WP: Viewing Videotape, Frist Disputes Fla. Doctors' Diagnosis of Schiavo

[DeepModem Mom]

Viewing Videotape, Frist Disputes Fla. Doctors' Diagnosis of Schiavo

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A15


Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

"I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office," he said in a lengthy speech in which he quoted medical texts and standards. "She certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."

His comments raised eyebrows in medical and political circles alike. It is not every day that a high-profile physician relies on family videotapes to challenge the diagnosis of doctors who examined a severely brain-damaged patient in person. Democrats were quick to note that Frist was getting rave reviews from conservative activists who will play a major role in the 2008 presidential primaries he is weighing.

In addition to the speeches, Frist backed a Senate strategy that threatens criminal sanctions against anyone who keeps Schiavo from attending a Washington hearing next week, to which she and her husband Michael Schiavo were invited early yesterday.

"I suspect that Senator Frist has his eye more on the Iowa caucus than the Hippocratic Oath," said Marshall Wittmann, a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council and former GOP Senate staffer. "This is clearly the politics of the Republican base."...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48119-2005Mar18.html

[Placebo]

1. Is our political system officially in anarchy?

I mean, really. It's like we have no order anymore. All the rules are just thrown out the window at will by these traitors.

[ngGale]

3. Couldn't agree more...

n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

5. I know what you're saying -- it's like things are out of control...

driven by an all-powerful minority of religious zealots and right-wing extremists. It's like nothing is out of bounds anymore -- the bizarre is increasingly commonplace.

[candy331]

9. Might be a good thing to let the Repubs do all the damage they can

to be seen eventually for what they truly are. It is hard and many will suffer but sometimes it takes suffering to get better.

I would surely hope that people would see that many doctors have attended to this woman in person and Frist only by picture, now tell me who would you believe. Is he saying that all these Doctors are mere incompetents? Lord help us all!

[alcuno]

26. I saw Frist speaking to an empty chamber last night. Truly a disgrace.

He had so many facts wrong it was pathetic.

[Placebo]

27. President of the United States, Bill Frist

:scared:

[chomskysright]

71. I don't think so: here is his voting record so far: TAKE HIM DOWN

Delay first, then Frist:


http://forum.truthout.org/blog/story/2005/3/18/11719/9579

drop Veteran's health care
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, *******Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $2.8 billion for veterans health care and $2.8 billion for deficit reduction. That’s a commercial.

voted against funding Medicaid
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, ********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas Voted against restoring $14 billion to Medicaid and establishing a bipartisan Medicaid commission. That’s a commercial.

voted against Homeland security
Republicans Ensign, ***********Frist, Hatch, Kyl, Lott, Santorum and Thomas voted against $855 million for Homeland Security grants for first responder programs, port security grants and border patrol agents. That’s a commercial.

voted against restoring Community Development Block Grant Programs
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, *********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas (funny how the same names keep coming up) voted against restoring $1.9 billion in cuts to the Community Development Block Grant Program. That’s a commercial.

voted against Vocationa Education Act (which helps people get jobs who are disabled or have been unemployed)
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $7.46 billion for the Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act and deficit reduction. Commercial.

voted against education and deficit reduction
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against $4.75 billion for education and $4.75 billion for deficit reduction. Commercial.

voted against increasing Pell Grant (allowing people to move through college)
Republicans Allen, Burns, Ensign, ***********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas voted against restoring $5.4 billion to education program cuts and increasing the maximum Pell Grant award to $4,500. Commercial.

voted against agricultural programs
Republicans put the bricks to farmers: Allen, Burns, Chafee, DeWine, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against restoring $2.8 billion to agriculture programs. Midwest commercial.

voted against family planning
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, **********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Talent and Thomas voted against a resolution supporting $1 billion for family planning programs, such as teen pregnancy prevention. Moral values hypocrisy commercial.

wants to allow prepackaged news to come your way
Republicans Allen, Burns, Chafee, DeWine, Ensign, ***********Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against refusing to establish any appropriations bill that allows funds to be provided for "prepackaged news stories" that do not have a disclaimer stating "Paid for by the United States Government" running throughout the presentation. Commercial.

voted against special education programs
Republicans Allen, Burns, DeWine, Ensign, ************Frist, Hatch, Hutchison, Kyl, Lott, Lugar, Santorum, Snowe, Talent and Thomas voted against a reserve fund that would provide $71.3 billion for special education programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Commercial.

