Martinez says his staffer produced Schiavo memo

THE WASHINGTON TIMES ^ | April 6, 2005 | Brian DeBose and Stephen Dinan

[neverdem]

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The Washington Timeswww.washingtontimes.com

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Martinez says his staffer produced Schiavo memo

By Brian DeBose and Stephen Dinan
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published April 6, 2005

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Sen. Mel Martinez said tonight that he passed the anonymous political talking-points memo on the Terri Schiavo situation to Sen. Tom Harkin, doing so after Mr. Harkin had told reporters earlier in the day that his Florida colleague was the source of the memo.

    Mr. Martinez, a Republican, said that unbeknownst to him, one of his staffers had produced the memo and it came into his possession. He said the staff member, whom he did not name, has resigned.

    He said though, in response to repeated inquiries by The Washington Times, that he did not know he even had the memo or had passed it on until Mr. Harkin told him about it today. Mr. Martinez said he had meant to give Mr. Harkin a document describing Mr. Martinez's bill to prolong Mrs. Schiavo's life while federal courts reviewed her situation.

    "Until this afternoon, I had never seen it and had no idea a copy of it had ever been in my possession. I have vehemently denied the memo and its sentiments, as has my staff," he said in a statement released tonight.

    "As I have stated numerous times, I vehemently condemn this memo's sentiments. This memo in no way reflected my motivations for being involved in this legislation whatsoever," Mr. Martinez said.

    He said an internal office investigation determined that "a senior member of my staff was unilaterally responsible for this document."

    "It was not approved by me or any other member of my staff, nor were...

[Randy Papadoo]

Bet your hiney, he does! Dumping an aide is almost always a CYA move. Those guys/girls don't do things like that without being asked to.

[beyond the sea]

sometimes I wonder is some of them aren't plants

You would hope so, but not this one, I don't think. Just a real stupid human. Even if you have crass political thoughts like that, you don't write it down in a memo.

[beyond the sea]

offing a young woman at Chappaquidick

Chappaquiddick ........ for future reference.

;-)

[maica]

Even if you have crass political thoughts like that, you don't write it down in a memo.
^^^^^^


And if you have a paper with those crass political thoughts on it you do not hand it to a member of the opposition [Harkin] who apparently is slightly sympathetic to your view on the issue.

That is why I believe that Martinez had not actually read the paper he handed to Harkin. However, Harkin is the person who called the Post and ABC!

[bilhosty]

This is the difference between Them and us. when we make a mistake we own up to it. they just keep on lying

[steve-b]

Oh, well, so much for the "forgery" story.

[Joe Brower]

Florida Freeper

I'm compiling a list of FReepers interested in Florida-related topics.
If you want to be added, please FReepMail me.

[Rakkasan1]

I'm shocked-politicians playing politics.

[floriduh voter]

the jr senator from florida is learning. I can't believe Our Federal Govt. let renegade judges ignore orders from Congress & the Prez. Now there's a murdered woman. Never should have happened.

PHONE NUMBER FOR CONGRESS including Martinez number for 2 days only:1-866-808-0065 to ask for the end of dem filibustering of judges nominated by Prez. Bush.

[potato]

As I remember it, the Dem judiciary memos were illicitly read. That is wrong, and someone SHOULD have been taken to the woodshed over it.

And yes, the memos showed a terrible truth: while our country is in trouble, ALL of Washington is focused on partisanship. One day we're going to regret these times.

[beyond the sea]

That is why I believe that Martinez had not actually read the paper he handed to Harkin.

I guess he didn't. That would have made him one stupid man, handing it to Harkin.

[maica]

As I remember it, the Dem judiciary memos were illicitly read.

^^^^

As I remember it, the Judiciary committee shared computers and the passwords were not changed when the Rs took control of the committee from the Ds.

An R staffer found the memos by a simple click! Nothing illicit about it.
But you would have a hard time hearing that from any MSM report.

[passionfruit]

How were they illicitly read?

[potato]

According to Senate Sergeant at Arms William Pickle's final report, some folders were not sufficiently protected on the servers used by the Judiciary commitee.

I think the statement that they were accessed by a "simple click" is a little too kind.

from the report:
"The clerk first became aware that he could access the files of Democratic staff some time in October or November of 2001. He made this discovery after watching the Committee's Systems Administrator perform some work on his computer. An admittedly curious person, the clerk attempted to duplicate what the System Administrator had done. In so doing, he was able to observe all of the network's other users' home directories."

Documents were passed around, and though some of the recipients testified that they shredded the docs and admonished the clerk, no one did anything to help fix the problem or bring it to anyone's attention.

About 4600 were downloaded over 18 months, some were leaked.

the full report is at:
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/senate/pickle30404rpt1.html