Hypocrisy Watch

I started losing track, so I have to have a list. Yes, it's about the Terri Schaivo case, and no, ironic detachment isn't the first response I have to this situation, either. Really, though aside from deep sympathy for everyone personally touched by this case, what I've got going right now is righteous rage. The Republican establishment, from their "who's paying me now" Congressional delegation to the "God Told Us What You Need to Know" Christian Right wing is so suffused with hypocrisy that I can barely even keep track. This list will be updated as I think of (or read about) new issues. Let's start at the top.

• George W. Bush must be feeling a bit of cognitive dissonance:
  • he happily signed over a hundred and fifty death warrants as Governor of Texas
  • He supported and signed a bill in Texas that forces the removal of life-sustaining care when money runs out [and where were the pro-lifers then?]
  It must be nice to sign something that saves a life... sort of.
• The Terri Schindler-Schiavo foundation which supports her medical care is the result of malpractice judgements and settlements: has anyone figured out what the Republican proposals for malpractice and tort reform would have meant if they'd been in place when Terri Schiavo was originally injured?
• Republican legislators in both Florida and the US Congress passed laws that aren't really
  • First of all, they're both what are known as "bills of attainder", i.e. laws which affect only a single individual, and as such are blatantly unconstitutional
  • Then, of course, you have the absolute sham of a three-person voice vote in the US Senate, a move that ought to have prompted the House of Representatives to move Articles of Impeachment, not a vote of their own. (I know, only the Senate can censure it's own members. They should have. They still could, and if they've got any brains or balls left, they will. The House should have refused to accept the Senate Bill as legitimate. Wait, House Republicans? Never mind.)
• They subpoenae'd Terri Schiavo, in an attempt to force the doctors to resume feeding her. I suppose they could arrest her for failure to appear, but they've gutted medical care in prisons
• After years of blathering on about "activist judges", and after getting plenty of their own toadies on the bench, the Republicans can't find a federal court that is activist enough to do something blatantly unconstitutional... but the Supreme Court hasn't weighed in yet, so there's hope.
  • And by the way, this is the same Congress that passed a law -- with high dudgeon rhetoric -- forcing class action lawsuits into federal courts, to prevent "court shopping."
  • The Supreme Court has weighed in and will not act. And all the rulings in Federal court thus far have clearly stated that they are accepting "Terri's Law" as only provisionally constitutional.
• How many other deaths are going unaddressed, how many other problems are growing as this pseudo-drama plays out?
• Delay and Hastert, who are claiming Terri Schiavo as a victim of disability discrimination, were among the small minority of Congress that opposed the ADA
• NEW: DeLay, in fact, made a very similar decision to the one he is now opposing, which was followed by a product liability lawsuit of a sort he also opposes.
• NEW: Would stem cell research have helped Terri Schiavo? Maybe, but but we won't know because of DeLay and the anti-research right.
• Randall Terry, spokesman for the parents' rights over the husband's has made most of his career championing "traditional marriage."
• Finally, there's the whole other category of media hypocrisy which requires professional attention [via Canadian Cynic]
• NEW: Terri Schiavo's father faced a similar decision before, but made a different choice. [also via Canadian Cynic]

Obviously, there's no clearly good solution to this problem... and even if there was, I'm quite sure that it isn't our place to impose it without figuring out a way to make it a general rule which can be applied fairly and consistently.

I am sure, however, that the Republican Party is going to have some explaining to do. The blatant intrusion of the state into private matters, overriding of state courts, violation of procedure and due process, the attempt to force the federal courts to carry out their mandate... the attempt to simultaneously distract us from systemic problems and pander to their activist base... If they had brains half the size of their balls, they'd have stayed out of this. If they had souls and hearts....