The Orlando Sentinel

WASHINGTON – Jean Kacic of Lake Mary, Fla., was irate Monday, and she wasn’t alone.

A new poll by ABC News released Monday showed Americans overwhelmingly disagree with Congress’ move to get involved in the Terri Schiavo case. And 67 percent of those polled believe members of Congress got involved in the case of the severely brain-damaged woman just for their own political gain.

“They had no business,” said Kacic, 68, a retiree who was angry enough to e-mail Florida lawmakers about the issue. “Pretty soon they’ll be telling us how to do everything in our personal life.”

So why do political analysts say Congress’ action at Sunday’s special meeting of Congress will end up helping the Republicans who led the charge?

Their answer: The fate of Terri Schiavo is so important to conservative voters that it shores up the Republican base. The 70 percent polled by ABC who disagree with Congress’ intervention are less likely to vote for or against politicians based on this one issue alone.

David Niven, political science professor at Florida Atlantic University, called it the “manic passion” of conservatives versus the “weariness of the majority.”

President Bush won re-election last fall partly because issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage motivated conservative Americans to turn out to vote. So once again, despite overall public opinion, Democrats find themselves with precisely the type of emotional issue that draws voters to the polls in droves to support their opponents.

“Any decision about terminating someone’s life is difficult and Democrats are chastened by the election,” said June Speakman, political scientist at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.

Indeed, that angst divided Democrats over the weekend, with 58 siding with Republicans and 47 opposing the legislation.

The law that passed and was signed by Bush early Monday morning gives Terri Schiavo a federal court hearing that could lead to reinsertion of her feeding tube. It applies only to her. But Republicans have pitched it as a “culture-of-life issue.”

Niven said voters can relate to videos of Schiavo smiling more than they can to the abstract concepts of stem cell research or abortion.

“It’s becoming clear all politics is symbols,” Niven said. “Here’s a chance to put a person and a face and life story to their issue.”

Democrats, on the other hand, were arguing for causes unlikely to spark public fervor, such as the power of state court judges, he said. “It’ a no-win situation for Democrats. They’re not the party of death, and yet standing up to Republicans makes it easy to caricature them that way.”

Schiavo’s husband, Michael, and parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, have been fighting for years over his decision to pull her feeding tube.

Ken Connor, a close legal adviser in the case to Florida Gov. Jeb Buscal personnel Sunday to get their views. She was swayed by their responses and comments from her own 41-year-old daughter who said she would not want to be kept alive in such a severely brain damaged state.

“Do we get involved in every single family squabble?” she asked. “If we’re the family values party who do we side with?”

But Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Fla., saw it differently. Weldon sponsored the original legislation to give Schiavo a federal hearing on whether state courts have protected her constitutional rights. He and others in Congress had hoped the effort would lead to reinsertion of her feeding tube while the issue worked its way through the courts.

Weldon said politics was not the motivation for the bill. He said his office has been inundated with calls from constituents who said they didn’t want Schiavo to be starved to death. Weldon, who has shown interest in running for the Senate, raised his profile in Florida and nationally during the past week, doing numerous television appearances.

Despite the most recent poll and others that preceded it, conservatives on Capitol Hill felt confident that they were on the right side of the issue – both politically and morally.

“There’s a rule in activism when you’re winning: Keep your mouth shut,” said the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition and an organizer of the Internet-driven campaign supporting Schiavo’s parents, the Schindlers.

In addition, a leaked memo this past weekend – attributed o a GOP staff aide – stated that the issue was a political winner for Republicans. GOP leaders, however, argued they were acting with breakneck speed merely because Schiavo’s life was in danger.

The memo mentioned Florida’s Democratic U.S. Senator Bill Nelson, who sided with Republicans.

Nelson voted for the bill Thursday night and did not show up to object on Sunday when the Senate finally passed it. In fact not a single Democrat showed up for the session.

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Dan McLaughlin, spokesman for Nelson, said his boss was likely named because White House political strategist Karl Rove and others would like to eliminate moderate Democratic leaders from the South.

“He is standing in the way of Karl Rove’s plan of total domination of the South,” McLaughlin said.

Nelson, who runs for re-election next year and will have little trouble winning his party’s nomination, said the bill passed on Monday simply allows the federal courts to review the case. He also stressed the need for Americans to set up living wills.

Rep. Jim Davis, D-Fla., however, faces a different political dynamic. Like Nelson, he would like to run statewide next year. But as one of several possible candidates in the gubernatorial primary, Davis must win over Democratic voters who will choose a candidate in the primary.

In the national poll, most Democrats felt strongly that Congress overstepped its authority in the Schiavo case.

Davis plunged into the spotlight this weekend as one of the most forceful opponents of congressional action. “I think Jim Davis is going to be hurt badly,” said Connor, a former Florida gubernatorial candidate. But Niven said Davis’ role is more likely to help him in the primary.

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While the GOP hung together closely on the matter – Brown-Waite was one of only five Republicans who voted no in the 203-58 tally – Democrats divided almost evenly, and several African-American lawmakers voted for the bill.

Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., was among them.

“After much consideration I followed my heart and my conscience. I believe that Mrs. Schiavo’s case warrants this last avenue of legal review,” Meek said.

Speakman said this issue isn’t the last one where Democrats will splinter at least partly because of fears of angering voters who feel strongly on cultural issues. “Democrats have to try to figure out how to win elections again.”

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(c) 2005, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

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AP-NY-03-21-05 2139EST