Mercury Rising

This weekend is proving to be too important not to blog. Here's a very good timeline of the Terri Schiavo case from the University of Miami. It's obvious from reading the timeline that for the first four years after the heart attack that destroyed her brain, Michael Schiavo did anything and everything he could think of to try to bring her back. But his doctors finally let him know that she wasn't coming back, and he finally accepted this. Her parents never did, and thus became prey for the vultures of "Operation Rescue", who wanted to use Terri Schiavo's nonresponsive body as a vehicle for their own agenda. And guess what? The overwhelming feedback I'm seeing, on all but the most heavily "pro-life" message boards and blogs, is registering intense disgust for the idiotic actions of Randall Terry and his Congressional sock puppets DeLay and Frist. This ties in with Atrios' noting the results of two polls: One an internet poll, the other a recent ABC/WT poll cited at MyDD -- that showed that the "pro-life" side isn't getting quite the sympathy over the Schiavo case that they think they are getting. The Republicans thought this was going to be their new Elian and gay-marriage-ban rolled into one. Instead, it's going to be their new Social Security privatization: the third rail. And they're French-kissing that third rail with all their might. Please, please, Hot Tub Tom, keep harrassing a man and his brain-dead wife. Keep insisting that a corpse with a heartbeat be dragged into the well of the House. And Dr. Frist, please do continue to jeopardize your credibility, not to mention your professional standing, by making unprofessional and wrong remarks about Terri Schiavo's condition, remarks based solely on your alleged viewing of the carefully-edited videos made by the Schindlers and their well-funded allies -- who just happen to be the same ones providing money and voters to the Republican Party. And both of you, please continue to make your attacks on the institution and sanctity of marriage: You're doing more to hurt the legal rights of spouses than ten thousand gay and lesbian couples getting hitched by Justices of the Peace could dream of doing in ten thousand years. First, Social Security, then "Clear Skies" going down, then this. This is starting to feel like 1998. The Republicans thought they were sitting pretty and would have Clinton out of office within a few days. Instead, the nation turned on them. And the harder the Republicans attacked Clinton, the more the public rallied around him. If the Democrats had only bothered to actually go on the attack against Ken Starr and his Starr Chamber, they would have won back both Houses of Congress that year, then Gore would have won in 2000, and the Twin Towers (and our economy, and about 100,000 Iraqis and 1500-odd Americans) would still be around. I've heard about throwing anvils to drowning Republicans. But here, they're gleefully grabbing onto the anvils and riding them down to the bottom of the sea.

# posted by Phoenix Woman @ 3/18/2005 09:43:00 PM