News and the Washington Post are now disavowing any claim that the alleged "talking points memo" was authored by a Republican, let alone that it was some kind of official Republican strategy memo.

...Both on the web and on television, it was specifically described as a "GOP talking points memo." That characterization has been picked up and repeated by countless other news organizations and columnists, and ABC's belated recantation is highly unlikely to be similarly publicized.

NOTE: Hinderaker admits to an error on a minor detail of an earlier assertion in the post "Confusion and Its Sources."

Michelle Malkin is also unimpressed with WaPo's & ABC's excuses.

Bottom line: We still don't know who wrote the memo. We still don't know who distributed it. ABCNews.com still hasn't retracted its unsubstantiated characterization of the memo as "GOP Talking Points." ABC still has not acknowledged that Kate Snow misspoke. The Post still hasn't acknowledged that it wrongly implied that the memo was written and/or distributed by Republicans.

And all the other editorial writers, columnists, and pundits, from Chris Matthews to Cynthia Tucker to the Boston Globe editorial board, who stated explicitly that Republicans distributed the memo, still have not noted that the two news outlets that broke the story--ABC News and the Post--no longer say the memo was circulated by Republicans.

Accuracy in Media has issued a new press release calling Kurtz's article a "Whitewash."

In a case that is coming to resemble the CBS "Memogate" scandal, Kurtz mounts a defense by quoting Post reporter Mike Allen and various anonymous sources as now saying that the document was "unofficial" and "a sheet of paper" and that a Democratic Party Senate official even refused to "publicly" discuss its origin. "It looks more and more like the memo originated from the Democratic side of the aisle," said Kincaid. "The Post has been caught in a new 'Memogate' scandal and it refuses to admit or recognize it."

The Washington Post and other media outlets who reported on this bogus memo need to admit their error.

Then there's this from Ra^thergate.com:

Like I said ad nauseum during Memogate, there is no hard evidence that the memo is real, either. Given the media's job to report the facts, doesn't that by default make the memo fake until proven accurate?

An excellent point, indeed!

"Captain Ed" Morrissey weighs in at Captain's Quarters:

Howard Kurtz can talk about how "carefully worded" the reports were, but the fact is that they clearly meant to associate the memo -- the unprofessionally typed, factually deficient, and improperly formatted memo -- with the GOP. If they didn't, then Kurtz by implication must condemn the rest of the press corps for a type of functional illiteracy for not getting the nuance of their careful wording correct. And for all the care that Kurtz says the two media outlets put into the wording to avoid that characterization, he never asks about how the ABC headline got onto the story, nor does he mention any steps either organization have taken to correct the impression their articles have obviously left with fellow journalists in the Exempt Media.

The Anchoress has her own observations:

...Seems to me, this memo's origins need to be factually determined, and whoever wrote up the thing, no matter WHICH party that person belongs to, should face censure at the very least. Not even for the content as much as the damn sloppiness and the cowardly way it was put out there...

...Someone KNOWS where this thing came from. It's time to find out, once and for all.

As usual, here's the latest from Fishkite (along with a post you may have missed from yesterday), and In the Agora.

Meanwhile, In the Agora's Joshua Claybourn does a mea culpa over this report, in which he fell into the same trap as the MSM, publishing unsubstantiated allegations from unnamed sources regarding the origin of the memo.

I'm disturbed and upset, both with those who anonymously made the accusation and myself for posting it without more judicious restraint. Inevitably someone will accuse me of hypocrisy and that's a fair criticism. But I have retracted the sloppy reporting on my part and am willing to note the errors; that is much more than ABC or the Washington Post can say.

He ends with a clear challenge for the powers that be:

I publicly apologize for posting unfounded accusations, and I hope ABC News and the Washington Post follow my lead.

Michelle Malkin, who had criticized Claybourn's earlier post, responds.

LaShawn Barber also has some comments on the matter.

The memo story gets some play on Laura Ingraham's homepage after a John Hinderaker appearance Tuesday morning, which I, most regrettably, missed. [Does anyone happen to know where I can find and possibly link to a transcript?]

The Canonist Senate office roll call of who got the memo continues...

As of Tuesday, 3/29 at 11:00 AM: 19 offices deny receiving it, 0 acknowledge receiving it, 2 are unaware.

RightPundit deserves some recognition for his dogged pursuit of this story as well. He has numerous posts available. As they say, just keep scrolling!

Finally, on the lighter side, there's this gem from DUmmie FUnnies, a website which monitors, reposts and comments on the idiocy from some of the mentally ill conspiracy kooks who hang out at the Democratic Underground. Seems they have their own unique opinions about this memo matter, too!

