These are the first words of the New York Times' report. Did you ever see the New York Times so quickly, in any story about a scandal involving a Democrat politician, identify the politician as a Democrat so quickly? Usually, you need to scan the story all the way to the bottom to find out that the scandal-plagued politician is a Democrat.
And it also takes them three paragraphs to disseminate the actual truth, so as not to tarnish the obvious malefactor.
The anonymous memorandum, typed by an aide to Senator Martinez had been mistakenly and unknowingly handed the only copy of the document to Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, on the floor of the Senate which was immediately reproduced, and subsequently distributed to news organizations by Democratic aides and first reported by ABC News.