Congressional Republicans and President Bush have seized upon the Terri Schiavo case with such fervor that they may find themselves out in front of an American public that is divided over right-to-die issues and deeply leery of government intrusion into family affairs, according to analysts and polls.
Dominating a debate that many Democrats seem eager to avoid, conservative lawmakers and the White House have taken extraordinary steps to allow a federal judge to override the decisions of Florida courts to remove the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube. Antiabortion activists, a key GOP constituency, have cheered the moves, which included Bush rushing back to Washington to sign the bill in the dead of night after a rare Palm Sunday congressional session.
In another sign of the priority that the GOP has placed on the Schiavo matter, they have let it trump their traditional calls for a limited federal judiciary and respecting the "sanctity of marriage."
Bush said yesterday that his decision to fly back from his Texas ranch to the White House to sign the legislation gave Schiavo's parents "another opportunity to save their daughter's life." Speaking in Tucson before an event promoting his plan to restructure Social Security, he said: "This is a complex case with serious issues. But in extraordinary circumstances like this, it is wise to err on the side of life."
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Rather than incurring the cost of flying back to Washington on Air Force One -- pegged in 1999 at $34,000 an hour -- Bush could have signed the bill in Texas a few hours later without significantly endangering Schiavo's life, critics said. Not only had doctors estimated that she could live for up to two weeks without the feeding tube, but a federal judge was not expected to hear the case until today.
"Obviously, Bush could have signed the bill in Texas," said Dan Bartlett, a senior counselor to Bush. But, he added, despite the estimates of how long Schiavo could live without her feeding tube, "it would be very hard for anyone to live with themselves" if Schiavo died because of a delay in the signing of the bill into law.
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