to bolster image
Washington's most powerful
fundraising networks. But now a
series of state and federal
investigations could unravel it all"
support among
Fundamentalists.
for embattled Republican Leader
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| MQAblog |
Take for a hangover? I think they
just drink more. As for me it is
Gatorade and greasy eggs. Thanks
Waffle House!
Todays story on Tom DeLay is
important. If you are not familiar with
the long list of activities that seem to
breech ethics then please check out
the links I have provided. Also
please sign the petition to the left.
Tom DeLay will resign sometime in
the next few months. It is just a
matter of when. Even the GOP spin
machine cannot fool the people on
this one. But the longer he is in
power, the longer this national
double standards will remain. While
Democrats had special prosecutors
on them for even the appearance
(read: accusation by a right winger)
of ethical lapses, Tom Delay and the
rest of his tribe simply ignore or
remove rules calling for
investigations and resignations.
Americans thus far have let this go
on unchecked - blinded by religion or
a hatred of 'liberals' or simple
laziness in following the news.
History will look back at America at
this time and wonder how so many
were fooled by so few for so long.
The departure of Tom DeLay might
begin a trend of Republican
politicians finally paying the price for
their corrupt behavior. Once that is
accomplished they can then face the
music for all the damage they have
done to this country and to the world.
03.17.05 7:22pm....Watching the
congressional hearings on steroids
in baseball made was quite
enlightening. Mark Mcguire all but
admitted he took steroids. Sammy
Sosa evaded as many questions as
he answered and Barry Bonds wasn't
even required to attend. With the
taint now on these players careers
we really have to look at the records
that they have set.
Doing so I have come to the
conclusion that:
Roger Maris is the homerun champ
with 61 in a season;
Babe Ruth with 60 is in second and
the last "clean" team to win the world
series was in 2000.
Now if you don't mind this Yankee fan
is going to get a green beer.
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because he...
*Violates ethics rules at will
*Embodies the worst of pay-to-play politics
*Abuses his position as House Majority Leader.
can't spin way out
Cheerleading
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PEGGY NOONAN - WALL STREET JOURNAL
It appears we've reached the pivotal moment in the Terri Schiavo case, and it also appears our politicians, our
senators and congressmen, might benefit from some observations.
In America today all big stories have three dimensions: a legal angle, a public-relations angle and a political angle. In
the Schiavo case some of our politicians seem not to be fully appreciating the second and third. This is odd.
Here's both a political and a public-relations reality: The Republican Party controls the Senate, the House and the
White House. The Republicans are in charge. They have the power. If they can't save this woman's life, they will face
a reckoning from a sizable portion of their own base. And they will of course deserve it.
This should concentrate their minds.
So should this: America is watching. As the deadline for removal of Mrs. Schiavo's feeding tube approaches, the
story has broken through as never before in the media.
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. They remind me of what
Winston Churchill said once when he became home secretary in charge of England's prisons. He was seated at
dinner with a jabbery lady who said that if she were ever given a life sentence she'd rather die than serve it. He
reared back. No, he said, always choose life! "Death's the only thing you can't get out of!"
Just so. Life is full of surprise and lightning-like lurches. The person in a coma today wakes up tomorrow and says, "Is
that you, mom?" Life is unknowable. Always give it a chance to shake your soul and upend reality.
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.
On the other side of this debate, one would assume there is an equally well organized and passionate group of
organizations deeply committed to removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. But that's not true. There's just about no
one on the other side. Or rather there is one person, a disaffected husband who insists Terri once told him she didn't
want to be kept alive by extraordinary measures.
He has fought the battle to kill her with a determination that at this point seems not single-minded or passionate but
strange. His former wife's parents and family are eager to care for her and do care for her, every day. He doesn't
have to do a thing. His wife is not kept alive by extraordinary measures--she breathes on her own, is not on a
respirator. All she needs to continue existing--and to continue being alive so that life can produce whatever miracle it
may produce--is a feeding tube.
It doesn't seem a lot.
So politically this is a struggle between many serious people who really mean it and one, just one, strange-o. And the
few bearded and depressed-looking academics he's drawn to his side.
It is not at all in the political interests of senators and congressmen to earn the wrath of the pro-Schiavo group and
the gratitude of the anti-Schiavo husband, by doing nothing.
So let me write a sentence I never thought I'd write: Politicians, please, think of yourselves! Move to help Terri
Schiavo, and no one will be mad at you, and you'll keep a human being alive. Do nothing and you reap bitterness
and help someone die.
This isn't hard, is it?
At the heart of the case at this point is a question: Is Terri Schiavo brain-dead? That is, is remedy, healing,
physiologically impossible?
No. Oddly enough anyone who sees the film and tape of her can see that her brain tells her lungs to breathe, that
she can open her eyes, that she seems to respond at times and to some degree to her family. She can laugh. (I
heard it this morning on the news. It's a childlike chuckle.) In the language of computers she appears not to be a
broken hard drive but a computer in deep hibernation. She looks like one of those coma cases that wind up in the
news because the patient, for no clear reason, snaps to and returns to life and says, "Is it 1983? Is there still
McDonald's? Can I have a burger?"
Again, life is mysterious. Medicine is full of happenings and events that leave brilliant doctors scratching their heads.
But in the end, it comes down to this: Why kill her? What is gained? What is good about it? Ronald Reagan used to
say, in the early days of the abortion debate, when people would argue that the fetus may not really be a person,
he'd say, "Well, if you come across a paper bag in the gutter and it seems something's in it and you don't know if it's
alive, you don't kick it, do you?" No, you don't.
So Congress: don't kick it. Let her live. Hard cases make bad law, but let her live. Precedents can begin to cascade,
special pleas can become a flood, but let her live. Because she's human, and you're human.
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.
Bill Frist and Tom DeLay and Jim Sensenbrenner and Denny Hastert and all the rest would be better off risking
looking ridiculous and flying down to Florida, standing outside Terri Schiavo's room and physically restraining the
poor harassed staff who may be told soon to remove her feeding tube, than standing by in Washington, helpless and
tied in legislative knots, and doing nothing.
Issue whatever subpoena, call whatever witnesses, pass whatever emergency bill, but don't let this woman die.
Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "A Heart, a Cross, and a Flag" (Wall Street Journal
Books/Simon & Schuster), a collection of post-Sept. 11 columns, which you can buy from the OpinionJournal bookstore.
