Life and death politics
The Schiavo case is just the latest front in a much nastier war
Stay out. Opposition to Washington's intervention in the Schiavo case, polls showed, was deep. A CBS News poll found that 82 percent thought that Congress and the president should stay out of the matter. The ABC poll, meanwhile, found that three quarters said Congress acted to advance a political agenda, while just 13 percent said that the lawmakers cared about Schiavo. Public opinion could still shift, however. "Americans may see her as a victim of political football" and blame the president or congressional Republicans, says Green. "But after judges refuse to listen to her case, Schiavo could die a gruesome death, and people could come around to the [other] side. It's unpredictable."
But potentially momentous. The future of the culture wars may ride on whether the religious right's success in the Schiavo case is a harbinger of future gains or a spark that ignites a backlash from the rest of the country. Some Republicans are already nervous about perceptions that they may have overreached. "The White House has been very smart about crafting a social and moral agenda that wouldn't put off swing voters, through partial-birth abortion and faith-based initiatives," says GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio. "Now the question [for swing voters] becomes, What are these guys really about?"
Having announced that he was inclined to "err on the side of life" early last week, Bush said later that he had gone as far as he could in trying to help Schiavo. On Capitol Hill, meanwhile, some Republicans said they voted to pass the Schiavo legislation on principle, rather than because of public opinion, but frustration was mounting. "I don't know how fighting to keep a woman alive is not compassionate, " grouses a House GOP aide. "I don't think Republicans are getting [credit]."
Democrats, meanwhile, are keeping a low profile, partly because they're divided on the issue. They helped pass the federal intervention bill in the Senate, but in the House, only half the Democrats showed up, and they split just about down the middle. "Everyone in American politics misread the American people on this one," says Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, who led the House Democrats' opposition to the bill. Democrats who feared they might end up on the wrong side of the "values" divide may turn out to be right, though at the moment the most recent polls suggest no such clarity, and an enduring impact of the Schiavo case remains to be seen. "This is the kind of case that sucks up all the oxygen out of the room until it's over," says Republican pollster Whit Ayres, "and then it's gone."
With Kenneth T. Walsh and Angie C. Marek
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