Compassion(?) Redux

As a postscript to the previous post, here is an article discussing Congress's heartwrenching and oh-so-compassionate attempt to win votes for the 2006 elections. Hey, vote for me. I wasted untold amounts of taxpayers' money to keep a person who is considered unsaveable breathing:
http://www.courant.com/hc-schiavo0320.artmar20,0,7981398.story
"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., stepped into a nearly empty chamber at 6:15 p.m. Saturday and said Congress "has been working nonstop over the last three days to do its part to uphold human dignity and affirm a culture of life."Frist said he is committed "to see this legislation pass and give Terri Schiavo one last chance at life.""
"Republican officials declared, in a memo that was supposed to be seen only by senators, that they believe their attention to the issue could pay dividends with Christian conservatives, whose support is essential in midterm elections such as those coming up in 2006."
These two quotes from the article particularly fill me with anxiety. Bill Frist wants to give Terri Schiavo a last chance at life? What the hell does that mean? How exactly does Frist define "life"? Breathing? Involuntary muscle spasms? Or is he perhaps cleverly disguising another meaning? Maybe he wants to give Terri one last chance at furthering his political life. I mean, really. This is the same politician who is in favor of .50 caliber guns being sold on the open market; a weapon that can kill at one mile, a weapon too heavy for most to hold thereby requiring a bi-pod.
Then there's the memo. Memo, memo, memo. It's this piece of paper that puts the reality of this whole mess in its proper light. "Pay dividends with Christian conservatives". Tom DeLay (whose last name is quite appropos in light of what he's trying to do with his career problems) has denied all knowledge and denounced it as disgusting. No one is coming forward to take credit for it. But everyone on Capitol Hill would agree that its truth is unassailable. And if I'm a Democrat, I'm jumping all over it as a way to encroach on the Republicans' turf come 2006.
And, in all of this, a White, Floridian woman continues to deteriorate with or without her feeding tube.