It seems that the Terri Schiavo issue just won't go away.
From the Associated Press:
Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday that a prosecutor as agreed to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, citing an alleged time gap between when her husband Michael Schiavo found her and when he called 911.
It seems that the Republican Party, Gov. Jeb Bush, Karl Rove, Operation Rescue's Terry Randall, and the rest of the Religious Right, are pretty sore that they lost their battle in keeping Terri Schiavo's feeding tube connected. Since Michael Schiavo was able to win his battle against Rove, the Bush brothers, and the Religious Right, in allowing Terri Schiavo to die, now the Religious Right wants to continue to destroy Michael Schiavo by launching this investigation into an alleged "time gap" of when he saw her, and when he called 911. This is crass vilification--a revenge by conservatives against an individual who took on the Republicans and the Religious Right in an issue, and was able to beat them. What do you think is going to happen when this special prosecutor--appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of President Bush--starts digging into this time gap? He's going to start digging for dirt which will hopefully lead to purported allegations that Michael Shiavo had killed, or "murdered," his wife Terri. These allegations will then be conveniently leaked to the press. The Republican Party and the Religious Right will use those press reports in denouncing Michael Shiavo as being a murderer. Michael Shiavo murdered his wife Terri. Karl Rove and the Republicans will continue to pound this theme over and over again to the American public, until the American public--more importantly, the white, Christian evangelicals--believe it to be true. The Republicans will galvanize their evangelical Christian voters in supporting their Republican candidates, their hard-line social conservative agenda, and their corporate pro-business agenda.
With the war in Iraq continuing to go downhill, with more Americans starting to worry about jobs and the economy, with President Bush's and Congressional Republican's public opinion poll numbers starting to slide, the Republican Party is finding that their grip on power is starting to fail. The 2006 elections is only a year away. The only means that the Republican Party can maintain their control in Congress is to ratchet up the debate on social issues and hope that the American public will ignore their own deteriorating economic conditions. Thus, the Republicans have to keep Terri Schiavo in the news. They have to keep their own conservative base solidly behind them, while trying to strip away the moderates and independents who may be concerned with social issues.
That's the reason that Jeb Bush is calling for this investigation by a prosecutor. It can also be good PR for appeasing the Religious Right, if brother Jeb ever decides to run for president after brother George steps down in 2008.
It is not about Terri Schiavo.
There's a great comment on a post on Watertiger's blog
ReplyDeleteMike: It is a great comment from Watertiger's blog. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt is all abotu politics. It is all about the smear, and rancor, where one political side tries to demonize the other political side in order to gain more power, where they can push more of their extremist agenda down the other side's throats. The Republican Party has mastered this art of the campaign. One has to wonder when the Democrats will stand up and start pushing back just as hard. And maybe, if the Democrats can push back as hard against the Republicans, the Republicans will realize that they're destroying themselves as well as the country. Then, maybe, we'll get both sides to come together at the bargaining table to seriously solve these problems.
But I doubt that will ever happen.