Martinez says his staffer produced Schiavo memo

Sen. Mel Martinez said last night that his office was the source of the anonymous political talking-points memo on the Terri Schiavo situation and that he unwittingly passed the memo to Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat.

Mr. Harkin had told reporters earlier in the day that he got the memo on the Senate floor from Mr. Martinez, contradicting previous statements to The Washington Times by the Florida Republican’s office that neither the senator nor his staff had produced or distributed the memo.

Mr. Martinez said in a statement last night, after repeated inquiries by The Washington Times, 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. A Senate aide identified the staffer as Brian Darling, legal counsel for Mr. Martinez’s office.

Mr. Martinez said Mr. Harkin told him about the memo yesterday. The Republican 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.

“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 we aware of its existence until very recently. This is not a document that would have been approved in this office for circulation under any circumstances,” said the freshman senator and former secretary of housing and urban development.

Mr. Martinez and his office earlier had denied any involvement with the memo.

“Senator Martinez has never seen the memo and condemns its sentiments,” spokeswoman Kerry Feehery told The Washington Times on Friday, during a survey of all 100 senators or their offices to find out who had seen or produced the memo. “No one in our office has seen it, nor had anything to do with its creation.”

In the survey, every Republican said he or she had not seen or produced the memo. Only Mr. Harkin admitted to having seen the memo, though at the time his spokeswoman wouldn’t say who passed it on.

Asked yesterday, however, spokeswoman Allison Dobson told The Washington Times it was Mr. Martinez.

“Senator Harkin received it from Senator Martinez on the Senate floor,” she said, though she wouldn’t say anything more about the memo, including what Mr. Harkin did with it after he received it.

The document described the Schiavo situation, involving a brain-damaged Florida woman and the legal battle over her husband’s efforts to remove her feeding tube, as a “great political issue” and a “tough issue for Democrats.”

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