Dear Joe,
I used to think that for a Republican, you were a reasonable guy. Now that I've seen the despicable way you've tried to spin the Terri Schiavo story, I've changed my mind.
For the benefit of others who read this, I'd like to reprint
what you said that has caused me to form the opinion that you are no better than Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, and other Republicans who have tried to build political advantage at the expense of a helpless woman you claim to care about.
I can try to understand why many would side with the husband, but I will never comprehend why the same political activists that fight for the protection of the spotted oil and snail darter are so eager to see Terri Schiavo die.
Moveon.org, Air America, and a host of other left-of-center organizations have sprung to life to support the death of Terri.
Obviously, many Democrats see this as a political opportunity to attack the President and Tom Delay. But the intensity of their anger at any one who tries to protect Ms. Schiavo's life is disturbing at best.
It is also politically dangerous.
Does the liberal wing of the Democratic Party really be known for supporting the killing of helpless women?
Of course not. But that is the corner in which they are painting themselves.
And that should trouble a Democratic Party whose two public relations moves over the past year have been opposing the spread of democracy in the Middle East and protecting the life of a helpless young woman.
Liberals can cite polls until they are blue in the face. They can talk about Texas laws and legislative hypocrisy. They can attack every last person who is trying to save this young woman from starvation.
But in the end, Americans shocked by this macabre chapter in American politics will see the Democrats as the party on the side of death and see George Bush as the defender of defenseless.
Joe, what have the Democrats got to do with any of this? It's Republicans who have butted into the private legal conflict of a family that disagrees on what their loved one would have wanted. It's mostly Republican judges who have ruled - correctly, in the view of an overwhelming majority of Americans - that Michael Schiavo has proved that his wife would not want to be kept alive in her present condition. And it's Republican-aligned groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition that are invoking Ms. Schiavo's situation in order to raise money for their cynical political campaigns feeding off and fomenting people's predjudices.
Nobody wants to see Terri Schiavo die. But from the best anyone can tell, after years and years of litigation, she would not have wanted to live in the state she's currently in. What we want is for her wishes to be honored. And that, Joe, is something that Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals all seem to agree on.
We want government out of our lives. We want the federal government out of the wombs of American women. We don't think the federal government has any business telling consenting adults who they can and cannot enter into a marriage contract with. And as you can see, we all want the federal government to stay the hell out of the decision-making process that families have to go through when deciding what the best course of action is for a loved one who cannot make that decision for themself.
It's stressful enough, and heartbreaking enough, to go through that without having an ethically-challenged congressman and a meddling senator who's sucking up to the fringe element of his party in anticipation of a run for the presidency telling anyone's family that they watched an hour of videotape and hence know better than the family does what should be done.
But this isn't about any of that, is it, Joe?
No. This is about taking a look at the polls you decry Democrats for citing, and deciding that something has to be done to drag them into the fray so that they are soiled by the mess your party has created for itself by venturing into a situation in which it has no business.
Sorry, but I'm not going to play that game. You're on your own.
My position on Terri Schiavo is this: the federal government should stay out of it, because it's a private family matter.
If you cared about families as much as you claim to, then you'd stop trying to tar the Democrats with whatever smear suits you and call for the end of federal meddling in the case.
You claim to want small government, Joe. Why don't you start walking the walk?
Cross-posted at Ventura County For Democracy