[chomskysright]

72. voted against funding Medicaid

[chomskysright]

73. voted against Veteran's health care

[chomskysright]

74. voted to allow prepackaged news come your way..

[chomskysright]

75. voted against family planning

[chomskysright]

76. voted against increasing Pell Grant

[chomskysright]

77. voted against restoring money to agricultural programs

[chomskysright]

78. voted against Special Education funding for the DISABLED...

[Toots]

81. Kerry's mistake was he ran against Bush* instead of the Republican agenda

If Kerry had run against all of this and used these voting records in commercials we might be addressing President Kerry but didn't work out that way...

[Warpy]

39. maybe the dumb fuck needs to read DU

and check out this stuff on another thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3292852&mesg_id=3293588&page=

No way is Schiavo gonna have a miraculous recovery. Her head is full of goo.

[saigon68]

80. He is a Dumb Fuck and a RIGHT WING FUNDY HATE FANATIC

He is poised for the return of JAYZEUS.

[glitch]

85. Wouldn't it be so great if Jesus did return and rapture all these assholes

the hell off our planet?

There'd be singing and dancing in the streets. Oh yes, dancing.
Boo!

[Hand]

88. I suspect he'd do otherwise...

He'd take one look at them and hurl their sorry asses into the raging Gehenna. Then he'd laugh.

:grr:

[Say_What]

12. With a wannabe dictator and war criminals, what would you expect?

:mad:

[sandnsea]

53. Yep, it's gone

"No little judge down in Florida is going to overule the Congress". Delay said something along those lines earlier today. There are no checks and balances, no state issues, no nothing. These renegade republicans are in complete control.

[acmavm]

2. The is the cheapest, most base and disgusting grandstanding that

I've ever seen in my entire life in politics. Reminds me of an old time tent preacher selling snake oil cures.

There is something really rotten about these people using this woman to further their own personal agendas.

[Frances]

4. Dr. Frist was more interested in making money

than curing patients if this statement is any indication of his integrity.

I think Dr. Frist will be easier to beat than Bush was if he runs against someone like Governor Schweitzer of Montana.

A lot of people were fooled by Bush's macho image, but Frist looks like a wimp to me.

[pokercat999]

48. The last line of your statement says it all.

In Merica today perception is reality. We can only elect "look-good" candidates. I'll bet Hitler "looked-good" to the people of Germany in "33".

Just for that reason I'll bet Frist never gets the Hitlerites nomination which is both good and bad. Good cause he's obviously not qualified, I think you have to be human to be president, and bad because they will pick someone worse.

[xray s]

6. Quack!

Someone should sue him for practicing medicine under the influence of politics.

[Wonk]

15. Meow!

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Bill+Frist%22+cats

[stevedeshazer]

52. NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

EEEEEEEEEEEEkkkk!!!

[stevedeshazer]

51. LOL stop it

Yer killin' me here....

[Say_What]

7. Terri Schiavo: GOPs latest political pawn... politicians are such SCUM...

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[Mari333]

8. If you do anything tonight, or tomorrow

discuss a living will with your spouse or partner. Seriously. When my husband was killed in August, I was rushed to the ER to be told he was "brain dead" and they had him on life support..just a breathing tube..his X rays showed he had bled severely into the brain, and if he had been kept on a breathing tube, he would be in a permanent coma.
Because we had both discussed this possibility, I knew what to do. He asked never to be left a vegetable, and I told the doctors, remove the breathing tube.
I have a living will..I kept my husbands wish also not to be kept alive as a vegetable..
painful as it is, its something every couple needs to discuss.

[DeepModem Mom]

19. Thank you, Mari, for this advice, from your own tragic experience --

:hug:

[concord]

23. (((Mari))) Thank you for sharing this

It's good advice. I'm so sorry for your loss.

[MissB]

31. Oh Mari

:hug:

[Daphne08]

63. My husband and I discussed this

after watching Delay, Sensenbrenner, et al., on C-Span.org tonight. I personally don't believe the federal government should interfere in personal matters such as this. (I also believe it's fairly obvious that Delay is using Terry Schiavo and her family for political gain in light of the recent negative news stories about him, and Dr. Bill Frist, heart and lung surgeon, should know better than to make a neurological diagnosis.)

Anyway, we both stated that we would not wish to live in a vegetative state and we're going to look into making living wills.

[Thor_MN]

10. Would there are be sanctions to anyone who FORCES her to attend?

I say, if you can hand her the supoena and she shows up of her own accord, then go ahead and let her testify. Otherwise, trying to get her to Washington is legislative masterbation. When are they going to understand? No one is home....

