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March 25, 2005

Absolute power corrupts

NYT:

Help Save Terri Schiavo's Life!" says the Web site of the Traditional Values Coalition, a Christian conservative group best known for its campaigns against gay rights. Next to a link to the Web site of her parents' foundation is a pitch to "become an active supporter of the Traditional Values Coalition by pledging a monthly gift."

Get Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted by giving money to an anti-gay Christian group. Nice.

The money changers are gathering at the Temple.

This case is bringing out the uglier elements of the Republican Party. Not that it's especially difficult to get them to show up, as First Reads at MSNBC details:

But consider what's going on now. The judges involved are under protection. Schindler family ally and anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is threatening political retribution. Pat Robertson on CNN said the case approaches "judicial murder." A man was arrested in Seminole, FL after wielding a box cutter in an effort to steal a gun so he could, as he said, rescue Schiavo. Some advocates for the replacement of Schiavo's feeding tube are urging Governor Bush to attempt to do so by force.

It's like the Republicans are handing out insane pills. And when Randall Terry is involved, violence is entirely possible.

Worse yet though, is the "activist judiciary" meme. Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is complaining that the "The judiciary has circled their wagons, not around the Constitution, not around the law, not around justice, or jurisprudence, but around themselves," said King in a written statement. "They have set themselves up as Supremacists, accountable to no mortal force and in denial of the Immortal Force. No law, however Constitutional, will be beyond the reach of this malignant form of judicial activism."

The activist meme is wearing thin. The citizenry is supposed to believe that all of the judges who've ruled on this case have ruled against the Schindlers based only on their ideology and personal opinion, not the law?

Isn't it possible instead that we're encountering a President and a Congress so drunk with it's own power and so arrogant in it's irresponsibility that they no longer care about the rule of law?

Posted by Carla at March 25, 2005 09:01 AM