Posted on 04/03/2005 4:15:09 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Anyone would think it was the Republicans who'd lost the 2004 elections, and the 2002 elections, and the 2000 elections. From every corner, concerned "friends" of the party rise to offer "friendly" advice. Norman Lear, who produced all those critically acclaimed issue-confronting heroine-gets-an-abortion '70s sitcoms that seem a lot more dated than ''The Beverly Hillbillies'' these days, has now produced a People For the American Way ad in which a man who identifies himself as a "common sense Republican" objects to any attempt to end the Democratic filibuster of Bush's judicial nominees. As things turn out, the "common sense Republican" has so much common sense he's an official with a union that endorsed John Kerry.
Then there's the 59 striped-pants colossi of the Nixon-Ford-Reagan State Department who've sent a letter to the Senate calling on them to reject John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador. According to the Associated Press report, the signatories include:
"Princeton Lyman, ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria under Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton; Monteagle Stearns, ambassador to Greece and Ivory Coast in the Ford, Carter and Reagan administrations; and Spurgeon Keeny Jr., deputy director of the Arms Control Agency in the Carter administration."
Princeton Lyman? Monteagle Stearns? Spurgeon Keeny Jr.? If Norman Lear's shows had wacky characters like that, they'd still be in syndication. It's a good rule of thumb that anything 59 economists, bureaucrats or diplomats are prepared to sign an open letter objecting to is by definition a good thing. But that goes double when the 59 panjandrums lined up against you are Princeton Monteagle Jr., President Nixon's ambassador to the Spurgeon Islands; Spurgeon Monkfish III, President Ford's ambassador to the Lyman Islands; Dartmouth Monticello IV, President Johnson's personal emissary to His Serene Highness the Monteagle of Keeny; Columbia Long-Playing-Album, the first diplomat to be named by President Carter to the State Department's Name Control Agency; and Vasser Peachy-Keeny, the first woman to be named Vasser Peachy-Keeny. One sees their point, of course: Let a fellow called "John" Bolton become ambassador and next thing you know Earl and Bud will want the gig.
Even Sen. John Danforth, who should know better, got in on the act, taking half a page in the New York Times to give the Full Monteagle to the "religious right." Blog maestro Andrew Sullivan decided that America was witnessing a "conservative crack-up" over Terri Schiavo and the embrace of her cause by extreme right wing fundamentalist theocrat zealots like, er, Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader. Sullivan was last predicting a "conservative crack-up" during the impeachment era, on the grounds (if I recall correctly) that Republican moralizing would dramatically cut into Strom Thurmond's share of the gay vote. In the '90s, the Weekly Standard ran innumerable special editions devoted to the subject: Conservative Crack-Up; Conservative Crack-Up 2; Conservative Crack-Up -- The Musical; Abbott And Costello Meet The Conservative Crack-Up; Conservative Crack-Up On Elm Street; Four Weddings And A Conservative Crack-Up; Rod Stewart Sings Timeless Favorites From The Great Conservative Crack-Up, etc.
The point to bear in mind when Hollywood producers, State Department diplomats, respected senators, gay mavericks, the New York Times and the rest of the media offer conservatives advice is a simple one: As that great self-esteem volume has it, He's Really Not That Into You. The preferred media Republican is an amiable loser: the ne plus ultra of GOP candidates was the late Fred Tuttle, the lame, wizened idiot dairy farmer put up for a joke against Sen. Patrick Leahy in Vermont. But, if they can't get that lucky, the media will gladly take a Bob Dole type, a decent old no-hoper who goes down to predictable defeat and gets rave reviews for being such a good loser. Republicans could well run into trouble in 2006 and 2008, but for being insufficiently conservative on things like immigration rather than for anything the media claim they're cracking up over.
The notion, for example, that poor Terri Schiavo will cost Republicans votes in a year and a half's time is ludicrous. The best distillation of the pro-Schiavo case was made by James Lileks, the bard of Minnesota, responding to the provocateur Christopher Hitchens' dismissal of her as a "non-human entity." "It is not wise," wrote Lileks, "to call people dead before they are actually, well, dead. You can be 'as good as dead' or 'brain dead' or 'close to death,' but if the heart beats and the chest rises, I think we should balk at saying this constitutes dead, period."
