Turns out that a staffer to Florida Senator Mel Martinez wrote the infamous memo claiming that the Terri Schiavo matter a "great political issue for Republicans."

No one wants to kick a fellow when he's down. But what was this guy thinking? He reminds me of some of the staffers I knew on the Hill -- someone who wants to be a "wheeler dealer" so much that he loses the "forest" of what he's fighting for in the "trees" of supposedly "insider," too-clever-by-half maneuvering.

Color me wrong: I really thought that someone on the Dem side had created this -- especially when it came out that the bill number was wrong, that Terri Schiavo's name was misspelled, and that some of the language was lifted from a "religious right" website.

Color The Washington Post lucky: Mike Allen and the rest, it appears, didn't fall for a ruse. But it should certainly be an occasion for reflection, not triumphalism -- the way events went down, it became clear that The Post ran with a story without really having backed it up its sources factually. It worked out for them this time, but will it the next?

Perhaps there's a little something for all of us to learn from this . . .