[Walt Starr]

11. So a few minutes out of literally hours upon hours of videotape

in a desperate attempt to get something, anything, on tape to *appear* as if she's responding to outside stimuli outweighs pictures of the inside of her skull which reveal there IS NO BRAIN!

Fucking moran(sic).

[cynatnite]

13. He should be stripped of his medical license

What I should be surprised by, and I'm not, is that this guy is 'supposed' to be a doctor. How on earth can he call himself a doctor when he tosses the facts out the window he doesn't like?

[TahitiNut]

36. Absolutely. It's gross medical malpractice.

That obscene wart on the pimpled, shit-laden ass of humanity should be cryogenically excised.

[sonicx]

14. bullshit, they are involuntary reflexes, Mr. "AIDS from Tears"

[leesa]

16. He challenges an established diagnosis by videotape? What

kind of rotten doctor is he? He also thinks you get AIDS from tears

[stopbush]

20. Hey, Bill, I've got videotapes of UFOs and an alien autopsy.

Maybe the Lord wants you to reopen Project Blue Book.

Asshole.

[knitter4democracy]

65. Yeah, video but not MRI, cat scans, or actual tests

So he watched a couple hours of video--that's not enough to base a diagnosis on. Where were the scans, the tests, the actual history and physical he took himself.

Actually, I think he can be sued now. He established a doctor-patient relationship but based his diagnosis on faulty data. If anyone acts on his diagnosis and the patient suffers harm, it's malpractice, and he can lose his license.

[sevendogs]

86. I think that you are absolutely right

This is improper, unethical and illegal for a physician to do.

[stopbush]

17. So, the anti-science crowd ("it's only a theory!") is demanding that

a brain-dead person be kept alive through the miracles of science so they can get mileage out of her as a political football.

You know, maybe she'll get well and totally recover so she can enlist in the Army and head off to get killed in one of bush's wars. THAT seems to be OK with the RW nut jobs.

It's the definition of "compassionate conservatives."

[sundancekid]

18. unconscionable MISUSE and ABUSE of his medical oath and license

he should stick to cats, if you get my drift!

[democrat in Tallahassee]

21. he's a freakin heart surgeon; her brain is in question not her heart

he has no authority in this whatsoever. Fucker.

[Anakin Skywalker]

37. What Irony!

This heart surgeon happens to be a heartless @$$hole!

[TahitiNut]

44. A heartless heart surgeon odiously opining about a brainless patient.

Who says irony is dead? :eyes:

[thedailyshow]

22. He's a HEART surgeon, NOT A NEUROSURGEON

Shut up on medical matters which isn't in your expertise, Frist!

[ET Awful]

24. Hey Billy boy . . . didn't they teach you in med school

that you can't make a diagnosis without actually examining a patient?

No doctor worth his license would even attempt to diagnose a patient without an examination. Hell, that's the main problem you and your ilk have with online pharmacies isn't it? Prescribing treatment without an examination?

Fucking hypocrite.

[paineinthearse]

25. MSNBC earlier tonight

KO's shadow replacement person interviewed the omnipresent rethug spokesperson Rep. Patrick McHenry


isn't he a cutie????

A friend, who happens to be a Doctor or Chiropractic, said "that's interesting, but I would like to see what a medical doctor would have to say."

Well, the rethugs rolled out their dial-a-doctor with the expected results.

Just think, this bozo could be POUS #44.

p.s. Nominated for "greatest" and (admins, are you reading) nominating Frist for conservative jerk of the week!

Calling Dr. Howard! Calling Dr. Howard! Calling Dr. Howard!

[pinkpops]

33. He is a cutie but

he would more cute with a dick in his ear.

[daleo]

28. Since Frist can make a diagnosis from carefully edited video-tape

He must have no problem with doctors prescribing drugs after an internet "consultation" (a web-based questionnaire). Furthermore, he must not care whether said drugs come from Canada, for example, since he has such faith in the power of video based medicine.

[NJmaverick]

29. Is this the same QUACK that doesn't know

If you can get Aids from salivia?

[MADem]

79. YES!! Jon Stewart, I think, did a bit on that!!!!!!

ABC’s George Stephanopolous, questioning Frist about the inaccuracies in many abstinence-only sex education curricula that were brought to light this week by California Democratic Rep. Henry Waxman, asked whether “tears and sweat can transmit HIV.” Frist first said, “I don’t know,” then later said, “You can get the virus in tears and sweat. But in terms of the degree of infecting somebody, it would be very hard.”

