Choice for Me, Not Thee: Thompson & Delay on the Schiavo Affair
As Fred Thompson's discussion of the Terri Schiavo case again highlighted this week, the so-called conservative "culture of life" contains a personal exemption. That is, when it comes to abortion, stem cell research and other such issues, the culture warriors of the right fervently oppose personal choice and potential medical breakthroughs - until they or someone they care about badly needs them. Then, as the likes of Fred Thompson, Tom Delay and Orrin Hatch show, the Republican mantra quickly becomes pro-choice for me, but not for thee.
Consider the case of Fred Thompson. Asked just last month about the 2005 Terri Schiavo controversy, Thompson (to the dismay of the American Taliban stalwarts like James Dobson) did what comes naturally and played dumb:
"I can't pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best. That's going back in history. I don't remember the details of it."
As it turns out, Thompson's Gonzales-esque inability to recall the defining battle in the culture war of 2005 was an evasion. As the New York Times reported, Thompson on Monday revealed that in 2002 his family had faced a similar of end of life decision for his daughter Elizabeth, who never regained consciousness after an accidental drug overdose:
"Obviously, I knew about the Schiavo case. I had to face a situation like that in my own personal life with my own daughter. I am a little bit uncomfortable about that because it is an intensely personal thing with me. These things need to be decided by the family. And I was at that bedside. And I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family."
Complicating matters as he courts the so-called Values Voters who dominate the GOP primaries, Fred Thompson on Monday essentially agreed that Terri Schiavo's husband Michael was right all along:
"It should be decided by the families - the federal government and the state government too, except for the court system, ought to stay out of those matters as far as I am concerned."
While Fred Thompson is at least willing to grant that other families should have the right to make the most difficult, private and personal decisions impacting their lives, Schiavo inquisitor and former House Majority Leader Tom Delay would have none of it. It was Delay who led Congressional Republicans in calling for federal judicial intervention in the Schiavo case, a bill signed by President Bush on March 21, 2005. But when all courts state and federal consistently ruled in favor of Michael Schiavo, Delay issued a statement on March 31st threatening the judges involved:
"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another."
But that fate had already befallen someone very close to Tom Delay: his own father. In 1988, Delay and his family chose to end life support for their 65 year old father, severely injured in a tragic accident:
"There was no point to even really talking about it," Maxine DeLay, the congressman's 81-year-old mother, recalled in an interview last week. "There was no way he (Charles) wanted to live like that. Tom knew, we all knew, his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."
Doctors advised that he would "basically be a vegetable," said the congressman's aunt, JoAnne DeLay.
When the man's kidneys failed, the DeLay family decided against connecting him to a dialysis machine. "Extraordinary measures to prolong life were not initiated," said his medical report, citing "agreement with the family's wishes." His bedside chart carried the instruction: "Do Not Resuscitate."
On Dec. 14, 1988, the senior DeLay "expired with his family in attendance."
(In a further irony for the tort reform crusader Delay, his family filed a product liability lawsuit and later received a $250,000 settlement.)
And so it goes. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch is one the leaders of the pro-life movement on Capitol Hill. But when it comes to stem cell research, he parts company with his culture of life conservative colleagues in the Republican Party. Why? Because, as he told Rachel Gotbaum of the New England Journal of Medicine, he had seen first hand the tragedy of diseases for which stem cell research held the promise of future cures:
RG: You're a pro-life Republican.
Orrin Hatch: That's right.
RG: Did something happen? Did a case come up? What was the turning point?
OH: Well, there was a case. I can't say that it was the only reason why my mind was changed, but there was a little Utah boy - he was 4 years of age - who was brought to me. His name was Cody Anderson. He was 4 years of age, and you can imagine the horror his family had when they found out that he had exactly the same virulent diabetic condition that his grandfather had, who died at the premature age of 47 due to complications of diabetes after a series of something like 27 painful and debilitating and ultimately unsuccessful operations. I can still remember that little exhausted boy falling peacefully asleep in his father's arms in my office as his family visited me in support of more funding for diabetes research. It dawned on me that we owe the best we can to these kids.
Fred Thompson will no doubt face yet more admonishment from leaders of the religious right uncomfortable with the political implications of his personal tragedy. Expect their retribution to continue until they suffer similar personal tragedies of their own.
It seems pretty obvious that the Republican Party is in total ideological disarray.
Come the election, the Democrats could make hay simply by taking the conflicting statements of whomever the Repubs choose as a presidential candidate and broadcasting the contradictions. End up with a slogan like, "If you're not sure which Rudy/Mitt/insert candidate name here/ you're voting for, you're not alone. Vote for Hillary/Barak/John/insert candidate name here instead."
But I'm terrified that one how or another we're gonna blow it and we'll end up with yet another Republlicreep.
Yours crankily,