***********************************
My earlier posts on this subject are located here:

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

The Schiavo Memo Scandal Continues...

The Schiavo Memo Scandal Continues...

NOTE: As of 3/30, new updates can now be found HERE.

***********************************
Happy (belated) Easter!

Weekend Wrapup:

John Hinderaker of Power Line, who, unsurprisingly, has been the lead hound on the trail of this story from the start, wrote this must-read article for the Daily Standard, which is the best summation of the incident that I have read to date. An excerpt:

To sum up, then: (1) The memo itself conveys no information about its source. (2) It is very poorly done, containing a number of typographical errors, failing to get the number of the Senate bill correct, and using points cribbed word-for-word from an advocacy group's website. (3) The politically controversial statements are out of place in a talking points memo, and seem, on the contrary, ideally framed to create talking points for the Democrats. (4) Somewhat bizarrely, after the contents of the memo had been reported, someone corrected those typographical errors--but only those errors that had been pointed out by ABC. (5) No one has reported seeing any Republican distributing the suspect memo; the only people confirmed to have passed out the memo were Democratic staffers.

A REASONABLE CONCLUSION would be that the "talking points memo" might be a fake, created by Democrats to cast aspersions on the motives of the Republican leadership. Every Republican who has been asked about the memo has denied knowing anything about it. Unless someone talks--at a minimum, identifying the Democratic aides who distributed the memo on March 17--we likely will never know who, exactly, created it.

But the fact that the memo is suspect (at best) has not prevented Democrats in the media from relying on it to attack congressional Republicans...

Michelle Malkin is troubled by the lack of attention this scandal is getting in the MSM, finding only two sources where the questions raised about the memo's authenticity have even been mentioned, while finding a number of examples of columnists still slamming the GOP for their "talking points!" Unreal! Meanwhile, Michelle reports that WaPo's Howie Kurtz will be participating in an on-line chat on Monday at 12:00pm EST. She has some interesting questions for him. As for me, I doubt he has the guts to even acknowledge them, or her! But maybe some of you would like to submit your own, just in case...

Cliff Kincaid has another excellent article available at Accuracy in Media. An excerpt:

Their obvious problem in this case is that too many journalists fell for it. If there were just one or two offenders, it would be relatively easy for the rest of the media to expose their transgressions and throw them over the side. An additional problem is that this controversy comes much too soon after the original CBS Memogate scandal. If they admit that this document is fake, it will mean that the major media didn't learn any lessons at all, and that the abysmal standards at CBS News are common in the journalism business.

There was some debate over the weekend about this post by Joshua Claybourn at In the Agora, in which he reported that some unnamed Republican staffers were pointing fingers at an aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), named Nathan Ackerman, as the possible source of the phony memo. Michelle Malkin took issue with the report, due, in part to the anonymous sources, but John Hinderaker came to Claybourn's defense [scroll down to the post labelled "Fishy and Fishier (and Update)"] on several other points.

[NOTE: Joshua Claybourn has since printed a retraction to his report HERE.]

Ra^thergate.com has, not surprisingly, been all over this story! I should have checked in on them earlier, but quite frankly (and sadly) didn't think of it until late Saturday night! Just keep scrolling, there's oodles of great material, including this:

Once again, the questions and concerns of the American people are being ignored by a media that apparently didn’t learn diddlysquat from Rathergate. Once again, the media closes is curtains and all but tells its consumers that the almighty press doesn’t have to answer to the commoners. And once again, their ratings and approval will slip further downward next year, and of course, they will wonder why. Well, no one ever accused the media of being intelligent.

and this:

In a nutshell, the MSM is asking us to believe the authenticity of a memo that:

1) Came with no cover sheet, letterhead or other identifier.
2) The MSM cannot trace.
3) Was riddled with spelling errors.
4) Contains “talking points” that any Republican Senator with half a brain would never say out loud.
5) Gets the number of the Schiavo bill wrong.
6) Was plagiarized, much of it word for word, from a conservative activist site.

The only “proof” that the MSM has, it cannot divulge. Mike Allen of The Washington Post sounds like nice enough of a guy, but he said he cannot divulge the anonymous sources that ensured that the memo is real. Likewise, ABC News has said that it has numerous asuch (sic) sources that all vouch for the memo’s authenticity.

Not good enough. Sorry, guys, as a journalist I understand the pickle you’re in, but this is not good enough. I don’t believe the memo is real, and I don’t believe any of you.