The Centers for Disease Control Web site says, “Contact with saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV,” though it does say, “HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from some AIDS patients.” It is never present in sweat.

Frist also asserted that condoms have a “15 percent failure rate.” When used properly, the failure rate is actually, at worst, only between 2 and 3 percent. http://www.actupny.org/reports/frist_ethics.html

He also used to get kitties from Angell Memorial Hospital animal shelter (telling them they were to be PETS) and vivisect them on his kitchen table as a medical student.

A disgusting, venal man.

[Last Lemming]

30. Now that's an ethical dilemna

Physician, not currently practicing, viewing a videotape of a patient, not his, and making public pronouncement about her current condition, without actually examining her.

Exam question: can he be sued and on what grounds?

[sevendogs]

87. I love it.

Now is that on a medical school exam or a law school exam?

[soothsayer]

32. None of us know what it's like to be Terry. Not drs. No one.

[yellowcanine]

34. So cat killer is making a medical diognosis based on a doctored videotape?

Have you no shame at all, Fristy?

[Doctor Panacea]

35. What a putz

---

"... a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader ..."

---

Yeah, a legend in his own mind.

I call him Dracula or The Vampire.

[Toucano]

42. Doc P

That was my EXACT sentiment when I read this.

What a putz, indeed!

[babzilla]

38. Has she rsvp'd to the invitation yet?

"In addition to the speeches, Frist backed a Senate strategy that threatens criminal sanctions against anyone who keeps Schiavo from attending a Washington hearing next week, to which she and her husband Michael Schiavo were invited early yesterday."

How was this invitation to the "Washington hearing" issued to her? Was it sent registered mail to her bed? Was it engraved?

What's with this criminal sanctions threat? I'm quite sure that no one will stand in her way if Terri demands that she be allowed to attend this "Washington hearing" that she has been so cordially invited to.

It would be informative if the reporter could be a little more specific as to the agenda of this "Washington hearing".
What body has called for this "Washington hearing"?
Unhelpfully the reporter doesn't feel the need to elaborate.

[daleo]

41. Registered mail? Sign for this please, Ms. Shavio.

Things that used to be black comedy are government policy now. Someone should start a "Life of Brian" church, just to see how many followers it would get in the first month.

[babzilla]

46. What if she doesn't respond to the invitation?

Will she be subject to a "criminal sanction"?

What exactly is a "criminal sanction" anyway?

Under what circumstances does a "Senate strategy" have the right to issue a "criminal sanction" and what is the penalty involved?

The mind reels.

[daleo]

50. What would they threaten her with? What's left?

Life imprisonment or the death penalty? That pretty much sums up the two points of view here.

[onenote]

40. why does frist hate scalia

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3295309&mesg_id=3295926&page=

onenote

[not fooled]

43. Gee, I guess I make a better MD than Cat-Killer

Even tho I have no medical training whatsoever, seeing a giant hole in the person's brain (see prev. DU thread complete w/incontrovertible evidence from brain imaging) = PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE

I am contacting my state's medical board on Monday to pick up my license.


P.S. Going home now to pet my cats. Take THAT, frist you creepy lying asshole :eyes:

[NNguyenMD]

45. someone in the senate needs to call out what a gutless unprincipled sorry

excuse for a doctor he is for doing that. SHE NEEDS A NEUROLOGIST AND THEN A NEUROSURGEON TO EXAM HER FUCK BRAIN!!!!

[Dogmudgeon]

47. Is Frist really a physician?

Because if he is, he surely must remember that it takes nothing more than an intact brainstem to produce reactions to visual stimuli, even fairly complex ones.

The cranial nerves control visual response; they come from the brainstem. Terri Schiavo's brainstem was mainly unaffected by the episode that killed her more sensitive cerebral cortex. Of course she will respond to visual stimuli.

It doesn't take specialization in neurology or neurosurgery to understand that; it's basic med school stuff, first year at that. I was a tech in neurology, and I learned it. There's even a rhyme for remembering the cranial nerves: "On Old Olympus' Towering Top, A Finn and a German Viewed A Hop." (There's another one, but it's quite filthy, and I doubt that Dr. Frist would have committed it to his clean mind.)

Terri's cerebral cortex has died and is badly atrophied; her midbrain is also in pretty bad shape, and she can't even swallow. Frist is playing politics and/or dabbling in malpractice.

