More Schiavo Shenanegans
Raw Story reports that, astonishingly, more people were involved in the writing and circulation of the Schiavo talking points memo than the one lone sacrificial lamb already offered up. At this point it's worth revisiting Sen. Martinez's hometown newspaper's comments, upon his ascendance to Congress last year:
When challenged, Martinez was too eager to assign blame to his staff or to groups he said he couldn't control. As a senator, he will need an office and a staff that speaks with the measured and centrist tone he says will be his own. He can't pretend to be above it all if the people he employs are not.
Meanwhile, Edwin Buckham, former chief of staff to Tom DeLay and head of Mr 'Taking One For The Team' Darling's former employer, reassures us in the April 8 issue of The Washington Post that "He is still going to have a bright future in this town."
I don't doubt it.
When challenged, Martinez was too eager to assign blame to his staff or to groups he said he couldn't control. As a senator, he will need an office and a staff that speaks with the measured and centrist tone he says will be his own. He can't pretend to be above it all if the people he employs are not.
Meanwhile, Edwin Buckham, former chief of staff to Tom DeLay and head of Mr 'Taking One For The Team' Darling's former employer, reassures us in the April 8 issue of The Washington Post that "He is still going to have a bright future in this town."
I don't doubt it.
posted by Management at 11:02 AM
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MARTINEZ'S STAFF 'TICKED'
More are believed involved in writing Schiavo talking points memo
RAW STORY
The decision by Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) not to overhaul his staff in the wake of the now-infamous Terri Schiavo talking points—which urged Republicans to take advantage of the tragedy for political gain—has raised ire among the senator's own supporters, RAW STORY has learned.
In a piece set to splash Monday, Roll Call's Mary Ann Akers will reveal that at least two other staffers were believed to have helped draft the talking points the senator passed out on the Senate floor.
A source says "that he knows 'for certain' that two other senior Martinez staffers helped Darling write the memo and circulate it to other Republican Senators," Akers reports.
“Those three were really working it,” the disgruntled source quipped.
Martinez does not plan to make changes to his staff.
"Sources say the Senator does not plan to make any more staff changes beyond that of Martinez’s counsel, Brian Darling, who left the office," Akers pens in Monday's editions. "Darling belatedly admitted circulating a memo that urged Republicans to get involved in the Terri Schiavo case, in part because it could yield political benefits."
Martinez's press secretary insists that the memo was written “unilaterally” by one aide, Akers says.
"A Republican source close to the situation," Akers adds, "said the claim is 'preposterous.'"
Martinez has taken flak in the Florida press for passing the memo off on a single aide.
"Even the Senator’s biggest media defender, Orlando Sentinel columnist Myriam Marquez, wrote that Martinez needs to take responsibility for his staff’s actions," Akers writes. "'If Martinez didn’t know what his lawyer was up to, then the question begs: Who’s really running things?' she wrote."
The real Mel Martinez
A Times Editorial
Published November 4, 2004
The Mel Martinez who ran Orange County government is known for having started after-school programs, fought irresponsible real estate development and courted those with different political views. As the new junior senator from one of the nation's most politically divided states, Martinez will find that such pragmatism will serve him well in Washington.
The retiring senator he replaces, Bob Graham, was an institution in Florida politics in part because he was viewed less as an advocate for partisan ideas than as champion for Florida people. As Graham's successor, Martinez brings his own distinct connection to people who would feel disenfranchised by their government or their communities. His most compelling campaign story was in fact his own life, the oft-repeated tale about how he fled Fidel Castro's Cuba through a Catholic-sponsored program called Pedro Pan and landed in America as a 15-year-old with no family and no English. He will be the Senate's first Cuban-American.
On Wednesday, as his Democratic opponent Betty Castor conceded in a race decided by roughly 75,000 out of 7-million votes cast, Martinez reached out to her supporters. Castor herself showed a familiar dignity in defeat, saying she had little interest in the legal combat that has come to be associated with close elections. But Martinez will need more than a gesture to separate his office from the ugliness and excesses of his campaign.
Long after leaving Republicans embittered by his appeals to bigotry and his vulgar attacks on former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, Martinez used his general election campaign to tar Castor, a distinguished former legislator and education leader, as a terrorist sympathizer.
When challenged, Martinez was too eager to assign blame to his staff or to groups he said he couldn't control. As a senator, he will need an office and a staff that speaks with the measured and centrist tone he says will be his own. He can't pretend to be above it all if the people he employs are not.
"A lot of people who knew Mel are wondering if he's been taken over by Washington operatives, or if we just didn't know him in the first place," former Orange County chairman Linda Chapin told a reporter recently. "Because issues like honor and integrity were always important to the Mel that we knew."
In his victory speech, Martinez said that "bringing people together is my nature." He now has the duty as U.S. senator to prove it.
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