Just so. Once you get used to designating living, breathing bodies as "non-human entities," it's easy to bandy them ever more carelessly -- as they do in the eminently progressive Netherlands, where their relaxed attitude to pot and prostitution led to a relaxed attitude to euthanasia which looks like relaxing the Dutch people right out of business. It's all done quietly over there -- no fuss, no publicity; you go in to hospital with a heavy cold and you're carried out by the handles. (By "handles," I mean a coffin, not a ceremonial phalanx of Monteagles and Princetons.) But that's not the American way. This is a legalistic society, where grade schools can't have kids knocking a ball around without getting a gazillion dollars worth of liability insurance. I was in Price Chopper the other day and they had a little basket of Easter samples on display accompanied by a page of full print outlining the various sub-clauses of the company's "tasting policy." That's America. In Holland, you can taste a cookie without signing a legal waiver, and, if you get food poisoning from it, the doctor will discreetly euthanize you to avoid putting your family through the trauma of waiting six hours for the stomach pump to become available. That's not how the American cookie crumbles. Euthanasia here will be a 10-year court culminating in slow-motion public execution played out on the 24-hour cable channels.
The Republicans did the right thing here, and they won't be punished for it by the electors. As with abortion, this will be an issue where the public moves slowly but steadily toward the conservative position: Terri Schiavo's court-ordered death will not be without meaning. As to "crack-ups," that's only a neurotic way of saying that these days most of the intellectual debate is within the right. If, like the Democrats, all you've got are lockstep litmus tests on race and abortion and all the rest, what's to crack up over? You just lose elections every two years, but carry on insisting, as Ted Kennedy does, that you're still the majority party. Ted's quite a large majority just by himself these days, but it's still not enough.
I wasn't on Free Republic when Karen Quinlan was in the news so I can't answer that. Maybe laws do need to be changed, but more importantly, current laws need to be followed. I work for lawyers and they agree Michael should have been removed as guardian when he admitted to openly living with another woman and having children with her. To me, that's the bottom line and had that been done as required by law, Terri would probably still be alive.
We are willing to discuss and debate without being labeled Nazis.
I would have been one of the 70%. The reason is that the phrase " Persistent Vegetative State " was always used in describing her condition, and was used in the often quoted poll.
When the video her parents took of her, was finally shown on TV, ( in violation of a court order, I believe. ) I instantly realized that I had been duped. What we have here is nothing short of a conspiracy to commit murder. A killing for convenience.
My " Advance Directive ( Living Will ) " on file at the VA hospital will be cancelled at my next visit.
Thanks for the ping "BTTT"!
They have a paralyzing fear of having their noble reputations tainted.
No, we have a paralyzing fear that Newt's victory of '94 and the subsequent increases we've enjoyed in the Congress have been destroyed by the bible thumpers...present company hopefully excepted.
A huge part of the republican party is the religious wing with very strong convictions.
The passion and emotion displayed here recently are evidence of those convictions.
If our party can not take serious debate among us then we might as well drink Koolaid.
My thoughts are that the Republican's will hold together not despite our heated debates but because we have the flexibility and strength to allow them.
As usual thanks for the *PING* Pokey78
No one was. It was in 1976. Karen Ann Quinlan was in a coma and was on a respirator. I believe her mother AND the hospital petitioned the court to allow the respirator to be turned off and they did not want to face murder charges. At no time was nutrition and hydration deprivation mentioned. She lived for 9 years after her respirator was removed, never regaining consciousness.
At the time, many expressed their desire not to be in the same position. And probably would again today if they saw it on the news.
But, the case was NOTHING like Terri's, in that she was not conscious and starvation/dehydration was not considered.
Exactly. Good post!
I know about the case - I just meant we didn't have the same communications (internet) in 1976 and if we had, things probably would have been like Terri's case. Starving and dehydrating a person can never be right.
If by "heat" you mean hatred, bigotry and ad hominem attacks, we did. We welcome anyone to discuss this..however, for our own "safety" we've been relegated to the smokey back room. ;^)
A huge part of the republican party is the religious wing with very strong convictions.
Not that "huge" IMO. I'm describing the voter who can't have a simple conversation without mentioning "god". Those IMO are the most dangerous to what should be the number one priority...getting consevative judges appointed.
The passion and emotion displayed here recently are evidence of those convictions.
You misspelled hatred and bigotry, IMO.
If our party can not take serious debate among us then we might as well drink Koolaid.
Calling a fellow Republican a Nazi and Pro-death, etc., is not serious debate, IMO.
My thoughts are that the Republican's will hold together not despite our heated debates but because we have the flexibility and strength to allow them.
...obviously not here in FreeRepublic forum however.
Agreed.
So let's call it even and get on with it.
Hey fine by me, but it doesn't sound like the pity party is over for some.
That's like saying all businessmen are corrupt, etc.
You left the GOP? Okay, then.
See ya! And I wouldn't want to be ya.
If starving and dehydration had come into it, yes, it probably would have been the same. But she obviously continued to have food and water for those 9 additional years.
Why no, in fact they aren't.
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