Posted on 03/26/2005 12:30:11 PM PST by iamontherightofit
March 24, 2005 OP-ED COLUMNIST DeLay, Deny and Demagogue By MAUREEN DOWD
h my God, we really are in a theocracy.
Are the Republicans so obsessed with maintaining control over all branches of government, and are the Democrats so emasculated about not having any power, that they are willing to turn the nation into a wholly owned subsidiary of the church?
The more dogma-driven activists, self-perpetuating pols and ratings-crazed broadcast media prattle about "faith," the less we honor the credo that a person's relationship with God should remain a private matter.
As the Bush White House desperately maneuvers in Iraq to prevent the new government from being run according to the dictates of religious fundamentalists, it desperately maneuvers here to pander to religious fundamentalists who want to dictate how the government should be run.
Maybe President Bush should spend less time preaching about spreading democracy around the world and more time worrying about our deteriorating democracy.
Even some Republicans seemed appalled at this latest illustration of Nietzsche's observation that "morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose."
As Christopher Shays, one of five House Republicans who voted against the bill to allow the Terri Schiavo case to be snatched from Florida state jurisdiction and moved to federal court, put it: "This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy. There are going to be repercussions from this vote."
A CBS News poll yesterday found that 82 percent of the public was opposed to Congress and the president intervening in this case; 74 percent thought it was all about politics.
The president, who couldn't be dragged outdoors to talk about the more than a hundred thousand people who died in the horrific tsunami, was willing to be dragged out of bed to sign a bill about one woman his base had fixated on. But with the new polls, the White House seemed to shrink back a bit.
The scene on Capitol Hill this past week has been almost as absurdly macabre as the movie "Weekend at Bernie's," with Tom DeLay and Bill Frist propping up between them this poor woman in a vegetative state to indulge their own political agendas. Mr. DeLay, the poster child for ethical abuse, wanted to show that he is still a favorite of conservatives. Dr. Frist thinks he can ace out Jeb Bush to be 44, even though he has become a laughingstock by trying to rediagnose Ms. Schiavo's condition by video.
As one disgusted Times reader suggested in an e-mail: "Americans ought to send Bill Frist their requests: 'Dear Dr. Frist: Please watch the enclosed video and tell us if that mole on my mother's cheek is cancer. Does she need surgery?' "
Jeb, keeping up with the '08 competition, vainly tried to get Florida to declare Ms. Schiavo a ward of the state.
Republicans easily abandon their cherished principles of individual privacy and states' rights when their personal ambitions come into play. The first time they snatched a case out of a Florida state court to give to a federal court, it was Bush v. Gore. This time, it's Bush v. Constitution.
While Senate Democrats like Hillary Clinton, who are trying to curry favor with red staters, meekly allowed the shameful legislation to be enacted, at least some Floridian House members decided to put up a fight, though they knew they couldn't win.
The president and his ideological partners don't believe in separation of powers. They just believe in their own power. First they tried to circumvent the Florida courts; now they're trying to pack the federal bench with trustworthy conservatives and even blow up the filibuster rule. But they may yet learn a lesson on checks and balances, as the federal courts rebuffed them in the Schiavo case.
Mr. DeLay moved yesterday to file a friend of the court brief with the Supreme Court asking that Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube be restored while the federal court is deciding what to do. But as he exploits this one sad case, Mr. DeLay has voted to slash Medicaid by $15 billion, denying money to care for poor people in nursing homes, some on feeding tubes.
Mr. DeLay made his personal stake clear at a conference last Friday organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. He said that God had brought Terri Schiavo's struggle to the forefront "to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America." He defined that as "attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others."
So it's not about her crisis at all. It's about his crisis.
I don't know which is more lame...
MoDo, or the DUer trying to sneak in while avoiding an impeding ZOT! from a Viking Kitty attack?
Jack.
Furfthermore, liberals believe the problems with affordable health care are present only because Republicans don't want to fix them. They have no solution other than to mimic countries like Great Britain and Canada who have traded quality healthcare for universal health care. It's part of the plan by the liberals to make people dependent and if they ever get universal health care they will turn to housing and demand free housing for everyone. There is no end to their agenda until everyone has to bow to their idol of socialism.
I just sent an e-mail to CZJ's fan website, explaining how there is this conservative political website, Free Republic, and that we often discuss Maureen Dowd's columns, ( gave her several links to prove the point..) and they are never well-received here, and we have a firm rule that every time one of Dowd's columns appears, one, or more, of us MUST post a pic of CZJ..and I thought it would be lovely if she would send along a pic autographed as follows: "To all Freepers, you're the best...regards...Catherine.."
if, or perhaps, WHEN it arrives, I shall post it, and you all can eat your hearts out...
I am not familiar with that credo. I always thought that we were to share our faith and spread the word. But I'm not a super-intelligent-in-all-matters columnist for the New York Times, so I guess I will have to take MoDo's word on that...
(Quizzical Smiley.)
-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)
Dear Mo,
After having read your various screeds over the years, I have come to the conclusion you are without doubt brain dead. I have petitioned Judge George Greer to withhold all forms of nutrition and hydration. It's for your own good as well as society's.
Please accept your fate without complaint. Please do not ask the courts, the Congress, the President or the Governor for releif. Please do not complain about your rights as an American citizen being violated. You don't respect those rights for others, I don't respect those rights for you.
Sincerely,
Bye, iamontherightofit."He's dead, Jim!"
I can think of at least a couple of reasons.
You're fairly verbose even though you are an idiot.
But on the bright side, thanks for the M Dowd post so we can get those great pics of CZJ.
Has anyone noticed how many posters have gotten their accounts suspended lately? Seems like a lot. Is it because our own Freepers are divided on this issue, or is it because we're being inundated by lefties of late?
Yes, they go to college, they learn how to string sentences together to seem informed, and often almost persuasive, but in the end sophistry comes through.
What's the fixation with the left on this issue?
Abortion. Pure and simple.
Since for me, there is more to living that seeing perverts feel "good" about themselves I can amuse myself watching them contort everything that happens into a giant battle of wild-eyed religious right against the forces of a kinder and gentler Beelzebub.
It is great sport.
Because most of them can enjoy healthcare but choose other priorities.
Aside from that, explain how anyone's inability to afford anything grants them license to pick my pocket with the government's guns to back them up?
What does that image represent?
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