--p!

[BlueIris]

54. I was just wondering that, myself. n/t

[Technowitch]

49. This is the same asshole...

...who refused to deny that he felt AIDS could be transmitted via tears and perspiration.

Obviously, as a doctor, he's a complete and utter quack.

[BlueIris]

55. Fucking Frist. And

everytime he gets any press, I start getting nervous. I actually (unfortunately) think he's the most electable of all the potential candidates the GOP could run in '08.

[mainer]

56. The AMA must make a stand here

The rights of doctors to practice without political interference is at stake.

[moondust]

57. Oooh! How arrogant and unprofessional!

He has never examined either the patient or the patient's records and he used to be a heart specialist, yet in the national spotlight he proclaims that the doctors assigned to the case have erred in their prognosis. Whew!

Somebody should be questioning the Frist boy's license to practice medicine of any kind.

[underpants]

58. Hey Frist why don't you try reviewing the Ohio vote count?

Priorities

[manly]

59. Terri Schiavo

What makes it all right for frist and bush and the gop to inject themselves into what should be a family matter? Who the fuck is frist to make a diagnosis from a video tape, and tell the family what to do?
This is offensive beyond belief! frist is an asshole. and bush, well, we already knew he was an asshole. why can't they leave the Schiavo family alone to deal with this tragedy on their own?
How disgraceful!
This is a perfect example of how assholes behave. "Assholes in Action." Amazing. I can't get over it. Can't these idiots see how wrong their behavior is?
Miss Manners would probably have them shot. And so would I.

[LizW]

60. Oh my god. This is insane.

I've officially stayed out of the Schiavo thing until now. But this just goes over the edge. What was a personal family tragedy has now turned into an obscene nightmare of political opportunism.

[Massachusetts]

61. Frist = Milque Toast

[eridani]

62. I have a novelty CD featuring cats and dogs singing Christmas carols

The dogs bark Joy to the World and the cats meow Silent Night. It's 'real' in the same sense that those tapes are--just leave out everything that doesn't look like a response and there you have it.

[NC_Nurse]

64. He's a SURGEON

not a neurologist! What an asshat!

He is the slimiest of the slimy (next to Delay, of course).

[AzDar]

66. Frist is loathsome...Delay is a disgrace.. Have they ACTUALLY subpoenaed

Ms. Schiavo? If not, how could criminal charges be involved?
What about the 'Baseball Gods' who declined to appear this week...
why aren't they being threatened?

[thecrow]

67. Terry, do you understand what Dr. Frist is saying?

If yes, keep your right hand still.
If no, your left hand...

[spanone]

68. Frist WAS a doctor. He is now a partisan POLITICIAN.

He is no longer a 'heart surgeon'. He is a heartless POS. And who should know better than to question another doctors diagnosis by watching a video tape?????????????????????????????????

[chomskysright]

69. he's a fucking thoracic SURGEON and they know....

very little about this kind of stuff. He's playing to the crowd and is a deceitful bastard.

[Zynx]

70. Mmm...malpractice. Yank his license.

[lowreed]

82. cause of coma?

I can not remember EVER hearing of what led to Terri Schivos coma.
Well, my wife, informed me it was related to her bulimia.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/10/26/Floridian/The_lost_lesson_of_Te.shtml
Why isn't this in the frik'n story? Don't answer the question is rehtorical.
Arrghh!

[glitch]

90. I had no idea either. Hadn't followed the story though, figured it was a

distraction. But this is tragic (from your link):

"By all accounts, Terri was a fine young woman. She had a good job, a good marriage and many friends. Most who knew Terri, however, were unaware that she was sick. Terri suffered from an eating disorder known as bulimia nervosa, commonly called bulimia. The disease causes its victims to overeat ("binge") and soon thereafter vomit ("purge"). The cycle of binging and purging is extremely dangerous. The human heart, to work properly, requires a balance of the body's electrolytes. Vomiting can upset the electrolyte balance and cause abnormal heart rhythms that can lead to heart attack. That is what happened to Terri. One night, Terri purged, which caused her potassium level to drop low enough to cause a heart attack. Before fire rescue arrived and took her to the hospital, Terri's brain had been deprived of oxygen for long enough to produce catastrophic brain damage."

[Ilsa]

83. So, are they going to send the goosesteepers to arrest her

if she doesn't show up? Bwaaaahahaha! I can't believe this article used the term "invitation" to describe the Congressional subpoena.

