http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/doc-fix-tick-tock-where-did-the-memo-come-from.phpPolitical memos from Congressional Republicans and Democrats get obtained and posted by the press every single day, but a curious PDF file instructing "Democratic health and communications staff" to avoid discussing the details of the cost of health care reform rocked Washington today. Is it a fake? A mistake?
We still don't know who wrote the memo. But we know that a Republican lobbyist (and maybe more than one) sent it to several political reporters today. Based on numerous interviews with Congressional aides, the 2-page PDF, complete with a handwritten note identifying one bit as "important," starting hitting email inboxes around noon.
TPMDC dug deeper into the kerfuffle after Democrats accused Republicans of an elaborate plot to try and derail health care reform in the final hours before the expected vote Sunday in the House.
(snip)
That aide and several Democratic staffers told us that reporters who posted the memo did not call them to check its authenticity. It appears to have been posted in the noon hour at The Washington Times and on Andrew Breitbart's Big Government Website (time stamp is Pacific time), but the Politico item received the most play on the heavily trafficked Drudge site.
(end snip)
link to the memo:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/documents/2010/03/disputed-memo-purporting-to-be-dem-plan-for-medicare-change.php?page=1Rethuglicans and their lobby lackeys are asswipes. Their lies and obstructionism will never end.