Oh you have got to be kidding. Don't the Repubs know they lost--and one of the big reasons was their theatrical Schiavo nonsense and overall attitude on "morality"??? This will be fun to watch, along with other Repub attempts to be relevant. Get the popcorn ready!

Pretty soon they'll want to re-hash the Civil War and maybe Custer's last Stand. Those pesky Native Americans.

I mean really , with all the crap going on now who needs this kind of stupid distraction. Obviously, the GOP. I can't wait to see how the MSM blows this out of proportion and makes it a lead-in story for the next three months...Nauseating.

"54-40 Or Fight!" "Twenty-Three Skiddoo!" These are the time-honored slogans that Republicans know and understand.

Even if the rest of the world doesn't.

Isn't it funny how Conservatives want a hands off government UNLESS it applies to one of their issues?

I live in Florida and for all those people thinking Jeb is just going to walk into the Senate here I really think the Schiavo case is going to come back to haunt him especially if his party keeps bringing it up.

Furthermore, 100% of the forensics team that actually did her autopsy (as opposed to long distance doctors like Frist) found that her brain had wasted away so much that she could not have made a recovery anywhere close to what Frist fans imagined from the comfort of their homes/senate offices.

I'd love to see the repubs attempt to replay this crap.

Did we ever figure out what T. Schiavo wanted (expressed wishes) about her treatment options? I think most rational ethicists say, this is what matters most.

Talk about fighting the last war. How do these idiots expect Americans to trust them on foreign affairs if they can't even navigate domestic policies that no one gives a shit about right now.

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, derided Mr. Perrelli's selection as "just another death-peddler

Lafferty makes the Puritans seem temperate. Hell, she makes Ahmadinejad seem rather middle-of-the-road.

Don't the Repubs know they lost

More important, Do the Dems know they won?

Dig her up and plug her back in!

As difficult as it may be to credit, there are very likely still at least one or two Rethugs out there who aren't completely psychotic and/or imbeciles. So: which would you deem a better outcome:

1: The True Believers extend and solidify their control of the Rethugs. Palin is their candidate in '12. Dem's take 46 states (Rethugs get Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. Kansas is tied up in litigation that leaves their results in dispute) and 67 seats in the Senate. By 2020, nobody alive is willing to admit ever having voted Republican.

2: The few remaining "moderate" Repukes mitigate the movement conservatives' and God-cons' control of the party. Their ticket in '12 is Huckster/Mittster (or vice versa), and, who knows, might actually win.

Couldn't we all just agree to STFU about how great it is that the patients seem to be taking over the Rethug nuthouse, and let it happen? Every post or comment that delights in their burgeoning insanity is another arrow in the quivers of the few remaining sane Republicans. Is that something we really want to encourage?

Are they really that detached from reality? Katrina convinced the country that repubs are incompetent, Abramoff convinced them they are corrupt, while Schiavo convinced them repubs are insane.

What's next? A Medal of Freedom to Abramoff for singlehandedly saving New Orleans from Katrina?

hey Joe: based on the Bush Legacy comments, I think he deserves credit for that. Do you realize that it has been over THREE years since a hurricane destroyed a major American city, killing thousands of people? How about a little credit where credit is due, huh?

Smartalek, your point is to the point, however: it is also good to encourage infighting.

And Steve B/Webmaster, for Jeebus' sake please finally fix the damn "Remember personal info?" buttons! And no, I don't think I set something wrong my end; the Yes button never works no matter what I do.

A post a few up from this one states:

"100% of the forensics team that actually did her autopsy (as opposed to long distance doctors like Frist) found that her brain had wasted away so much that she could not have made a recovery anywhere close to what Frist fans imagined from the comfort of their homes/senate offices."

To which I reply:

My dear sir or madame,

You have just unwittingly underscored the brilliance of Dr. Frist, one of the few doctors on the planet capable of such incisive and incontrovertible diagnoses — and a diagnosis in a matter outside of his own specialty as that.

What a great boon to medicine it is that Dr. Frist has returned from the Senate to private practice. What uncommonly long lines of eager patients must be forming at his door each morning.

I do hope he won't get sidetracked into consulting for some drug company. That would be a terrible waste of this man's extraordinary diagnostic talents.

Crankily yours,

Since their actual owners, America's Ultra-Rich Ruling Class, Inc. -- a.k.a. "the top one percent" -- cannot by definition provide enough votes, the Republicans depend on the votes of far-right wing, lunatic-fringe religious extremists in order to get close enough to steal national elections with voter disenfranchisement and fraud. So this is what they are stuck with.

If Katrina was what did Bush in, it was the Terri Schiavo case that did in Republicans. I have (formerly) Republican relatives in Idaho who were so disgusted by that whole escapade that they started describing themselves as conservative Democrats.

OK, it wasn't enough to turn over a whole state. But the Schiavo case was as important as Iraq and the scandals of 2006 that turned the tide in that election.

And no, I don't think I set something wrong my end - Neil B

Nor mine, nor the three other computers I have commented from in the last couple months.

The continuing trashing of (what's left of) the Republican Party by its know-nothing wing is the gift that keeps on giving.

sgwhiteinfla, thanks for reminding me, and all of us, about some of Jeb Bush's appalling antics during the Schiavo case. I hope people haven't forgotten how, after Terri Schiavo was finally allowed to die, Bush ordered the state Attorney General to investigate her husband's possible responsibility for the events that led to her brain damage. Hey, we lost the fight, so now let's get even by framing the husband for murder!