Curiously, however, I have found nothing yet on the matter from Brent Bozell & Co. over at Media Research Center. I e-mailed them about this several days ago, but received no response and have yet to see any mention of it on their site! Come on, guys... we're waiting!

Mick Wright at Fishkite remains on the case.

UPDATE: LaShawn Barber weighs in.

To be continued...

***********************************
3/28 ROUNDUP:

Uh-oh, it's getting awfully quiet out there! Are we just going to let the media and the Dems get away with this? Luckily, some of the leading figures in the hunt for the truth are still grinding away for answers.

John Hinderaker announces he will appear on Laura Ingraham's radio program around 9:15-9:20 CST on Tuesday Morning to discuss the latest memo flap.

Ra^thergate.com reports (as do Michelle Malkin & Joshua Claybourn) that Howie Kurtz failed to address a single question regarding the dubious Schiavo memo during his online chat today, despite receiving numerous queries. Why am I not the least bit surprised? Why fight the battle on a losing issue on which you haven't got a leg to stand when you can just hide from it and hope it goes away? Real class, Howie. Real class.

As usual, here are the latest posts from Joshua Claybourn and Mick Wright.

Steven I. Weiss of Canonist updates his list of GOP Senate offices responding to his inquiries about who received this "memo." 19 responses so far: 18 say no, 0 say yes, 1 is "unaware."

Don't give up the fight! Get the truth out!

***********************************
3/30 NEW UPDATES ARE NOW AVAILABLE HERE.

***********************************
My original post on this subject, covering 3/22-3/25, is located here:

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

I Suppose Karl Rove Wrote THIS, Too!

NOTE: As of 3/27, new updates can now be found HERE.

***********************************
As unbelievable as it may sound, it looks like it is happening AGAIN! A reader at Power Line has pointed out something that makes it plain as day that the "talking points memo" being referred to all over the MSM, especially at WaPo & ABC News, about the GOP using the Schiavo case to score political points is a FAKE!!!

Will they ever learn???

Okay, folks: Who wrote the memo? Who gave it to Mike Allen, the reporter from the Washington Post? Who slipped it to ABC News? Who, from either one of these "respected" news sources, vetted it? Why did no one check something as simple as the bill (S.529) it refers to being relevant to the memo's context? How DOES the MSM keep stepping in dog-doo like this? Will anyone actually admit an error this time, or are we in for more stonewalling and denial ala SEE-BS?

I'd love a few answers here, but I won't hold my breath!

UPDATE: More at GOP Bloggers.

UPDATE: Lorie Byrd weighs in at PoliPundit.

UPDATE: Article available at Mens' News Daily.

UPDATE: Power Line points to this excellent detailed timeline post at Fishkite.

***********************************
3/23: This story is breaking out!

UPDATE: Power Line has more.

[NOTE: Power Line's Permalinks bring up several days worth of posts, and you will need to scroll down to find the ones related to this story. The relevant posts are, in the order they first appeared: "Is This the Biggest Hoax Since the Sixty Minutes Story?" (3/21); "Show Us the Memo" & "So: Where Did It Come From?" (3/22); and the latest is "Show Us the Source" (3/23).]

UPDATE:Jim Geraghty of TKS at National Review Online is on it.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more!

UPDATE: Power Line now has a fifth post at the link above titled "A Fishy Story Gets Fishier." It includes this rather startling passage:

"That won't stop the Democrats from trying to make political hay out of it, however. The same left-wing site that published the memo now says:

Hoping to determine who distributed talking points to GOP senators on how they could capitalize on the Schiavo tragedy, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) will send a letter to the Rules Committee today calling for an investigation. Reports suggest the points could have been circulated on the Senate floor, violating Senate Rules....

Are the Democrats moving to capitalize on their own hoax?"

UPDATE: Joshua Claybourn at In the Agora has been doing excellent work on this subject as well!

UPDATE: Power Line is up with a sixth post (see above link): "'Talking Points' Story Imploding?" Which quotes a GOP Senate staffer extensively and casts a great deal more doubt on the authenticity of the memo. Is it time to coin a new name for this scandal yet?

UPDATE: More from Lorie at PoliPundit

***********************************
3/24: The pot is really starting to boil!

UPDATE: I really should have had this link here a long time ago, sorry... A scan of the document in question is available at The Raw Story.

[3/27 - NOTE: I failed to mention previously that the link posted above is to a left-wing blog site and that the copy of the memo posted there has been "cleaned up" (i.e. corrected for a number of grammar and spelling errors present in the original). Curious, don't you think?]