Viewed one hour of heavily edited tape? Frist is practicing out of his specialty. He should STFU. Thank God he isn't practicing medicine anymore.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

84. Bullshido!

Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon before becoming Senate majority leader, went to the floor late Thursday night for the second time in 12 hours to argue that Florida doctors had erred in saying Terri Schiavo is in a "persistent vegetative state."

The woman has failed every cognitive function in the book. That is, the ones that can even be administered to someone without a cerebral cortex.

Either fifty years of neuroscience are wrong and the thought centres are in the brain stem, or this man is full of shit.

[fortyfeetunder]

89. Err, don't we have more pressing problems

than to deal with the personal tragedy of the Schaivo family?

Guess Frist doesn't have his priorities straight.

[rodeodance]

91. The Medical Becomes Political for Congress

This insanity has got to stop!!! This is a family issue and taxpayers money, time and resourses (lawyers) are going into this crap.


......Mr. DeLay is clearly relishing the change in subject from House travel rules and lobbying ties to a conservative crusade, even appearing on television to make the case for Congressional involvement after ducking cameras most of the week. And his dedication is showing results. Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, leader of a wing of House conservatives, told reporters that he and his colleagues "are so grateful for the heart of our majority leader.".......

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/national/19pols.html?th

March 19, 2005
NEWS ANALYSIS
The Medical Becomes Political for Congress
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, March 18 - The fevered Congressional intervention in a single individual's health crisis is being driven in significant part by powerful political forces that have converged at the bedside of Terri Schiavo.

While lawmakers of both parties justified their effort to try to prevent removal of the feeding tube from the brain-damaged woman as a matter of fundamental rights and due process, political motivations have figured in as well.

For Republicans, it was a chance to try to carve out new territory in the "culture of life" issues so paramount to passionate religious conservatives, who have flooded Congressional offices with messages beseeching help in keeping Ms. Schiavo alive. For Democrats still struggling in the wake of their defeat in the November elections, the case offered a way to portray their newfound willingness to move to the center on such issues.
...................

[GCP]

92. This whole situation is insane

I am completely disgusted with the farce which is currently taking place on my dime in congress.
They don't think anything of 100,000 dead Iraqi men, women and children, but one brain dead woman rotting away in bed has become the newest christian martyr and they put on this performance for their fundie constituents. If any democrats take part in this idiocy, I'll never give the dems any money ever again.
The world must be looking on in amazement.
I have to get out of this place.

[Dogmudgeon]

93. Since when?

They are forever griping about how government meddling in medical affairs is Socialism.

We don't have universal health insurance.

We don't have affordable medications.

We are forbidden to treat our own illnesses if we are too poor to consult a physician.

Funny how selective that "right-to-life" thing works.

--p!

[alarimer]

94. Tom Delay is gloating because it takes the attention away

from him. Just when I thought we were finally getting some traction on all his illegal activities, along comes this, which is just another distraction from the real story of Delay's corruption.

[Rose Siding]

95. The reporter doesn't really support his assertion about Democrats

He writes "For Democrats still struggling in the wake of their defeat in the November elections, the case offered a way to portray their newfound willingness to move to the center on such issues." (a real "tell" there, Mr Journalist. The "center" is where Congress dictates medical decisions?)

Dems noted that polls "show support for Mr. Schiavo's right to decide his wife's fate". Why have a bloody drag-out, drawing even brighter lines of division unnecessarily?

And God bless WAXMAN! Always there doing what's right:

"Congress is turning the Schiavo family's personal tragedy into a national political farce," said Representative Henry A. Waxman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee who objected to the subpoenas issued by the panel's chairman, Representative Tom Davis of Virginia.

[Kagemusha]

96. Frist has brought the medical profession into severe disrepute.

His "the diagnosis is wrong based on my study of family-provided videotape" act has been precisely the sort of abuse by doctors of their professional credentials that they least needed. Having his license stripped is the least that can be done. Clinton had to surrender his license for lying to a court of law while an officer of the court. This is arguably much worse: it implies that videotape-based second guessing of a diagnosis backed up with extensive tests is not only OK, but a moral obligation. I can think of nothing else that would so instantly and dramatically bring doctors into disrepute in general. After all, if the doctors on the actual case got it wrong and Frist so easily got it right, then doctors other than Frist must be fantastically incompetent.

And politicians shouldn't be allowed to trade on the credentials of their medical licenses to attack medicine itself.

[Moderator]

97. locking

latest update here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1325750