Sullivan and Danforth agree that the vote by the Republican majority in the U.S. House and Senate to overrule a state court in the Terri Schiavo case was the final straw in allowing the Christian conservatives to take over the GOP. To them, it signaled the final abandonment of the Republican Party's long-held principle of keeping government out of private family decisions.
Religious right has controlled Republican Party for far too long
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This stuff is so hot, so exciting to the lefties it makes the newest issue of Newsweak with the classic Right to Die Kill:
Caution! Do not schiavo on the hustings or they will make you clean it up.
The issues dominating this election season remain Iraq, terrorism and various scandals, but the Schiavo matter may prove to be a sleeper issue. It has cropped up in contests across the country—from the Florida governor's race to close congressional campaigns in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and points west. Schiavo himself has helped stoke the debate by campaigning for candidates who backed his position on Terri's case and lambasting those who opposed him. Using funds raised by TerriPAC, a political committee he founded last year, he has also given 15 candidates a total of $20,000. All of it is aimed at driving home his message: "Government should not interfere with personal matters," says Schiavo, who still seethes at the memory of Congress's and President Bush's attempts to block removal of Terri's feeding tube.
THE RIGHT TO DIE... Schiavo on the Hustings
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>> They told me they cannot in good conscience vote for Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, because they believe he is under the thumb of powerful Christian leaders.
Well, uh, the Christian coalition didn't do a very good job of controlling the GOP if that's what Danforth thinks. We have two new supreme court justices - that's all. The GOP hasn't done anything else because the courts overrule the congress and the prez all the time and they don't even care.