Al Rantel
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Story Continues Below

  Suddenly, silence befell the crowd of politicians never at a loss for words. President Bush meekly proclaimed that he hadn't talked to "my brother, the governor of Florida" about the case any more. Jeb Bush meekly proclaimed that he couldn't do any more because a big, bad circuit court judge told him not to. Congressional Republicans, who issued a subpoena for Terri and others, thus keeping anyone from ending her life, postponed their hearing, thus staying their own subpoenas that they never enforced anyway.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, last week said that Terri was sent by God to awaken the American people. But DeLay was nowhere to be seen or heard after the polls came out and he was on the wrong side of over three-quarters of the public.

That's how it is in politics. One day you are sent by God, the next day you are damaged goods whose electoral viability is threatened.

Even Senator Rick Santorum, R-Pa., and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., those most vocal about this case in the U.S. Senate, have fallen silent. This leaves the public with people like Randall Terry of Operation Rescue and the Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition outside the hospice with their megaphones as they take a break from calling doctors murderers who perform abortions.

The only people left taking the stand begun by Republican leaders in Florida and in Washington are 10-year-olds getting arrested after being sent to the hospice front door with water for Terri.

There is a lesson in all of this. Politicians are by instinct spineless jellyfish who rarely lead but rather line up to take the people where they think they want to go. Can there be any doubt that had the polls shown the reverse, Congress would have been up all night with new legislation and Governor Jeb Bush would be taking on the lowly circuit court judge in the name of the Sovereign People of Florida as it states in the Florida Constitution?

Ironic, too, that five years ago Attorney General Janet Reno sent in federal marshals to seize Elian Gonzalez even though there was a Florida court order preserving him with his Miami family. Reno had the young boy whisked out of the Miami home and sent back to Fidel Castro's outdoor prison known as Cuba. In that case most Americans said in polls that Elian belonged with his dad, even if it meant living in one of the world's most oppressive dictatorships.

So, for all of those who often say they don't believe in polls, well, maybe you don't, but the politicians sure do. Had the polls gone the other way, Elian would now be a high school student in Miami Dade County and Terri Schiavo's parents would still be visiting her with her feeding tube in place. Someone believes in polls, and they happen to be our elected officials at every level of our government.

Editor's note: