Another bloviating ex-senator, lamenting that the times have changed and passed him by.

Social conservatives form a substantial part of the Republican electoral base, and are therefore listened to on occasion. If the GOP paid no attention to them, they would lose whatever minor clout they have in this society.

Apparently, even this minor clout is too much for Mr. Danforth to take. Why don’t those peasants just shut up and let Our Sort run the country, he seems to think.

The hell with you, Senator. America is a bigger country than you’ll ever know.
And some of us couldn’t care less what you think.

Sadly, today’s Episcopal Church has no ties to any religious foundation, let alone any religious movement. Small wonder Sen. Danforth is offended by Republicans who manifest religious belief. . .

God forbid that a majority of Congressmen disagree with a trial court’s refusal to order the standard testing for Schiavo before determining that she is a PVS. That must be proof that the Republican Party is merely a wing of the church.

More likely, it is proof that John Danforth needs to see his name in the paper every now and then, and couldn’t resist the opportunity to feed his enormous ego at the expense of wrongly attacking both his party and his faith.

Sadly, and as usual, Sen. Danforth’s dribble couldn’t be further from the the truth. He states in his article that the battle for Terri Schiavo is led by the "political arm of the Christian conservatives." In truth, the outcry against this government sanctioned savagery has been voiced by various religious leaders comprising the Jewish, Hindu, as well as Christian faiths.
After attacking the Christians, Danforth turns on his own, by arguing that "High-profile Republican efforts to prolong the life of Ms. Schiavo, ...can rightfully be interpreted as yielding to the pressure of religious power blocs." If this were only the truth, Mr. Danforth. Indeed, if the Republicans (especially the Bush boys) were beholden to the religious right, Terri Schiavo would not be suffering this horrific death. Sadly, Republicans, of which you are a card carrying member, have provided only lip service to this segment of your constituency. Mr. Danforth, you and your colleagues in the Republican party have proven that the "Culture of Life" only means something in a tight election year. You and your party have misled us, and for that another innocent life will be sadistically lost.
I never thought that I would see such an abandonment of principle by the party that I have voted for since I was old enough to vote. And, I never thought that one day my Heroes would include Terri’s defenders, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader. But it has come to this.
Fellow readers, please do not take these comments as the rantings of a right wing Christian fanatic. For I am not. I doubt I would even qualify for membership in the Republican Party! But this event has changed me. To watch this painful drama unfold, while our majority elected leadership (that I voted for) does nothing causes hurt in my heart and soul. I hurt inside for what is happening to Terri Schiavo. And I hurt for what our nation has become.

Don, or Mr. Ross ...

You are indicting a whole party for the failings of a minority. Terri would have been dead long ago if it hadn’t been for Jeb Bush. The Florida legislature -- mainly Republican legislators -- tried to help her. Has anyone done enough? No. But don’t take your marbles and go home just because you didn’t like the outcome.

We cannot expect perfection or anything remotely close to it in politics -- no perfect intelligence, no perfect courage, no perfect planning, no perfect tactics, no perfect anything whatsoever.

Your post simply plays into the hands of the Danforth squishes and the Democrats.

The fact that Establishmentarians like Danforth are attacking their own party shows you that Congress did indeed take real action. One of the most important guides to whether serious action has been taken in politics is whether or not the other side is screaming at us. In the Schiavo case, they certainly are.