A Retraction, But Not An Answer

Joshua Claybourn at In The Agora posts that he has been unable to verify the information he received about the source of the Schiavo memo that surfaced during the Senate debate.  As a result he has retracted this post tying the memo to a Democratic staff member.

I discussed the memo, after reviewing John Hinderaker's Weekly Standard piece, noting:

Where do we stand at this point?  The memo is unlikely for the reasons he listed to have been written by any Republican staffer, unless that person were brutally stupid.  It remains to be seen where it actually came from[.]

And, in an update and in a comment discussion with a reader, I made the point that:

Is the memo, regardless of who produced it, something the Senate needs to investigate?  I think not.  The organizations that should be investigating, and called to account for their reporting, are those who attributed an unsigned memo of unverifiable provenance.

So we still don't know from where it came.  I'm not sure this political act, by one side or the other, rises to a level that requires a Senate investigation by either the full Senate or by a committee.  What rules were broken?  The media organizations who attributed the memo without evidence should be the ones tracking down the information, for reasons of their own credibility.

UPDATE: Captain Ed has a discussion of the both careful and careless wording of the Washington Post and ABC News as regards the memo.  Both insist they did not say the Republicans produced the memo, but ABC did headline the memo as "GOP talking points."

Michelle Malkin discusses the subject also, noting:

This is interesting, but it has absolutely no bearing on the two key questions at issue--namely, (1) who wrote the memo and (2) who distributed the memo to Republican senators.

Bottom line: We still don't know who wrote the memo. We still don't know who distributed it. ABCNews.com still hasn't retracted its unsubstantiated characterization of the memo as "GOP Talking Points." ABC still has not acknowledged that Kate Snow misspoke. The Post still hasn't acknowledged that it wrongly implied that the memo was written and/or distributed by Republicans.

Just as I said.

Comments

[Bonddad]

Is the memo something the Senate should investigate?

Yes. They are the only organization who has sufficient power to get witnesses and delve into the truth.

If the Senate can investigate steroids in baseball instead of

1.) The falling US dollar
2.) Administration payments to pundits for propoganda
3.) Rampant federal deficits

Then they can investigate the memo.

[Giacomo]

Okay, I'll try one more time.

Just exactly what violation of the law, or even of Senate rules, would that body be investigating?

A desire to know does not indicate that a Senate investigation is warranted.

And for the record, while steroid use is illegal and use of steroids violates federal law, I do not think it was appropriate for the Senate to hold such a preening and exhibitionistic show trial.