BlogWood: MT Archives

Martinez feels the heat

It’s beat up on Mel Martinez day, with many of the state’s papers picking up on the observation that Mel’s “the buck stops somewhere down the hall” series of excuses is getting rather tired.

Florida Politics reminds us that

'Ole Mel keeps getting into trouble, yet skates by by blaming others. Mel, is he a poor, innocent dupe, an empty suit, or both?. Consider:

1. Campaign Contributions: Back in 2002, Builder groups were accused of wrongfully funneling money to candidates, including Martinez. Mel was out of the loop.

2. Ezzie Thomas: Martinez had Ezzie Thomas work for his local campaign, like Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. Dyer was indicted; Mel was promoted to Washington. Martinez has been strangely silent as to his dealings with Thomas. Let me guess: Mel had no idea what Ezie was doing.

And the news organizations are all over well known historical Martinez claims of innocence, with the SP Times, Palm Beach Post, Miami Herald, and others all weighing in with their own versions of the same story.

As well as an article, the SP Times has an editorial on Mel’s embarrassing lack of responsibility.

Remember when the campaign treated reporters to a conference call that branded an opponent's political consultant as a homosexual? Martinez said the activists weren't speaking for him. Remember when the campaign mailed a slick brochure depicting his primary opponent, former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, as backing "the radical homosexual lobby"? Martinez said "those words were spoken by others." Remember when his office sent e-mails to Miami radio stations depicting federal agents in the 2000 Elian Gonzalez ordeal as "armed thugs"? Martinez blamed "someone who was writing for the campaign."

The unsigned Schiavo memo was the subject of intense speculation over the past few weeks, but Martinez said he saw no reason, prior to questions being raised by Washington newspapers, to ask his own staff. That's odd, since one of the eight talking points - "this legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy" - was almost the same as the headline on his own press release announcing the bill two weeks earlier.

Martinez's claim that the memo just "at some point along the way came into" his grasp will no doubt keep the late-night comics busy. But he does himself no favors even among those who will take him at his word. To believe his story is to accept that he can't keep up with his own staff, what they write or what someone sticks in his coat pocket.

The PB Post goes further, pointing out some ties between the purported author of the memo and Tom Delay:

The aide who wrote the memo has links to a lobbying group that works for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Before joining Martinez's staff, Darling was a partner in the Alexander Strategy Group, a lobbying firm whose leaders include several former staffers of DeLay. Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff for DeLay, is a founding partner in the firm and helped arrange a 2001 trip by DeLay to South Korea that has raised questions in the House.

The trip was financed by a business group registered as a foreign agent, which is prohibited by House rules.

According to lobbying reports filed with the House, one of Darling's clients was Universal Bearing Inc., which is linked to the group that paid for DeLay's trip. The Korea-U.S. Exchange Council is the foreign agent that paid for the trip, and it was created to promote Seung Youn Kim, chairman of Universal Bearing's parent company, the Hanwha Group, according to The New York Times.

Darling, who resigned from Martinez's staff late Wednesday, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Finally, from Herald.com:

The campaign ads were bitterly divisive, even by the standards of a bare-knuckle primary, accusing the opponent of then Republican senatorial hopeful Mel Martinez of playing to the ``radical homosexual lobby.''

Martinez blamed the ads on ''young Turks'' in his campaign and apologized to his GOP rival. Weeks later Martinez found himself again blaming a staff member after a press release from his campaign likened U.S. immigration agents to ''armed thugs'' for seizing Elián González from his Miami home in 2000.

Now, for the third time, Martinez finds himself under fire -- and blaming an aide for the conflagration. This time, Martinez said he has accepted the resignation of a staff member in his Senate office for penning the now-infamous political memo that suggested Republicans in Washington could use the plight of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo to bash Democrats, singling out Martinez's fellow Florida senator, Democrat Bill Nelson.

Supporters of Martinez, including Gov. Jeb Bush, rallied Thursday to his side, but some Republicans anguished privately that the latest and most high-profile misstep marks a major debacle for the freshman senator.

The memo and Martinez's handling of it, those supporters said, could damage his relationship with other senators and portray him as driven more by political partisanship than conviction. It also could lead to questions about his level of oversight of his staff and raise doubts about his attention to detail, as Martinez acknowledged that ''unbeknownst'' to him, he handed the explosive memo to Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa.

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None of the images of Martinez, supporters say, are particularly attractive.

Martinez sought to blunt some of the criticism, saying in a statement released late Wednesday that he was ''ultimately responsible for the work of my staff'' and that he took ''full responsibility'' for the situation.

But one supporter suggested: ``You can only blame staff so many times before people come back and look at you.''