Martinez's office wrote Schiavo memo

After repeated attempts by Republicans to blame Democrats for the crass Schiavo memo -- the one that argued the GOP would reap great rewards by meddling in another family's business -- the real author has stepped forward.

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.

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."

As for the wingnutosphere?

Conservative Web logs have challenged the authenticity of the memo, in some cases likening it to the discredited documents about Bush's National Guard service that CBS News reported last fall.

Yeah, oops. The memo was real. Retractions and mea culpas to follow, right?