The Washington Post is reporting that the legal counsel for Florida Senator Mel Martinez has admitted to writing the infamous Schiavo memo.  The counsel, Brian Darling, resigned from Martinez's office, which he accepted.

At least that brings a much needed answer as to where the memo came from and who wrote it.  However, another question pops up, as the Post explains how it got into Democratic hands:

Martinez, a freshman who was secretary of housing and urban development for most of President Bush's first term, said he had not read the one-page memo. He said he inadvertently passed it to Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), who had worked with him on the issue. After that, officials gave the memo to reporters for ABC News and The Washington Post.

Harkin said in an interview that Martinez handed him the memo on the Senate floor, in hopes of gaining his support for the bill giving federal courts jurisdiction in the Florida case in an effort to restore the brain-damaged Florida woman's feeding tube. "He said these were talking points -- something that we're working on here," Harkin said.

Mike Allen, the Post's reporter, has previously said that the memo came from a Democratic Senator who said he got it from a Republican Senator. That is consistent with the current AP account. But the story that Allen wrote with a Post colleague on March 19 is not consistent with the current version of the facts. On March 19, Allen wrote:

Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe the Schiavo case "is a great political issue" that could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006.

A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, said the debate over Schiavo would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters. The memo singled out Sen. Bill Nelson (news, bio, voting record) (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year and is potentially vulnerable in a state President Bush won last year.

In fact, if the current AP account is correct, the amazingly inept "talking points memo," which got the number of the Senate bill wrong, misspelled Terri Schiavo's name, and contained a number of other typographical errors, did not come from "Republican officials" or "party leaders," but rather from an anonymous, unknown staffer. Senator Martinez himself--forget about members of his staff--is a freshman senator, in office for three months, not a "party leader" or "Republican officials." (The plural in the Post's original article is interesting.) Also, the reporting by ABC and the Post suggested that the memo was widely or universally distributed among Republican senators, while a survey reported by the Washington Tmes indicated that none of the 55 Republican senators had seen it. So, if the current AP story is correct, it confirms that ABC and the Post mis-reported the story--in the Post's case, in an article that was picked up by dozens of other newspapers off the paper's wire service.

"What's this?"

"A memo by those dirty Republicans."

"Who's is it?"

"We don't know...but it's been passed around the whole Senate floor by those guys."

"Well...it looks like I have a story to write."

From: "Mike Allen"
To: "Michelle Malkin"
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 1:37 PM
Subject: WP request

Howdy--I'm doing an article for tomorrow about what senators are saying about the Schiavo memo--I'd love to include your comments--I'd be interested in how you took an interest in this, where you think the memo originated, why you think it came from Democrats, etc.--We remain anxious to pin down the author and if you have clues, I'd love to pursue them--Appreciatively, Mike

After I blogged my criticism of Claybourn, he quickly and contritely retracted the post--unlike ABC News or the Post.