Anatomy of a Smear

Media Matters for America has a great timeline delineating the infamous Mel Martinez-originated Schiavo/Republican talking points memo and how it nearly became yet another dirty trick of the theocratic fascists to accuse the Democrats of using dirty tricks against them. This is a story that needs to be spread far and wide, because it's a sure bet that the right-wing bloggers and jabbering heads of the media aren't going to fall all over themselves admitting that they were wrong. Rather, they'll just move on to another subject and leave the impression that they were telling the truth all along when they said the memo was created by the Democrats in order to embarrass Republicans. It's called the Big Lie -- repeating a falsehood over and over, and never admitting that it's untrue, even when caught red-handed -- and it was used most effectively by a certain European megalomaniac back in the 20th century.