WP: Schiavo Case Tests Priorities Of GOP

Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A01

A week after their unprecedented intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, Republican congressional leaders find themselves in a moral and political thicket, having advanced the cause as a right-to-life issue -- only to confront polls showing that the public does not see it that way.

"How deep is this Congress going to reach into the personal lives of each and every one of us?" asked Rep. Christopher Shays (Conn.), one of only five Republicans in the House to vote against the Schiavo bill.

(snip)

The fracas over congressional involvement has taken many GOP lawmakers by surprise. Most knew little about the case and were acting at the direction of their leaders, who armed them with the simple argument that they just wanted to give Schiavo a final chance, and that they wanted to err on the side of life. But because of the rush to act and the insistent approach of the leadership, Republicans had no debate about whether their vote could be seen as federal intrusion in a family matter, or as a violation of the separation of powers between the judicial and legislative branches. Both issues are concerns of many voters responding to polls, and of some members themselves.

Republican leaders knew from the outset they were entering new and possibly rocky terrain. DeLay said that he told Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) two weeks ago, "We have to do something for Terri Schiavo," but that the chairman was reluctant because, as DeLay recounted, "we don't have a precedent for doing private bills in these matters, and he didn't want to violate that precedent."

The majority leader's response to Sensenbrenner: "Be creative."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1944-2005Mar25.html

Where are DeLay and the Bush Brothers now? Have they gone AWOL again? Amazing how their convictions have been muted following the poll results.....

Repugs furious over Schiavo clusterf*ck!!!!

Blame leadership, accuse Delay of pushing Schiavo to cover up ethics violations (really, read the article!!!!!!)

...accuse DeLay of pushing Schiavo to cover up ethics violations...
DeLay and the Bush brothers were supposed to be Terri's personal holy trinity. Once they snatched her from the valley of the shadow of death (also known as liberalism), George would cement his rich religious crackpot base, DeLay would be cleansed of his ethical sins, and Jeb would have taken his first step towards following his brother to the White House.

Instead, George lets fellow Texan Baby Sun Hudson die; DeLay is caught red-handed planning to use Terri as self-serving political fodder; and Jeb conspires to do a legal end run around federal judges!

On edit: THIS JUST IN--The year before Terri's eating disorder-related heart failure, DeLay pulled the plug on his father!


:headbang:
rocknation

another chance? How do they justify their constant hypocrisy?

One senior GOP lawmaker involved in the negotiations, who did not want to speak for the record, said that DeLay, who is fighting ethics charges on several fronts, faced considerable pressure from Christian conservative groups to respond to pleas by the parents of the brain-damaged woman to intervene before her husband, Michael Schiavo, removed the feeding tube that kept her alive. The lawmaker said that DeLay "wanted to follow through" but added that many House Republicans were dubious and suspected that the leader's ethics problems were a motivating factor.

and this one:

Aggravating GOP frustrations are disturbing new polls, including a CBS survey that found that 82 percent of Americans -- including a whopping 68 percent of people who identify themselves as evangelical Christians -- think Congress's intervention was wrong.

What a way to burn those polls up!

Hope it awakens every somnolent body in this country.

<snip>
Aides to other Republican senators said there was little discussion of the matter outside that group. "It definitely would have gone down differently had it actually been considered," a senior aide to a moderate Republican senator said.
<snip>

In other words, if they had thought about this instead of acting like sheep they wouldn't have voted for it. Wonderful! THe whole lot of them should be embararassed in addition to being afraid of losing their jobs

<snip>
Republicans are "going to get kicked around a lot," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. On the other hand, he sees a silver lining in the otherwise miserable polls: The minority that does back congressional action probably supports it intensely, while the majority that disagrees "won't remember this woman's name in a few months."
<snip>

Its been all Terri all the time for weeks now. People will NOT forget this.

:kick:

what a legacy tom delay is. Evil personified. He reminds me of Jimmy Swaggert-- before Jimmy was caught with a few $10.00 flea bag street walkers at cheap hotels by detectives hired by some of Swaggert's victims.

wanna play? we play for keeps.

to label the Repugs the "No Privacy Party" and make it stick. They want to dictate the most intimate matters: who a person can marry, whether or not a woman must carry a fetus full term, when a family is allowed to cease medical treatment, snoop into your internet visits and your library borrowings.
This issue could crystallize for most Americans just how wacko and extreme is this bunch. Let's go for it!

Thanks for the astute observation.

"No Privacy Party"

I bet we could add more to that list.