Did Peggy lead them wrong?
Republicans make a federal case out of Terri Schiavo, but they're wrong all around

In referring to the Terri Schiavo case, former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan wrote that "If Terri Schiavo is killed, Republicans will pay a political price."

There is a passionate, highly motivated and sincere group of voters and activists who care deeply about whether Terri Schiavo is allowed to live. Their reasoning, ultimately, is this: Be on the side of life. ...

The supporters of Terri Schiavo's right to continue living have fought for her heroically, through the courts and through the legislatures. They're still fighting. They really mean it. And they have memories. ...

A final note to the Republican leadership in the House and Senate: You have to pull out all the stops. You have to run over your chairmen if they're being obstructionist for this niggling reason and that. Run over their egos, run past their fatigue. You have to win on this. If you don't, you can't imagine how much you're going to lose. And from people who have faith in you.

Last night first the Senate and then the House passed legislation entitling Terri's parents to appeal to U.S. District Court. President Bush signed the bill into law at 1:30 this morning. Terri's parents imediately filed - the federal court concerned is open 24/7 - where,

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore issued no immediate decision after holding a two-hour hearing to consider a request from Terri Schiavo's parents to reinstate their 41-year-old daughter's feeding tube three days after it was withdrawn.

And there the matter sits as of this writing. Judge Whittemore is expected to rule tomorrow.

But back to Peggy. Was she right? Today ABC News released its poll on the question.

Americans broadly and strongly disapprove of federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, with sizable majorities saying Congress is overstepping its bounds for political gain. ...

The public, by 63 percent-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case. Congress passed such legislation and President Bush signed it early today.

That legislative action is distinctly unpopular: Not only do 60 percent oppose it, more — 70 percent — call it inappropriate for Congress to get involved in this way. And by a lopsided 67 percent-19 percent, most think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.

But, as James Joyner observes, "My guess is that the 28% is much, much more intense in their belief than the 63%." I think that's true - and Peggy obviously would agree. I don't agree with those who say the new bill is unconstitutional, since the Constitution specifies that the Congress sets the jurisdiction of the federal courts. The newly-born advocates of states' rights are transparently insincere since they're several decades too late raising their voices.

But I am uneasy about the Congress's and the president's action. I don't know enough about Terri's condition to evaluate whether she is beyond hope of recovery, but presumably her doctors and the courts have weighed all the information. They're not infallible by any means, but they are also "the only game in town" to make an evaluation. There is no independent corroboration that Terri would want to be disconnected, as husband Michael Schiavo asserts. And Mr. Schiavo is no admirable character here; as James Taranto wrote, it is

... unreasonable to let Mr. Schiavo have it both ways. If he wishes to assert his marital authority to do his wife in, the least society can expect in return is that he refrain from making a mockery of his marital obligations. The grimmest irony in this tragic case is that those who want Terri Schiavo dead are resting their argument on the fiction that her marriage is still alive.

Yet the Republicans' actions in pushing through federal relief for Terri's parents makes me as uneasy as the Democrats' obvious hypocrisy about the federalist issues the legislation raises.

No one can wish Terri dead. And God knows none of us wish ourselves ever to be in the position of either her husband or her parents. But there is no perfect justice to be had in this world, and tragically this fact sometimes means death comes sooner rather than later. A smell of political opportunism pervades the Republicans' actions here. But as I wrote more than a year ago, the Republican party, like the Democrats, are big-government activists who have (like the Democrats) adopted a foundational philosophy that America is a problem to be fixed, and Americans are a people to be managed. While I see the medical, moral and theological issues involved in Terri's case, I fail to see the federal issue that warrants Congressional action.

by Donald Sensing, 3/21/2005 07:42:00 PM. Permalink |