Jon Stewart Gives the Bottom Line

Last night, regarding the Schiavo case, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, looking properly somber said the feeding tube was finally about to be pulled...from cable news. Too right. And although the pols surely aren’t done with it, news shows are going to have to go back to reporting actual news. Which means the GOP accomplished its goal: Making people think about something other than all the recent White House failures. But talk about a Pyrrhic victory. The GOP certainly did galvanize our attention on Terri Schaivo. And now, the majority of Americans think that not only George Bush is an idiot, but that his brother Jeb and the religious right and Congress and Tom Delay and Dr. William Frist and the horse’s asses they all rode in on are candidates for the loony bin. A recent CBS poll says that 82% of the public feel Congress and the Prez should have butted out of the Schiavo family’s dispute. The GOP’s pandering to the religious right has made 74% of Americans believe Congress intervened in order to promote a political agenda. Public approval of Congress has dropped to 34 percent from 41% last month. And President Bush’s approval rating is now at 43%...lower than it was a month ago. And Americans of all political beliefs say Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube should not be re-inserted and that the Supreme Court should not hear the case. E. J. Dionne, Jr. made some interesting points this morning in his “A Thin View of Life” article in the Washington Post. Regarding the GOP’s contempt for malpractice lawsuits and Medicaid payments for hospital bills, Dionne says, “How has Terri Schiavo's care been financed? The available information suggests that some of the money came from one of those much-derided medical malpractice lawsuits and that the drugs she needs have been paid for by Medicaid.” Dionne goes on to say, “What does it mean to be pro-life? As far as I can tell, most of those who would keep Schiavo alive favor the death penalty. Most favored allowing the assault weapons ban to expire and oppose other forms of gun control. The president makes an excellent point when he says we ‘ought to err on the side of life’. It's a shame how rarely that principle is put into practice. Time to call in the White House cleaning ladies, Karen and Condi, and instruct them to deodorize, sanitize and polish the BushBot...again.