UPDATE: Seventh post now available at Power Line "ABC Checks Out."

UPDATE: Mick Wright at Fishkite has a new post available, too.

BREAKING NEWS - POTENTIAL BOMBSHELL: Must read article on the Schiavo memo scandal is up at The American Spectator!

Very quietly, Senate Republican leadership aides to both Sen. Rick Santorum and Sen. Mitch McConnell, as well as the Senate Republican Policy Committee, have been using the Senate recess break to reconstruct the purported distribution of a document that media outlets, including ABC News, the New York Times and a number of regional newspapers, identified as Senate "GOP talking points" on the Terri Schiavo fight that unfolded over the weekend...

...However, Republican leadership staffers now believe the document was generated out of the Democratic opposition research office set up recently by Sen. Harry Reid, and distributed to some Democratic Senate staffers claiming it was a GOP document, in the hope -- or more likely expectation -- that it would then be leaked by those Democrats to reporters. In fact, the New York Times stated that it was Democratic staffers who were distributing the "talking points" document.

This could be HUGE if it turns out to be accurate! Stay tuned...

UPDATE: Will Franklin at WILLisms.com checks in with an extensive composite of the story to date.

***********************************
3/24 - EVENING UPDATE:

Sorry all, I was away most of today.

Let's get you up to speed on the latest memo fiasco...

The story has now officially broken wide open!

I actually heard Rush Limbaugh mention the article in The American Spectator on his show. (I had a feeling he would, Rush loves the American Spectator!) Transcript here! Excerpt:

RUSH: Apparently the explanation is it was forged! The memo was made up by Democrat staffers. Even though it's forged it's probably still true so what difference does it make, just like Dan Rather's excuse for the Bill Burkett documents and so forth. You know, it is (Laughing.) You would think that after the CBS incident and somebody starts handing you documents that purport to be a talking points memo from Senate staffers, you would think to go ask the Republicans about it and check it out instead of just running with it given what all happened.

Pinch me! Michelle Malkin has a link to moi in her latest update! Thanks! I hope I can live up to all this added attention...

Meanwhile, only one new short post added to the pile so far today at Power Line. It is titled "Slow Learners." (Just scroll down to it.)

Ankle Biting Pundits held a Name That Scandal contest earlier today. Their winner? "Schiavo-quiddick!" Be sure to check out some of the other entries. My idea? WaPo/TaPo-gate. I know, not the greatest... that's why it lost!

Polls are still open, seemingly, at PoliPundit, where Lorie Byrd is also hosting a naming contest.

Ace of Spades has his own ideas for some new Republican Talking Points. (Raw language alert!) [Hat-tip to Lorie Byrd on this one.]

Humorist Scott Ott over at Scrappleface chimes in with GOP Memo: Schiavo Was Recruited to Win Pro-Life Vote. [Hat-tip to Razor at Bennelli Brothers.]

Joshua Claybourn of In the Agora was scheduled to be on Hugh Hewitt's radio show tonight. More later, if warranted.

John Hinderaker of Power Line appeared on Kudlow & Company on CNBC earlier today, along with Hugh Hewitt and InstaPundit's Glenn Reynolds, to discuss the Schiavo case. Radioblogger has the transcript. Here is the portion of the discussion relative to the memo matter:

LK: I don't want to lose this. I've got to get John Hinderaker in here, and then I'm going to come back to Hugh Hewitt on this. Obviously, we have time limits. But look, John Hinderaker, there's a political angle that kind of smells here. Was there a Democrat dirty tricks attempt to foray a memo that ABC and the Washington Post picked up? So called talking points that never existed?

JH: I think there may have been, Larry. There's a memo which was being touted as the GOP talking points memo, talking about the Schiavo case that ostensibly was distributed in the Senate last Thursday night. And it says things like the pro-life base will be excited by this, and this is a great political issue for us. And the Democrats have been touting this as showing that the Republicans are trying to politicize the Schiavo case. But we've been looking into this on Powerline, and there is no evidence that this memo came from the Republicans at all. There's no name on it. There's no letterhead. There's nothing to indicate a source. The New York Times has reported that Democratic aides were seen passing it out, claiming that it was a Republican memo, but there's no evidence of that.

LK: Does this have a Rathergate feel to it? Trying to smear George W. Bush with memos that never existed?

