Another Fake Memo?

The Powerline guys are trying to get to the bottom of whether a GOP talking points memo on the Terri Schiavo legislation in the Senate that was obtained anonymously by ABC News is a fake.

See the memo here.

Having worked on Capitol Hill twice, once for a Congressman and once for a Senator, my attention was drawn immediately to points three and four. In a nutshell, no Senator would approve of a memo as poorly written as one that includes in two sentences these phrases: "important moral issue", "important issue", "great political issue", "tough issue."

Unless an office gave a high school intern the task of drafting this memo, the lazy writing quoted above could not have been released with the go-ahead of any Senator. The repetition, with slight variations, of the same tired wording several times over in the course of two sentences gives weight to the argument that this document is not authentic. For any trained writer, "issue, issue, issue, issue" leaps from the page. In fact, I cringed the first time I read it. And remember that most lawmakers on the Hill are lawyers or business people who have made a living in writing-heavy professions.

It is certainly possible that a staffer drew up the memo and released it without official sanction. But it is unlikely that a highly trained LD or LA circulated a piece so lacking in command of the English language with the OK of his/her boss.