From the Washington Post (not on their Web site yet)
WASHINGTON - The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., admitted Wednesday 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 Wednesday night.
Finally. The speculation -- including that it was a fake -- was getting to be a headache. UPDATE: link is now up: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32554-2005Apr6.html
Author of Schiavo Memo Steps Forward .....By Mike Allen, The Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., admitted Wednesday 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 Wednesday 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.
Martinez 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, a freshman who was secretary of Housing and Urban Development for most of President Bush's first term, 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, other Senate aides gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.
Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore Schiavo's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points - something that we're working on here," Harkin said.
The mystery of the memo's origin had roiled the Capitol, with Republicans accusing Democrats of concocting the document as a dirty trick, and Democrats accusing Republicans of trying to duck responsibility for exploiting the dying days of a brain-damaged woman.
...