1115.org

**Ed. note: I don’t think the Terri Schiavo issue is enough to swing elections 18 months away, but with word that Bush flew back to the White House to sign the Schiavo bill in exchange for support for his sinking Social Security privatization scheme, it could well be the first domino.

Yesterday I was looking for evidence of eroding support Republicans might face for their little journey through private legislation-ville, and I found plenty. First came this Time poll showing that the Schiavo case would make 54% of those surveyed less likely to vote for representatives who supported federal intervention, with just 21% saying they would be more likely to vote for those representatives. The numbers are overwhelming, and if you spent any time over the weekend watching cable news, they may seem quite unbelievable.

The second piece of evidence comes from a very unlikely source. My father once bitched out my 92 year old grandfather in a restaurant for calling George W. Bush a “cowboy,” and remains a Republican despite my ever-increasing attempts to get him to switch. But he has no time for political grandstanding, and took a few minutes to write a letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette expressing his displeasure with the latest waste of time our elected officials have perpetrated.**

The following is a guest post by Cohen Sr.

To the Editor:

How ridiculous is it that the Senate and the House, along with the President are willing to work weekends to extend the so-called life of one vegetative citizen, when week after week they send hundreds of able-bodied young men and women to die in a war to which there appears to be no end?

We lost a generation in Vietnam, “fighting” a war with both hands tied behind our backs. We left a war unfinished in Iraq under George H. W. Bush. Now we are watching our youth come home in body bags from a war we were told would be fought with minimum losses in time, money, and lives even as it drags on with no end in sight - All to locate those fabled weapons of mass destruction.

The House and Senate have made priorities out of Terri Schiavo and the use of steroids by lame-brained professional athletes, yet they show no concern for the young men and women who are being killed half a world away, the families of these young people, and the loss of another generation to a war that makes us no safer than we were before it all began.

The thanks America gets for all of the death and destruction is higher and higher gas prices from the very countries in which our citizen soldiers are attempting to bring “freedom.” And neither the President nor congress demand anything for the blood of another generation of Americans.

Yes, our priorities are certainly in the right place:

Which of the framers of our Constitution would sit in front of TV cameras and defend any of these actions? Not a one! As a history major, former history teacher and professor, a parent, a voter, and a Republican, I am disgusted and fully appalled by all that is taking place in my name and in the name of the United States of America.

As the world’s last, but embarrassed, superpower, I can not accept the actions of those we have elected, those they have appointed and those who claim to speak for the vast majority of us all. And with all of our technology and military ability, whatever became of Osama bin Laden and his inner circle of be-headers? Does congress even care about our inability to find those who were really responsible for 9-11?

It is now obvious that steroid use, baseball records and one woman in florida will prevent this nation from asking the hard questions about our ultimate safety and survival. At least that is what Congress, our President and his advisors are counting on. Is that what we really want? Is it what we really need?

Neil Cohen
Morningside