About Life And Death

21 March 2005 |permalink | email article

The extraordinary confluence of explosive issues which accelerated yesterday, the first day of spring - Palm Sunday in the Christian faith - will intensify leading up to, and beyond, Easter. Without precedent in American history, these issues involve emotionally charged moral, legal, political and privacy issues. They include the right to life, focusing on sustenance for a Florida woman brain damaged for 15 years, and today’s surprise announcement by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops about the launch of a major campaign to end the use of the death penalty in the U.S., the last nation in the west to have one in law.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, facing major ethical problems, sparked the nutrition and hydration effort in Congress for a bill to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo, who has no living will. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, said he was outraged that “this government is trampling over a personal family matter that has been adjudicated in the courts for seven  years.” But her parents, with the help of Republicans and pro-life evangelicals, may have succeeded, at The Body Politic’s deadline, in an extraordinary effort by Washington for a single person to get the issue into federal district court in Florida for review.

The Senate passed a bill yesterday afternoon, and the House was expected to discuss the bill last night with a vote shortly after midnight. The President, who returned to the White House from his ranch in Texas, was expected to sign it early today. Huge moral and medical issues are involved here. But what troubles is how the Schiavo exception has seen Congress come back from recess and depart from long established review and hearing procedures that so nakedly smack of agenda-driven politics under the guise of genuine life issues.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that “in a memo distributed only to Republican senators, the Schiavo case was characterized as a ‘great political issue’ that could pay dividends for Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections.” Republicans tried to deny it.  But Sen. John McCain of Arizona, in a fatuous comment, said “I hope we’re not...making this human tragedy a political issue.” One of the few Democrats to have the courage to speak up, Rep. Jim Davis of Florida, said “This case is a tragedy, but what Congress is doing is another tragedy...Congress should be following the law, not trampling the Constitution.”

(Los Angeles Times reporter Tracy Wilkinson’s dispatch from the Vatican on the Schiavo case and its relevance to Pope John Paul II, is an absolute must read.) .

In another major development on a moral issue, Catholic bishops hold a news conference this morning at the National Press Club to outline their new campaign to abolish the death penalty. It includes new teaching and educational resources, a new website, continuing legal action, legislative advocacy at state and federal levels, and links to the Church’s pro-life and “faithful citizenship” efforts.

Pollster John Zogby, who conducted a groundbreaking survey, will outline what are described as “surprising and politically important results.” A Catholic layman whose daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing and a convict who spent more than a decade on death row and entered the Church while awaiting execution for a crime he didn’t commit, will also participate. The campaign is being launched during Holy Week, a time when Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

U.S. evangelicals, closely aligned with the Republican Party as the 2004 presidential campaign showed, have focused almost exclusively on a narrow range of moral value issues like the right to life and opposition to abortion and same sex marriage. The Catholic Church, while in agreement, has been the leader among other Christian denominations on opposing the death penalty. The issue is about to escalate into a divisive legal and political issue. It’s about time.    

L.A. Mayor

Bulletin #1 on the nationally watched May 17 runoff:

Union support 

Antonio Villaraigosa, endorsed by labor, won the 2001 primary, but lost in the runoff to City Atty. Jim Hahn. This month, the city councilman finished first again. The mayor, who barely squeaked into the finals, was backed by the County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Yet, L.A. Times exit polls showed the former Assembly leader and union organizer getting 35% of the labor vote compared to 27% for Hahn.  So what does it all mean? One provocative point of view was expressed last week by Harold Meyerson, a liberal columnist for The Washington Post and political editor at large for LA Weekly.

Myerson wrote a candid open letter to Miguel Contreras, the powerful executive secretary-treasurer of the County Fed. He is also a Hahn appointee on the Los Angeles Airport Commission, where labor has a vested interest in LAX expansion. He noted that  Villaraigosa is “the most profoundly pro-labor mayoral candidate in Los Angeles history on the ballot in May and, as I hardly need to tell you, is the clear favorite to win. And how are you and all the sirs and brothers and mesdames and sisters responding to this? By backing his opponent, of course.” Meyerson added, in part, “You don’t have the freedom to walk away from Jim Hahn, I suppose, but you do have the freedom to measure the Federation’s support for him. Indeed, not to limit your support for Floundering Jim would be deeply perverse and self-subverting. It would also be an affront to the L.A. working class whose cause you’ve so brilliantly led.” Contreras’ response will be revealing.  

Endorsements

As expected, the L.A. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed Hahn and major law firms have moved in his direction. There is every expectation that former LAPD Chief Bernard Parks, fired by Hahn in 2002 and now a city councilman, fourth in the primary, will eventually back Villaraigosa. One reason, aside from getting even with Hahn, is that Parks, a L.A. Commission member, wants a key role in working with the NFL to bring pro football back to the Coliseum.

Not clear as initially forecast is the position of former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, who lost out to Hahn by 1.5% after the mayor ran a last minute TV blitz  accusing him of being too cozy with Enron during the state’s energy crisis. The media did not pick up on allegations that Hahn also got money from Enron while city attorney. Hertzberg, once Villaraigosa’s roommate in Sacramento, succeeded him as speaker. But their friendship began to sour after his feeling that Villaraigosa was too slow to step down after being termed out. The bitterness accelerated when Hertzberg announced for mayor and Villaraigosa, who initially said he would serve a full term on the City Council, reneged and jumped into the race. Hertzberg has two choices: swallow his pride and work to move his powerful primary base of support - Valley, Jewish, Republican, conservative and moderate white voters - to Villaraigosa; or leave Hahn free to turn these pivotal constituencies against Villaraigosa with powerful TV ads accusing him of being too liberal and soft on crime.

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