GOP cracking up over Schiavo case?

[BurtWorm]

Take it with a grain of salt, considering the source. Adam Nagourney frequently writes broad generalizations about "the Democrats" based on off the record interviews with one or two DLC types. But, for what it's worth:

CONSERVATIVES
G.O.P. Right Is Splintered on Schiavo Intervention
By ADAM NAGOURNEY


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/politics/23repubs.html?pagewanted=print&position=

...

"This is a clash between the social conservatives and the process conservatives, and I would count myself a process conservative," said David Davenport of the Hoover Institute, a conservative research organization. "When a case like this has been heard by 19 judges in six courts and it's been appealed to the Supreme Court three times, the process has worked - even if it hasn't given the result that the social conservatives want. For Congress to step in really is a violation of federalism."

Stephen Moore, a conservative advocate who is president of the Free Enterprise Fund, said: "I don't normally like to see the federal government intervening in a situation like this, which I think should be resolved ultimately by the family: I think states' rights should take precedence over federal intervention. A lot of conservatives are really struggling with this case."

Some more moderate Republicans are also uneasy. Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, the sole Republican to oppose the Schiavo bill in a voice vote in the Senate, said: "This senator has learned from many years you've got to separate your own emotions from the duty to support the Constitution of this country. These are fundamental principles of federalism."

"It looks as if it's a wholly Republican exercise," Mr. Warner said, "but in the ranks of the Republican Party, there is not a unanimous view that Congress should be taking this step."


...

[MADem]

1. Definitely a fissure

...and if you add it to the Social Security fissure, we have some serious splintering going on.

Hubris--gets 'em all, eventually. Pride goeth before a fall, and all that....

[roguevalley]

2. none of them would be struggling over this if they really believed

what they say they believe. Its easy. You either stand by your convictions even when its hard or you don't. They are hypocrites pure and simple.

[BurtWorm]

3. Chris Shays in a rarer and rarer moment of lucidity

"My party is demonstrating that they are for states' rights unless they don't like what states are doing," said Representative Christopher Shays of Connecticut, one of five House Republicans who voted against the bill. "This couldn't be a more classic case of a state responsibility."

"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy," Mr. Shays said. "There are going to be repercussions from this vote. There are a number of people who feel that the government is getting involved in their personal lives in a way that scares them."

[Clark2008]

4. Quick, call in the media - we've found a lucid Republican.

But, of course, they won't come - this makes too much sense and the media LIKES to interview the dumbest, most insane witnesses to history, a la COPS.

[intheflow]

5. Shays said this?

Did someone slip him some anti-Kool-Aid serum?

[Snap]

6. "This Senator"

Cool Washington politico talk,
smooth, in the know, sleek and well fed.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. While there maybe a grain of truth...as you said, consider the source.

Why should he be any more reliable for a story we like than he was for stories we did not like?

[BurtWorm]

8. One difference with this story is he actually names names!

It's not just one or two unnamed Democrats. It's five or six named Republicans from various walks of life. It does just boil down to anecdotal evidence, but it's interesting evidence, all the same.

[deadparrot]

9. I doubt that anything major will happen,

but I think this was a wake-up call for the moderate conservatives that BushCo is more concerned with pandering to the wingnut minority base.