An Out of Control "Moral" Majority?
Do you now or have you ever used Steroids? What's next, naming names?
While baseball looks bad for failing to police performance enhancing drug use, existing state and federal laws, not to mention a new League drug policy provide more than adequate tools to address the issue.
The Republican-led Congress on the other hand appears to be out of control, seeking opportunities for political grandstanding wherever they may find them. Emboldened by their recent electoral victories, and prodded by their conservative Christian supporters, Republicans are turning over every rock in search of political opportunities to build their majority in 2006.
Which is why the only person happier than baseball chief Bud Selig to see the Terri Schiavo case catch fire was Republican Whip Tom Delay. The Schiavo case was a two-fer for a scandal plagued Delay and the Republican majority. Not only did it blow news coverage of Delay's dealings off the front page, but according to a report in the Washington Post, a political memo distributed to Republican members of Congress calls the case a "a great political issue" that will appeal to the party base or core supporters."
Never mind that Congress has no jurisdiction in the matter and that the action trashes Constitutional protections of state's rights, conservative Republicans backed by their far right Christian-base see this as a golden opportunity for expanding the "pro-life agenda in the 2006 elections. Apparently the Constitution no longer applies to cases where the religious right wants their way.
As the Los Angeles Times editorial page wrote in "The Midnight Coup" an editorial on the intervention of Congress, "this case once again shows that some social conservatives are happy to see the federal government acquire Stalinist proportions when imposing their morality on the rest of the country."
And so on Monday morning, leaving Ariel Sharon at the ranch to tend the cows, President Bush cut short his Texas vacation to fly back to Washington DC to sign legislation seeking to force the Courts to reinsert a feeding tube into a woman who has been brain dead for fifteen years. Too bad Bush didn't move so quickly to prevent the loss of life when he was presented with a memo detailing an imminent terrorist threat a few years back while on vacation at the Ranch. Maybe we should have had Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council give it to him.
The hypocrisy of the Republicans on this issue knows no bounds. Republican leaders are spouting endlessly about how deeply Republicans care about states rights and how Republicans will protect those rights, and then in the next breath saying that Congress was right to intervene in the Schiavo case.
As I understand their reasoning, states apparently have rights, as long as Republican members of Congress and their conservative Christian supporters agree with them. The Republican majority apparently seems to feel that it can make up the rules as it goes along.
But this Republican hubris is making some folks nervous. In a recent analysis, Gary Langer, director of polling for ABC News, reports that "Americans broadly and strongly disapprove of federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case, with sizable majorities saying Congress is overstepping its bounds for political gain. The ABC News Poll finds that the public, by 63 percent-28 percent, supports the removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, and by a 25-point margin opposes a law mandating federal review of her case. More than two thirds of the public say it is inappropriate for Congress to get involved. The public's sentiments apppear to back Terri Schiavo's husband Mike who on ABC"s Good Morning America news program Monday said "This is a sad day for Terri. But I'll tell you what, it's also is a sad day for everyone in this country because the United States government is going to come in and trample all over your personal, family matters."
"Republicans might want to take a good look at those numbers before they overreach on this issue. And while they are at it, they might want to remember that the United States grew into the world's strongest Democracy by living under the rule of law, not the whims of the religious right.
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