“GOP Talking Points Memo” on Mrs. Schiavo’s Tragedy

The night that elected Republicans decided to intervene in the PRIVATE/PERSONAL matter of Mrs. Schiavo’s end-of-life decision, Republicans distributed a talking points memo citing the political advantages that Mrs. Schiavo’s tragedy presented for the Republican party’s efforts to mobilize their fundamentalists base:

Of course, considering the tragic magnitude of the situation and the equally momentous miscalculation by Congressional Republicans, including President Bush, in choosing to intervene in the private family matter, their blatant political pandering backfired. Accordingly, Republican supporters immediately moved to question the authenticity of the “GOP talking points memo” on the Schiavo tragedy. As always, Republicans were successful in getting some mainstream media shills to go along with the Republican assertion that the memo was a fake. Now, however, the author of the memo has stepped forward and, surprise, surprise: the memo was written by a Republican lawyer working out of Senator Mel Martinez’s (Republican - Fla.) office.

The Washington Post has the story:

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. [Article - Thursday, April 7, 2005]

For more on the “GOP talking points memo,” which Republican’s circulated hoping exploit the Schiavo tragedy, see Jerome Armstrong’s post on MyDD.