All Terri Schiavo, All the Time

WaPo has a must-read interview with Dr. Jay Wolfson, author of the 2003 report at Abstract Appeal on the Schiavo case.

Meanwhile, it looks like the Republicans, led by certain 2008 Presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Rick Santorum, and Bill Frist, may have overplayed their hand here. A CBS News poll reveals that four of five people polled opposed federal intervention, with levels of disapproval among key groups supporting the GOP almost that high.

C-Plus Caligula's approval has taken a hit too -- down to 43%. (Watch for more terror warnings, maybe even another Osama Bin Laden tape, coming soon to a television near you.)

Most Americans say they feel sympathy for family members on both sides of the dispute over the 41-year-old Schiavo, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll.

More than eight in 10 in that poll said they feel sympathy for Bob and Mary Schindler, parents of Schiavo, who want to keep her alive. And seven in 10 said they're sympathetic for Michael Schiavo, the husband of Schiavo who says she should be allowed to die.

I'm gratified that most Americans, even those identifying themselves as evangelical Christians, aren't being taken in by the self-serving carny sideshow in Washington and in the governor's mansion in Florida. That a nearly-equal percentage are able to sympathize with both parties in this case is an indication that when pressed, Americans are still able to hold two ideas in their heads at the same time, and are still able to recognize extreme cynicism when they see it.

So what was the last straw? Was it Tom DeLay saying that Terri Schiavo was God's gift to him? Was it Bill Frist, a physician, doing armchair diagnosis by videotape? Was it Jeb Bush, who is cutting the very same Medicaid payments in his state that are keeping Terri Schiavo alive? Or is it simply that too many Americans either have been, or will be, in this situation at some point in their lives, and they do NOT want politicians intervening in their families?

The kind of vocal, lunatic fringe to whom Republicans are playing can't be any more than, oh, say, fifteen percent of the population. In an effort to placate this fringe that demands ideological purity, Republicans are turning off the very swing voters they regarded as so important just a few months ago.

Amazingly, most Americans, despite the best efforts of the screaming media to convince them otherwise, are still willing to countenance the idea that there are no bad guys in this family, that both sides can be intelligent people of goodwill who honestly believe they are doing the right thing for a terribly damaged family member, but who disagree about what that is.