The right re-spins the Schiavo memo

This is just weird. For the last week (as I wrote this morning), right-wing pundits have been claiming that the Schiavo memo was a left-wing conspiracy. That was debunked when Senator Martinez' chief legal counsel admitted to writing the memo and resigned. Martinez handed the memo to Senator Bob Harkin, which is how it became public-- Harkin was justifiably horrified with the message that encouraged the GOP to use the Schiavo tragedy for political gain.

The right has already adopted a new strategy: poor Martinez was duped by an unscrupul0us "aide." Technically, his chief legal counsel is an aide, but hardly some over-eager young volunteer. This is someone with whom Martinez works really, really closely. The new story is that Martinez pulled several documents out of his pocket-- I've heard figures up to twelve-- and handed them to Harkin (i.e., it was just sitting there with everything else and Martinez didn't know it existed).

I've become aware of this because several right-wingers are calling Air America shows today to sell this new line. So when I posed the question this morning-- incompetent or liar-- it's taken mere hours for the righties to go on the initiative and claim incompetence. But they prefer to play the victim card and find a new way to claim conspiracy.

If I run across any intellectual honesty from the right on this issue, I'll be sure to post it. But all I'm seeing so far is the typical "my party right or wrong" stance that defines this party. Scary stuff, and it lets you know just how tough it's going to be to reclaim the nation.