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Wednesday, March 23, 2005
They’re At It Again, Maybe
Michelle Malkin has the story:
Power Line wants to know who wrote and circulated the unsigned memo about the Schiavo case that was circulated to Senate Republicans last week.Cynthia Tucker says in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the memo was passed around by "an anonymous GOP strategist." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said the memo was circulated by "party leaders." Citing the Washington Post, Chris Matthews said the memo was circulated by "the Senate leadership." In an editorial titled "Exploiting Terri Schiavo," the Boston Globe says it was distributed by "Republican leaders." The Globe attributes this information to the two MSM outlets that broke the story: ABC News and the Post.
But neither ABC News nor the Post is saying who wrote and circulated the memo. Indeed, despite an ABC News headline characterizing the memo as "GOP talking points," I haven't been able to find a single instance in which any ABC News or Post reporter claimed that the memo was written by someone affiliated with the Republican Party. ABC's Linda Douglass, who first broke the story on Friday March 18, said only that "ABC News has obtained talking points circulated among Republican Senators, explaining why they should vote to intervene in the Schiavo case...."
Negative politics -- attacking one’s opponents’ putative sins instead of trumpeting one’s own virtues -- has become de rigueur in these United States. It syncs well with the popular distrust of politicians; people are quite willing to believe the worst about the men who vie for political office. Therefore, scandals like the "Killian memos" attack on President Bush, just before Election 2004, are powerfully appealing to the tacticians in the major parties. This could well turn out to be the latest venture of that kind.
The Democrats' main line of attack on the Republicans in recent years has been that the GOP's leaders and spokesmen are hypocrites: that their expressed convictions are insincere and were sculpted strictly for political advantage. The Terri Schiavo case is grist for that mill. If it could be shown that GOP legislators elected to intervene in the affair not out of a deep regard for the sanctity of life but for political gains with the electorate, the gains would flow instead to the Democrats.
Of course, none of this is rocket science, especially not to Eternity Road's readers. But that the possibility leaps so quickly to mind shows that the public's memory for such machinations might be a bit longer, and its distaste a bit stronger, than the political mechanics would like to think.
Comments
Fran,
The Repubs are hypocrites! No I didn’t vote for the dem’s either. I have decided that none of them are worthy of my precious vote.
Any “freedom loving person would never vote for either party”.
Posted by freedom42 on 03/23/2005 at 11:44 AMIf the Memo is fake, why did so many Republicans use the same language?
“She’s never had independent counsel and I think that if Ted Bundy, as a mass murderer gets lawyer and get access to court, Terri Schiavo as a disabled lady should get the same.” - Gibbs, Schindler lawyers
“When it comes to federal legal protection, Terri Schiavo ranks below Ted Bundy, and when it comes to protection from suffering, she ranks below an unwanted pet.” - Catholic Culture
“If we accord that right to someone like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy, shouldn’t we give at least equal protection to someone with a disability, charged with no crime, who is at risk of being starved and dehydrated to death?” - National Right To Life
“Like it or not, convicted murderers Ted Bundy and Danny Rolling received more due-process protections than Terri Schiavo, a person utterly innocent of any wrong-doing.” - Ken Conner, former president of the Family Research Council
“He continues to promote the interests of Michael Schiavo by refusing Terri the right to independent counsel, a right which even serial killers like Ted Bundy received.” - Bonnie Chernin Rogoff, GOPUSA.com
“If the proceedings that led up to the execution of serial-killer Ted Bundy had been handled in the same way, Bundy’s conviction would have been overturned.” - Florida State Sen. Daniel Webster
“If we accord that right to someone like John Wayne Gacy or Ted Bundy, shouldn’t we give at least equal protection to someone with a disability, charged with no crime, who is at risk of being starved and dehydrated to death?” - conservativealerts.com
“This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy."- Traditional Values Coalition
Posted by on 03/23/2005 at 11:27 PMFran,
Cleanup needed, aisle 2000.Posted by Pascal Fervor on 03/24/2005 at 12:38 AM
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