Disgusting

I can appreciate that well-intentioned people can reach reasonable disagreements about the fate of Terri Schiavo, but like Kevin Drum and Jesse Taylor, I can’t help but feel this stunt defies all reasonable standards of decency.

Republican leaders in Congress moved today to prevent the removal of a feeding tube from a brain-damaged Florida woman, saying they would subpoena her to appear on Capitol Hill and thus require that she be kept alive.

The congressional intervention introduced a new twist into the case of Terri Schiavo, who lives in a persistent vegetative state in a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla. The woman, who has been kept alive by a feeding tube for the past 15 years after suffering severe brain damage, has been at the center of a dispute between her husband, who wants to remove the tube, and her parents, who want to keep it in place.

The parents’ position has drawn the support of right-to-life groups, including anti-abortion activists. It has also won backing from Florida’s Republican governor, Jeb Bush, and congressional Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois.

“The Senate and the House remain dedicated to saving Terri Schiavo’s life,” Frist said in a statement today. “While discussions over possible legislative remedies continue, the Senate and the House are taking action to keep her alive in the interim.” He said the chairman of the Senate Health Committee has requested the presence of Terri Schiavo and her husband, Michael Schiavo, at a hearing on March 28 regarding “health care provided to non-ambulatory persons.”

I’m sorry, but this sheer lunacy. Senate Republicans are abusing their power in ways I never even thought possible.

Kevin’s point may be the most important one here. This is obviously just an ideological stunt — Republicans know it’s illegal to interfere with a Senate subpoena — but the practical implications raise nightmarish possibilities: Terri Schiavo can’t testify. As Kevin put it:

What are they going to do? Wheel her into a committee room under the klieg lights so the whole country can gape in wonderment at a comatose woman? Why not just set up a circus freak show on Capitol Hill and be done with it?

The mind, even more than usual, reels.