Posted on 08/24/2006 6:50:14 PM PDT by wjersey
THE EYES of the political world will be on us come fall. Pennsylvania is home to the hottest Senate race and three of the most contested House races in the nation. The outcome of the Santorum-Casey, Fitzpatrick-Murphy, Gerlach-Murphy and Weldon-Sestak races could determine control of Congress.
The vulnerability of many GOPers is war-related. But there are also important social issues, notably the attempted intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo.
Some clues on that might be found in Connecticut, which just had a bruising Democratic primary between Joseph Lieberman and Ned Lamont. Not only did they differ on the war, but also the Schiavo case. In fact, Ned Lamont welcomed Michael Shiavo at a statehouse campaign appearance.
"I am a staunch believer in government staying out of private lives... Lieberman believes government should rule lives," Michael Schiavo told me this week.
Michael Schiavo has formed TerriPac, a political fund-raiser, to get involved in races where those who opposed him in the battle over his wife are standing for re-election. He has taken a position in Florida congressional races, its gubernatorial election and two congressional races in Colorado. He has a stump speech that he delivered in Connecticut.
"I bring up points about what they did to myself and Terri, interfering in our decision about end of life. I have points about Bill Frist and Tom DeLay, and comments they made. They never even met Terri, never knew Terri. Rick Santorum, who drove down on the campaign trail to raise money for Terri's hospice, stood outside and made comments and never even met my wife Terri."
Ah, Rick Santorum.
Schiavo's invoking of Santorum's name raises an interesting question: To what extent will he seek to influence the outcome of that and the other hotly contested Pennsylvania races?
"Casey agrees also that government should run your life, should be involved with that. I'll play some role in that race, campaigning and reminding people what both gentlemen did. Both are wrong; neither one of the gentlemen are good for us. We need to find another path."
I asked Sen. Santorum about the prospect of Schiavo campaigning against him.
"He went into Connecticut, and he could go into every single member of the U.S. Senate who was in office the last couple of years and do the same thing because my vote was no different than every other member of the... Senate because it was a unanimous decision...
"So if Michael Schiavo wants to... campaign against every other incumbent U.S. senator, he's free to do so, and that's all I have to say about it."
And what does Schiavo have to say about the congressional races in our area?: "I will be there for anyone who needs my support. If they are good and the believe politics do not play a part in any of our personal or private affairs - I will be there to support them whether they are Democrats or Republicans."
So far, he told me, no one has invited him.
Says political consultant Larry Ceisler: "I am not surprised at all. Michael Schiavo is radioactive. But at the same time, if I was running a campaign against Santorum, I wouldn't mind if he showed up in town, and I'd be snickering in the back of the room."
Michael Schiavo was a Republican until last year, when he joined the Democrats. I wondered what had initially drawn him to the Republican Party given that the GOP standard-bearer interrupted his summer vacation to return to Washington in his PJs just to get involved in the Schiavo case.
"I believed in what they were doing at the time, and I went with it. Now doing what they've done to me, the Republicans started this - the Republicans did this. I don't want to be on that team. They started the fight, not me.
"Whatever your choice is, it is your own personal choice. There should not be another American, another government, telling you that you are wrong. I might have my belief but I have no right to impose it or throw it on somebody else who doesn't believe in what I do."
Apart from the issue that now defines him publicly, the nursing supervisor told me he is "mostly conservative."
"I'm a live-and-let-live guy," he said, which I am sure some will find ironic.
How do you know? How do YOU know that God didn't want Terri to come "home"? You don't know WHAT God's tools are, or what He hurtles he has to leap over these days when he wants one of his children to be with him. You see? You don't know. You can't! All you can do is either pray for her soul and pray to God that she's at peace, OR you can spend those moments you could have been praying just hating, and hating the perceived unfairness of it all from your mortal viewpoint.
You keep saying things like that. "IF God wanted....."; "God wouldn't need....". I rest my case. You keep acting as if YOU know what God wants, or what God needs, and you can't possibly know that unless YOU are God.
BTW, if you are God, I'm sorry. But you should have said so and I wouldn't have defended You so vehemently. ;)
Yeah, Mike, that's because you wouldn't allow anyone in to visit with her, and needed to keep her isolated behind your curtain so you could have everyone believe that she was a "vegetable," when in fact, she was fighting for her life.
"[...] the Republicans started this [...] They started the fight, not me."
Actually Mike, YOU started this when you went to court to try to secure permission to starve your wife to death so you could get on with the life you'd already been carrying on with your girlfriend, whom you were living wiht, along with the 2 kids you had with her while your "wife" was suffering in a hospice.
"I'm a live-and-let-live guy," he said
Yeah, live and let live, as long as it's not your wife. Then you're a "live and let starve to death" guy.
No she wasn't.
Because He told us, of course. You are no tool of God when you do things that God calls, quote, "cursed" [Matthew 25:41].
Imagine Terri is dying of thirst in front of you. Would you give her a drink, or would you dither around trying to read God's mind and decide whether you were God's tool by letting her die?
Jesus would give her a drink.
25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
25:35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in....
Guess he had more money in Terri's trust fund than was reported. Political activism of this kind takes money.
Why, yes, mine is a mortal point of view. What's yours?
Not died, murdered!
Speaking of maxims.
June Maxam of North Country Gazette coined a new one:
"Michael Schiavo, the poor man's Kevin Federline!"
The democrats debating for governor the other night called it "stopping Terri Schiavo".
Stopping is now another word for "murder" but you won't find it listed as such in a thesaurus.
So Terri Schiavo has been troublesome to you for 16 years? Why haven't you moved on after all that time?
Sure is. This guy is an opportunist of the lowest order.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.