3-22-05, 9:10 am

Regardless of one's views on euthanasia, three things about the Terri Schiavo case have to seriously concern the ordinary observer.

First, Republicans circulated a 'talking points' memo to their members in the US Senate that not only misled members on what Schiavo's actual vegetative condition is, but also related her case to the 2006 election.

The GOP authored memo said, 'This is a great political issue.' It described Florida Senator Bill Nelson (home state of Schiavo) as potentially a target because of the Schiavo case because he refused to co-sponsor the bill they rammed through the Senate.

More generally, Senate Republicans viewed the Democrats as a whole as politically exposed by the issue.

The memo also suggested exploitation of Schiavo's situation to mobilize the Republican Party's ultra-conservative anti-abortion religious section.

Second, with a war that has cost the lives of over 1,500 US service members and 100,000 Iraqi civilians (according to the respected British medical journal The Lancet, 10/29/04), 8 million unemployed, 1 in 9 children starving in America, 35 million people living in poverty, 45 million without health care, a global AIDS epidemic that has killed 20 million people, a globalized economic system that sees about half of the earth's population scraping by on less than $2 per day, it is difficult to believe that the US government should spend an immense amount of resources and publicity mongering to force a vote on a law that intervenes in the private life of one family.

A third major concern is the extent to which the Republican Party abused its power in Congress and the White House to disrupt and intervene in a very difficult and very personal decision between a man and his wife.

In the House of Representatives, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) also forced the issue to a vote. He demanded that GOP members return to Congress to vote for the bill.

Invoking moral concerns, DeLay basically insisted that Michael and Terri Schiavo did not have the right to determine the course of their own lives.

Does DeLay Have a Right?

What is particularly shocking is that Tom DeLay feels he is qualified to make sound ethical and moral judgments.

Earlier this month when the Washington Post reported that DeLay 'accepted an expense-paid trip to South Korea in 2001 from a registered foreign agent despite House rules that bar the acceptance of travel expenses from foreign agents,' some of his defenders insisted that the age of the story lessened the legal and ethical problems involved.

Some of DeLay’s other Republican colleagues weren’t so quick to defend him. Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) said, 'There's a general feeling from all of us that Tom could be more careful. The accumulation of Mariana Islands, Korea, the stuff in Texas has some people wringing their hands more than others.' Ultra right Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ), who, as a recent CNN story stated, failed to report the use of a luxury sky-box at local sporting events provided by contributors with issues pending in Congress, said, 'I'm sure that it's in the best interest of the majority leader and the majority to have an accounting of what transpired.'

Despite their best efforts at appearing above board and interested in the truth, House Republicans have worked to aid DeLay in pushing his legal and ethical problems to the background. The private life of Michael and Terri Schiavo provided such an opportunity.

According to the Post, DeLay's trip to South Korea was orchestrated by a former DeLay employee turned lobbyist Ed Buckham, founder of Alexander Strategy Group. Buckham's firm has numerous large international and national corporate clients.

Buckham apparently used his connection to DeLay to advance the interests of his client, the South Korea-based Hanwha Group, a massive corporation that dabbles in several different economic sectors. DeLay regularly 'agrees to meetings with corporate officials on Buckham's recommendation,' says the Post.

Buckham also arranged meetings between his South Korean client and President Bush.

While in Seoul, DeLay's itinerary included shopping, golf, and touring. According to the Post, the cost of DeLay's trip was the fourth largest for any single trip by a member of Congress since January 2000.

Ed Buckham and DeLay have a long and close history. Buckham helped DeLay found the infamous 'K Street Project' designed to reduce the influence of lobbyists who were pushing liberal oriented goals by punishing their firms with less access to Capitol Hill.

Buckham seemingly felt no contradiction between his Christian fundamentalist beliefs and his goal of funneling vast amounts of corporate cash into the coffers of conservative politicians who favored his pro-corporate agenda.

The DeLay-Buckham machine became so powerful that it set much of the GOP's agenda including, as CNN reported last weekend, 'protecting tax breaks for low-wage garment manufacturers on the Northern Mariana Islands (where DeLay spent New Year's Day 1998 with his wife and Buckham) to creating a Medicare prescription-drug plan that critics say is a better deal for pharmaceutical companies than it is for seniors.'

Buckham also likely used his friendship with DeLay to convince the Republican National Committee to transfer $500,000 illegally to another organization that ran radio ads against Democrats in 1999, for which they just last year agreed to pay a fine of $280,000.

Buckham also introduced DeLay to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under investigation by federal law enforcement, according to CNN, for 'allegedly defrauding Indian tribes that had hired them as lobbyists.' Sources say, they told their clients to provide special privileges for members of Congress with whom they sought influence, including the aforementioned J.D. Hayworth of Arizona, who then refused to report his use of the sky-box as was legal responsibility.

DeLay also accepted free trips paid for by Abramoff's firm.

DeLay's severe ethics problems have ground the business of the bi-partisan ethics committee to a halt. First, GOP leaders replaced the committee's chair, who had voted to rebuke DeLay for previous ethical improprieties, with a party loyalist. Then, under DeLay's possibly foresightful prodding, they sought to change House rules so that the majority leader could keep his job even if indicted for a crime.

Democrats blocked the latter effort.

Wielding the Schiavo case as a political weapon is a gross hypocrisy that cannot be allowed to stand. DeLay must be forced to resign, if there is to be any sense of justice in Washington. Senate Republicans ought to disclose the author of the Schiavo memo. The Republican Party ought to reject the cynicism and horrific display they put on this past week and apologize to the Schiavo's and to the American people for their abuse of power. We should reject the hypocrisy that fueled this ugly moment in American history.

Write to your congressional representatives today to tell them so.



--Joel Wendland is managing editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at jwendland@politicalaffairs.net.