What Is Thy Bidding, My Master?

Howard Kurtz, Mouth of Sauron, strikes again:

Talking Points Fallout

Conservative critics had a fine time kicking around ABC's Linda Douglass and The Washington Post's Mike Allen for reporting on a mysterious strategy memo about the Terri Schiavo case that the reporters said was distributed to Republican senators.

Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes, after checking with the office of Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), said the stories were evidence of "crude liberal bias. . . . The offensive part -- it didn't come from Martinez -- left the strong impression that Republicans are callous and cynical in their attempt to save Schiavo's life."

But after The Post reported that a Martinez aide had fessed up as the author and resigned, reactions have been mixed. One critical blogger, Josh Claybourn, apologized to ABC News. Powerline blogger John Hinderaker says he "made a mistake" in concluding it was "an inauthentic document," but still quarrels with the two news organizations' descriptions: "The memo was not a 'GOP talking points memo' prepared by party leaders or distributed only to Republican senators." Barnes says he was "wrong about its origin" but that if a similar strategy memo from a Democratic aide had leaked, "it wouldn't have been paid any attention to by the media."

ABC spokesman Jeffrey Schneider says "we obviously took a lot of heat on this story from many quarters" and that the Martinez disclosure "vindicates Linda Douglass, who is an outstanding reporter who was dragged through the mud."

Of course, the American Spectator has the rest of the story, which the WashPo's "media critic" isn't very interested in:

The Prowler reported two weeks ago that Senate Republican leadership staffers had traced the memo to the opposition research office of Democratic Senate leaders Harry Reid, where they believed Democratic staffers had taken a set of talking points posted on the website of the Traditional Values Coalition and created the memo from those talking points. It appeared that the TVC had shaped those talking points from a March 8 press release from the office of Sen. Martinez.

Now, it appears the Martinez staffer used the March 8 press release (which remains posted on the Senator's website), as the basis for the talking points memo that Martinez handed off to Senator Harkin. Martinez claims he did so unaware of the political strategy in the memo, and because he'd been working with Harkin on saving Schiavo.

Harkin has been silent about his role in the "talking points memo" controversy, though a staffer in his Washington office late Friday denied that his boss could have been the source for the Washington Post and ABC News. "He hasn't said anything, but he wasn't working against Senator Martinez on this one. I can't believe he would leak the memo, particularly at the stage of the debate when he got the memo, which would have been before the floor vote."

He may not have leaked the memo, but he at least went to Sen. Harry Reid about it. According to a Reid leadership source, Harkin gave Reid a heads-up about the memo, telling him about the language, as well as the ham-handed language about how the Schiavo controversy could be a political boon to Republicans. It isn't clear that Harkin gave Reid a copy.

"Reid knew about the memo. He talked about its existence with staff," says the Democratic leadership staffer. "I don't know that he had a copy on March 18th, when this thing started erupting, but Reid was consulted about it."

Some Republicans now believe that it was Reid who tipped off the media about the memo's existence, and that the media went to Harkin and his staff. At one point, the Washington Post could not provide an original copy of the memo, perhaps because while it had been told about it, it had not yet received a copy.

While it is clear that the Martinez office was the source of the memo, questions remain. For example, Why, when it now is clear that the Washington Post and ABC News both got tipped to the memo by Democrats, did both initially report that the memo was being handed out by Republican leaders to Republicans?

"By now, the press ought to know that Reid will say just about anything to get what he wants, and Harkin is no better," says a Republican leadership staffer. "People forget that Harkin might have been right on Schiavo, but he is not above getting down in the trenches and playing dirty for his party."

The point is lost on "Hungry" Howie Kurtz, who sees his role more as the Baghdad Bob of the dying MSM propaganda machine.