JH: I think to some degree, it does. I mean obviously we're not in the middle of a presidential campaign, but the memo on it's face, sort of like those Texas Air National Guard memos, doesn't make any sense. It's supposedly a talking points memo, and most of the body of the memo is literally cut and pasted from the website of the Traditional Values Coalition.

LK: Really.

JH: And it makes certain points on the substance on the issue of the Schiavo case. But then it adds, whoever did this memo added these political comments. Those don't make any sense as talking points. No Republicans are going to say those to a ...

LK: And I thought for a minute there we could actually have a clean discussion of religion and morality and life with them, but there we go. Little dirty tricks...

UPDATE: Just checked my e-mail. Steven I. Weiss of the blog Canonist has contacted the offices of all the Republican Senators asking if they had ever received the supposed GOP talking points memo in question and is posting any responses here as he receives them. As you can probably imagine, not one Senator has acknowledged receiving this "GOP memo," at least none of those that have responded thus far (11:33pm CST). Interesting...

UPDATE: Yikes! I've been so busy chasing this trail, I completely missed the fact that CJ, who, like me, frequents PoliPundit and Jayson Javitz's excellent blog Political Vice Squad, was also all over this one from the beginning at his blog VRWC #1 Member, which I have neglected to check for awhile! All apologies, CJ. Everyone else, please check out the relevant posts: here, here, here, here and here. [That last one includes an excerpt from a John Fund article at WSJ's Opinion Journal.]

Will stay on the trail. Next update is likely to be late tomorrow.

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3/25 ROUNDUP (I warned you this would be late):

Fred Barnes has the article of the day on the matter at The Weekly Standard.

Michelle Malkin has another must read today as she rips apart WaPo's smarmy Howie Kurtz, who tried to slam Power Line's John Hinderaker over the memo flap. Two more relative posts from Michelle are here and here.

Not surprisingly, the lastest from Power Line is entitled "Kurtz Swings, Misses." (Just press the link and scroll down.)

Accuracy in Media issues a must read press release. An excerpt:

"Shame on the media" for reporting the dubious memo, said Lafferty. "Unless they've got another source they haven't told us about, what they've reported is unquestioning acceptance of a piece of paper. As CBS learned recently, you cannot trust a piece of paper without verifying what's on it."

Amen to that!

H-Bomb at Ankle Biting Pundits finds a columnist from the Baltimore Sun still hammering the GOP for its agenda as exposed in the Schiavo Talking Points Memo. Huh??? The memo's a fake, you idiot! God, these people irk me! What next? Another diatribe on how the TANG Memos unearthed by Dan Ra^ther on 60 Minutes II prove Bush was AWOL??? While you're at it lady, how about an article on the Hitler Diaries? Sheeesh! What a maroon!

Joshua Claybourn's latest updates at In the Agora have moved to a new thread.

So have Mick Wright's at Fishkite.

More from Lorie Byrd with some great comments from PoliPundit readers (as usual).

On the lighter side, Ace of Spades completes his Top Ten Exposed "Republican Talking Points".

More to come...

SEE HERE

Wictory Wednesday: March 16, 2005

Today we are blogging in support of another fine U.S. Senate Candidate, Minnesota Congressman Mark Kennedy (RPI = 176).

Republicans have a unique opportunity to pick-up a Senate seat in Minnesota in 2006 with the retirement of sitting Democrat Senator Mark Dayton. Rep. Mark Kennedy has solid conservative credentials and his name recognition and experience as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives make him an excellent choice for the GOP nomination in this key swing state.

Please visit his online donor site and give whatever you can to help turn this tremendous opportunity into a Republican triumph!

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Today is Wictory Wednesday. Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you're a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He'll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He'll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.

Wictory Wednesday: March 9, 2005

Today we are blogging in support of Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (RPI = 164).

Senator Santorum is one of the most reliable and steadfast conservatives in the United States Senate, but his path to re-election could be a difficult one this time around due to the recent announcement that Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr., son of the popular former Governor, is running for the Democratic nomination and is very likely to get it. Early polling puts Casey ahead of Santorum and the Democrats are poised to make this race their biggest push to oust a sitting Republican in 2006!

Don't let Senator Santorum down! Please visit his online donor site and give whatever you can to help keep a good man in Washington!

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Today is Wictory Wednesday . Every Wednesday, hundreds of bloggers ask their readers to donate to an important Republican campaign.

If you’re a blogger, you can join Wictory Wednesdays by e-mailing PoliPundit at wictory@blogsforbush.com. He’ll add you to the Wictory Wednesday blogroll. He’ll also send you a reminder e-mail every Wednesday, explaining which candidate to support that day.