US: While blanket coverage of the Terri Schiavo controversy gave way abruptly last weekend to the death of Pope John Paul in the US media, its repercussions continued on Capitol Hill this week.
A controversial memo given to Republicans two weeks ago suggesting they could make political capital from the Schiavo controversy has been traced to a Republican senator's office. The author, Brian Darling, legal counsel to Florida senator Mel Martinez, was forced to resign on Tuesday when it was established he wrote the one-page document.
It said the Schiavo controversy was "a great political issue" for Republicans and their pro-life base "will be excited that the Senate is debating this issue".
Senator Martinez had said he was unaware of the origin of the memo, which coincided with debate on an emergency bill ordering a federal court to review a state judge's order that Ms Schiavo's feeding tube be removed. She died last Friday after federal judges and the US Supreme Court refused to intervene.
Mr Martinez "inadvertently" handed the unsigned memo to Democratic senator Tom Harkin on the Senate floor before a vote on the bill, but claimed yesterday he had not read it. Republicans and conservative web-sites had accused Democrats of forging the memo as a "dirty trick".
Divisions have surfaced in the Republican Party over an attack by House majority leader Tom DeLay on judges who refused to reverse the decision to remove the feeding tube. Mr DeLay said "the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behaviour". The majority leader, Republican senator Bill Frist, hastened to distance himself from the remark, saying he believed the judiciary was "independent and fair".
Democratic senator Edward Kennedy said: "Apparently it's not enough for Republicans to rule the White House and the Congress, they want power over the independent judiciary too."
Democratic Congress members also angrily criticised Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas for speculating that recent violent attacks on judges might be linked to their perceived political activism.
In February a federal judge's husband and mother were killed by a deranged medical malpractice plaintiff in Chicago, and on Tuesday white supremacist Matthew Hale was sentenced to 40 years for trying to have the same judge killed in retaliation for a separate ruling. Last month a judge was shot dead by a defendant in a rape case, who went on a shooting spree in an Atlanta courtroom.