Politico: 'Hoax' memo 'was purported by Republicans to be an internal Democratic memo'

by Jed Lewison
DailyKos
Fri Mar 19, 2010

Here's an intriguing line in Politico's explanation of why it has removed the disputed 'hoax' memo on health reform that had previously been described as a Democratic memo:

An earlier post in this spot detailed what was purported by Republicans to be an internal Democratic memo regarding the upcoming health reform vote Sunday.

That seems to be a clear indication that the memo -- which Democrats say is not authentic -- was first distributed to the media by Republicans. Politico's update does not say which Republicans supplied the memo, but Greg Sargent found evidence that John Boehner's office was sending the memo to reporters within minutes of Politico's original report.

This doesn't prove that memo is a hoax or that Republicans created it, but in addition to categorical Democratic assertions that it is a hoax, one of the reasons to be skeptical of its authenticity is that it demands members of Congress keep quiet about plans to pass the so-called "doctor fix," which would improve Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors. The problem with that demand is that both Speaker Pelosi and President Obama in recent days have publicly acknowledged that they plan to address the reimbursement problem in separate legislation -- so there's no secret to be kept. Maybe some junior aide could have written that, but not a leadership staffer.

(More here.)