Stupid Stupid Party Tricks and the Lies of the MSM.

So the suspected bogus "talking points memo" that was being promoted by the MSM as coming from Stupid Party High Command about how to exploit the Terri Schiavo mess turns out to be REAL, having been written by Sen. Mel Martinez's legal counsel, Brian Darling, who has resigned and should be horsewhipped and left in stocks in the town square as an example.

The Kerry Spot on National Review Online has good observations:

In this blogging world, sometimes you’re going to find a superscript ‘th’. And sometimes you’re going to find a muddier situation, in which a foolish GOP staffer tried to play Karl Rove to the whole party without using spellcheck or checking bill numbers. But I think the bloggers did their job well in this one. Mickey Kaus nails it:

Certainly whatever legitimate valence Allen's 'memo' story had depended almost entirely on the impression that the memo revealed and represented the strategy of the GOP leaders who pushed the Schiavo bill. If all that was involved was a staff memo Martinez gave to Harkin, Allen's story was way out of whack. The memo wasn't close to being worth the play it got in WaPo or in Douglass' report.

Also note that Kaus ate his Wheaties this morning and is blogging up a storm. Check out his sharp assessment of the structure of the Democratic Party, in response to Bill Bradley’s op-ed:

Bradley wants the Democrats to emulate Republicans and generate ideas from a stable, pyramid-like institutional base — with "Democratic policy organizations" engaged in the "patient, long term development of new ideas or of new ways to sell old ideas." Just plug in a candidate at the top of this institutional pyramid and ... victory!

The problem, of course, is that the Democratic party's most stable institutional elements are also its most problematic elements: 1) unions; 2) the civil rights and Latino lobbies; 3) the senior lobby (AARP); 4) institutional feminists (NOW); 5) trial lawyers; 6) Iowa-caucus style "progressives;" and 7) Hollywood emoters. If a national problem could be solved without trampling on the interests of this institutional base, Democrats would have solved it in the decades when they were in power. What's left are the problems that can't be solved — even solved in accordance with liberal principles — without trampling on these liberal interest groups: competitiveness, for example, or public education, or entitlement reform. If the Dems' permanent institutional base is what gets to "develop" and "hone" the ideas to be adopted by the party's presidential nominee, then the Democrats will in perpetuity be the party of union work rules, lousy teachers, mediocre schools, protectionism, racial preferences, unafforadable entitlements, amnesty for illegals and offensive rap lyrics! That winning collection gets you, what, 35%?

The MSM, so desperate to get back at those hated Stupid Party people, still overplayed their hands, but what's new?

Be sure to check out Power Line's coverage, as well as this post by Michelle Malkin and this post which showcases the typical misogyny of liberals. They really, REALLY hate women, but as long as abortion is available, a lot of women seem to be cool with the abuse.