The gang that couldn’t talk straight

Trunk and Rocket Man have already commented on the Washington Times piece regarding the questionable, if not fake, Terri Schiavo memo. I’d like to make one additional point. The Times story demonstrates the problem aides to top Democratic Senators are having getting the facts of the matter straight. Tessa Haffen, a spokesperson for Minority Leader Reid, told the Times that “news outlets have investigated and authenticated the memo was real and came from Republican sources.” But no newspaper or network has “authenticated” the memo; indeed ABC News and the Washington Post, the organizations that broke the story, have backed away from initial claims that the memo came from Republicans. Meanwhile, Joe Shoemaker, a spokesman for Minority Whip Durbin, reportedly said several times that Senator Durbin saw the memo on the Senate floor. But Durbin is quoted as saying, “No, I did not see it. I heard about it reported on the news.”
Some already suspect that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick. The inability of Democratic staffers to speak accurately about the matter does nothing to dispel that suspicion.
UPDATE: The latest twist in this story, as reported by the Washington Post, establishes that the memo was not a Democratic dirty trick. It also establishes Tessa Haffen’s claim that the memo came from a Republican source (a member of Mel Martinez’s staff). Hindrocket has more on these developments, and the accuracy (and lack thereof) of the initial MSM reports about the memo, here.

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