National Review Online has obtained two new Democratic documents that were downloaded by a Republican staffer sometime in the period from late 2001 to spring 2003.Ironically, the two documents, apparently written by an aide to Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, concern a Republican memo that had been mistakenly sent to Democrats. In November, 2001, a top aide to Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch sent a strategy e-mail to several other Republicans. One of the intended recipients was a Hatch staffer whose last name was Johnson. But instead of going to the Republican Johnson, the memo went to a woman named Olati Johnson, who was a top Kennedy aide.
Olati Johnson forwarded the GOP memo to several colleagues. Republican staffers asked her to delete the memo, since it had been sent to her in error. It is not clear whether the GOP aides made that request before or after Johnson had sent the memo around, but in any case, Democrats eventually gave the GOP document to the press.
The two newly obtained Democratic documents are fact sheets written for Sen. Kennedy so he could answer possible inquiries about the matter.
