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Mel's mistake

If Sen. Mel Martinez's staff is truly to blame for his gaffes, he would do well to go about hiring a new one.

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez says he is "moving on" after being forced to admit that a politically scandalous memo on Terri Schiavo was in fact inside his own coat pocket. But the lesson the freshman senator seems to have learned is a surprisingly shallow one.

"I would basically say that for an office that has just gotten off and running," Martinez said recently, "it has been a difficult go. But I think it is so for every other freshman senator."

The freshman-mistake defense would be more persuasive if he were answering for wrong addresses on newsletters or office phone lines with overloaded voice mail. But the senator who insists that "you get things done by reaching for the middle" has yet to come to terms with the gulf between what he says and who he hires. He has yet to explain how a self-proclaimed centrist senator is best served by a staff of 30-somethings with connections to some of Washington's most conservative groups.

Martinez has accepted the resignation of Brian Darling, the 39-year-old legal counsel who finally admitted writing the memo that characterized Schiavo as "a great political issue" over which "the pro-life base will be excited." But the senator's claim that neither he nor anyone in his office had read the memo is a bit much to swallow. Why was Darling writing the memo, on his office computer, if not to convey his thoughts to others? Was Darling not required to share his work product with anyone?

Those implausible explanations aside, Martinez seems unwilling to admit the obvious about the top staff he has chosen. Darling, for example, was a former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group, a firm with direct ties to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Martinez's chief of staff came from an Alabama senator, his legislative director worked for the Heritage Foundation, and his state director was a former protege of White House operative Karl Rove. These are not people a senator "reaching for the middle" and "looking to serve Floridians" would normally hire.

Martinez showed a flash of anger on Friday when, after a speech about National Hispanic Heritage Month, reporters again asked about the Schiavo memo. But he would be wise to climb out of his bunker and look around him. Many of those who are urging him to hire a staff more in tune with his professed beliefs are his own Florida supporters. Luis Mendez, a Cuban retiree in Miami, was blunt: "He needs to start over and get back to the basics to what is important in Florida."

The longer Martinez surrounds himself with these brash, conservative Washington ideologues the more likely he is to issue additional late-night apologies. He may be ready to move on, but he has now used the staff-blunder excuse on at least three prominent occasions. How many times will Floridians accept his assurance that these tactics are not his own?

[Last modified April 19, 2005, 01:19:14]