The AG was thoroughly embarrassed by the request, and made it clear that he was conducting an inquiry, not an investigation, which of course led nowhere. Even his brother George could barely top that one for sleazy vindictiveness and abuse of power. Remember that whenever Poppy Bush, or anyone else, floats the idea that Jeb would be a decent President.

So Danp, your name and email address come up each time after the first use? I can' figure why mine doesn't work. And even so, there's a "URL" entry but I never see links from anyone's PH.

Reminder also, anyone know what TS wanted for herself - isn't that what matters in the end, so to speak?

The Family Research Council's Tom McClusky noted that several end-of-life questions may reach the Justice Department in the coming years, and Perrelli's role might make it more difficult for the conservative argument to prevail.

um, elections have consequences?

After all, 63 percent of the public supported the removal of the feeding tube.

37% often is good enough, if it's a committed 37%

The GOP model is to achieve 100% turnout of their own tifosi, surpress opposition turnout, maybe run a third-party candidate, and cheat a bit, to get to 50.1%, and then 'govern' as if they won 70-30.

Good point in its own context DXM, but I note that it isn't the votes of Americans or anyone that should matter most in the TS case. What should: what did she want - and I still haven't gotten a good answer yet, maybe because we just don't' know?

Neil B - No. I was trying to say that I have the same problem you do, and not only on my home computer. It's the system, not you or me.

Neil B, in this case that is no longer a relevant question. Her parents claimed one thing, her husband something different; she did not make her own wishes unambiguously clear. Numerous persons, doctors, and courts attempted to discern the correct answer to your question; it remains uncertain.

As it often will.

So the real policy question is where the will of the incapacitated person is not known how, when, and by whom is that ultimate decision made?

There may be a good faith difference of opinion on that, and various legitimate possible answers. One that is not on that list is "by act of Congress."

Oh, please don't bring up the Schiavo case, Republicans! Oh, no! Mercy me!

(nyuck, nyuck)

Remember when MatthewRMarler kept insisting here that Congressional Democrats, who for once in their bloody lives kept their mouths shut and let the Republicans hang themselves, would suffer grave electoral consequences for "not stopping" the Republicans from trying to interfere in a family's end-of-life decisions?

These folks just come from the Marler camp of never letting go of a bad idea. They're all still waiting for independents and Democrats to "pay the price" for this one. Hilarious.

Zeitgeist: OK, I get that. But then what should be operative, a "mishmash" of local laws about something so fundamental, existing national law and courts (but not para-legislative meddling by Congress) etc?

I hope people haven't forgotten how, after Terri Schiavo was finally allowed to die, [Jeb] Bush ordered the state Attorney General to investigate her husband's possible responsibility for the events that led to her brain damage. Hey, we lost the fight, so now let's get even by framing the husband for murder!

Ah, yes. Good times. Let's also recall that he threatened to personally storm the care facility, state troopers at his side, to get to Ms. Schiavo's bedside.

And they say he's the smart Bush.

I say the social conservatives should go with it and see the way the winds blow both in Congress and in the general public. They obviously like getting slapped down I have no problem with this.

Reminder also, anyone know what TS wanted for herself - isn't that what matters in the end, so to speak?

There were multiple hearings over the course of more than a decade and in every case, the judges decided based on testimony from family members that Terri Schiavo would not have wanted to be kept alive. Her parents were able to keep the case going by constantly filing appeals, but they lost every single court case that they brought.

Another reason they repeatedly lost was that it became clear in the course of their testimony that they were more interested in doing what they wanted than in determining what their daughter would have wanted.

Basically, every judge who heard the case decided, along with Michael Schiavo, that she would not have wanted to continue in a persistent vegetative state. That's why her parents eventually turned to the right-to-lifers -- there were no legal avenues left, so they decided to pursue extralegal means to get their way.

"So the real policy question is where the will of the incapacitated person is not known how, when, and by whom is that ultimate decision made?"

The real hidden gem in all of that was that if allowed to prevail, they would have severely undermined the institution of marriage. For all their posturing on the sanctity of marriage, they didn't give a good god-damn that they were undermining the legal precedent of the husband being the closest kin and decision maker for Terri.

Rolls eyes.
Makes disgusted snort.
Deep sigh.
Says, uch.
That's my reaction. These people never let up do they? What makes them think that anyone really cares what they think? Why should anyone give them a platform or forum? What kind of protest do they think will give them any suction with this administration? The MSM should ignore them as the crazy, uninformed, out of touch zealots that they are. The travesty of justice that was the Schiavo case is long over. This is Obama's administration and he can appoint anyone he wants. It just floors me that the conservatives and wingnuts think they have some sort of veto power over any of these appointments.

They are not doing the Republican party any favors. It will soon gain the reputation as being obtuse and obstructionist and anti democratic.

In my 20+ years as a Hospice Nurse, I have NEVER had a patient tell me that they would want to live in a persistent vegetative state. It just isn't logical. So while we do not know what Terry Shiavo or anyone else in the same condition would want, we should always allow the person of closest kinship make the decision and keep the courts out of it. Just as you can make an arguement for a "Right to Life", you can make an appropriate arguement for the "Right to Die"