More On the Schiavo Memo

The Schiavo memo mess continues. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, start by reading this piece from last week. Now, we have some more in-depth reporting, courtesy of the Washington Times. Check out this revelation...

All 55 Republican senators say they have never seen the Terri Schiavo political talking-points memo that Democrats say was circulated among Republicans during the floor debate over whether the federal government should intervene to prolong her life.

A survey by The Washington Times found that every Republican said the memo was not crafted or distributed by him or her. Every one of them said he or she had not seen it until the memo was the subject of speculation in major news organs, particularly ABC News and The Washington Post.

Democrats said Republicans distributed the memo, and one Democratic official told The Post that a Republican senator gave it to a Democratic senator.

The Times surveyed all 44 Democrats and the chamber's one independent, and only one of them, Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, said through a spokeswoman that he saw it circulated on the Senate floor.

"He said that the memo was being circulated by Republican members on Thursday before we went out of session, and that is when he saw it," said his spokeswoman, Allison Dobson.

Two Democratic offices refused to respond — Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat — the latter even as he continued to accuse Republicans of being behind it.

"We will not participate in the survey. News outlets have investigated and authenticated the memo was real and came from Republican sources. We have no further comment," said spokeswoman Tessa Hafen. "If you want more information on the memo, you should work on finding the Republican who wrote it."

She did not respond to a request to name the newspaper or network that had "authenticated" the memorandum.

Well, that's because Dan Rather's document examiners must be on spring break.

Seriously, I'm not sure what Reid is thinking. The Dems can't trace this to any particular member of the GOP. Even Harkin's claim is undercut by the fact that he didn't name any specific Republican who was supposedly circulating the memo. Greyhawk at Mudville Times makes an important point when he notes that the left-wing dishrag previously noted that Democratic aides actually passed around the "unsigned memorandum" and claimed it was from the GOP.

So who did draft the memorandum? Was it a Democrat? And when we figure it out, will the Post place the story on its front page? I don't know the answer to the first question, but the answers to the last two are beginning to look like "Yes" and "No."