Freepers trying to cook up an "ABC talking points memo was fake" story

[jefferson_dem]

You just gotta LOL!!! PURE D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N...as their disgusting house of cards crumbles... :nuke:

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ABC News, the original source of the story on the alleged "GOP talking points" memo now appears to be backing off the story. Blogger Josh Clayborn has been talking to ABC representatives, both on and off the record, and they are now telling him that they never meant to imply that the "talking points" memo originated with the Republicans--only that it was given to some Republican Senators. See his most recent posts at In the Agora.

ABC's current position, as reported by Josh, makes little sense, as their coverage certainly did say that this was a Republican memo. (ABC's website described the memo as containing "GOP talking points.") But the fact that they are now backing off suggests that in reality, they have no idea where the memo came from.

Doubts are starting to appear in other quarters, as well. Just a little while ago, the memo's authenticity was discussed on MSNBC; the fact that bloggers have questioned the memo's provenance was discussed, and at least one guest expressed the opinion that the memo is a Democratic dirty trick.

Finally, we got this email from a staffer for a conservative Republican Senator:

Regarding this phantom “strategy memo” about Terri Schiavo, I can say with almost complete certainty that this memo did not get passed out by Republicans. For starters, nobody up here who knows anything about the Senate refers to last week’s activities as “the Budget Act” (bullet point #2). We didn’t work on the Budget Act last week; we worked on the budget resolution. It may sound like a silly, semantic point to make, but that statement in particular jumped out at me.

Next, there was absolutely no need to take action “before the Budget Act” was pending business. Action could be taken at any time to vote on the Schiavo resolution. In fact, Senators Reid and Frist tried to do exactly that, but were blocked in their request for unanimous consent by Sen. Wyden. On this same note, the budget resolution was “pending business” all week! Debate and votes on the budget resolution began Monday, March 14. Why would we pass out a memo instructing Senators to do something BEFORE the budget resolution was being debated in the middle of debate over the budget resolution? That would be like passing out a memo during the 7th inning of a baseball game instructing us to take batting practice or stretch before the game started. It makes no sense.

I was on and off the Senate floor all throughout the week, including during the Thursday night vote-a-rama. The only piece of literature that I saw being distributed was a simple list of amendments that were being voted on, and it had the Majority Whip’s name on it. No talking points, no summaries – just a simple card with a list of stacked amendments. My boss never received this alleged Schiavo memo. And trust me, given the ideological leaning of my boss, if anybody were to see this memo, it would be him.

I have not talked to any GOP staffers up here who have seen this phantom memo. Nobody I know received any e-mails containing anything even remotely close to this memo. Granted, nothing I have offered is conclusive, but this whole issue really stinks of fraud.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1369255/posts

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Goebbels, JR at "powerline" is the one propagating the nonsense -http://powerlineblog.com/

[deadparrot]

1. LMAO.

Please...this REEKS of Republican bullshit.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. it worked with Rather so don't think it will not

this sounds like a Rove counter attack... it is called building distance

[Stephanie]

3. So why were they using the Ted Bundy angle?

I heard someone use that on radio yesterday, I think it was. Would have been on NPR. I remember because it was so ridiculous.

[Orangepeel]

4. they used that one already ...

ALTHOUGH, I remember what this site looked like when some freeper posted that the CBS memos were forged. Everybody laughed at how ridiculous it would be if the memos, the authenticity of which had not been disputed by the White House, weren't real.

Next thing you know, the story was all over the MSM and Dan Rather was resigning.

They are very good at this and shouldn't be written off as silly or else pretty soon, everyone will think it is true.

[Gothmog]

5. Were the tapes of Tom Delay fakes also

I just heard this claim. Were the tapes of Tom Delay discusinng how Terri Schiavo was a G-D send fakes also?

[Al-CIAda]

6. And the DeLay & Frist audio tapes are phony...and OJ didn't wear

Bruno Malies