Feeding tubes and talking points

Via Atrios, No More Mister Nice Blog sees nothing but purity of heart in House Republicans sudden interest in the case of poor Terri Schiavo.

ABC News has obtained talking points circulated among Republican senators explaining why they should vote to intervene in the Schiavo case. Among them: "This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited..." and "This is a great political issue... this is a tough issue for Democrats."

In fact, Democrats are leery of going anywhere near this one. As much as I'd like to see them call this shameless opportunism for what it is -- a GOP effort to take their base's eyes off of failed private accounts, a one-party inability to pass a budget, and Tom DeLay's ethics void, I'd have to be completely free of political cynicism to see nothing but loss for Democrats on this issue.

But it is shameful, surpassing even this week's "The Passion of Mark McGwire" circus (amazingly enough, the same committee seems to be involved in the Schiavo case as well):

Similar subpoenas were issued to Ms. Schiavo's husband and to a hospice administrator. Another subpoena, to Ms. Schiavo, sought only her testimony.

Also yesterday, a Senate committee invited Ms. Schiavo and her husband to appear before it, noting pointedly that it is a federal crime to harm a person called to testify before Congress.

Subpoenaing a woman in a vegetative state to testify; that my friends, is about as disgusting a ploy I can imagine. Republicans in Congress have shed any vestige of decency, humility, and humanity.

And most Consitution experts find that Congress has gone over the edge on this one.