As we have said, we at PoliAnna don't want to make political hay out of the sad case of Theresa Schiavo. It was the kind of family dispute where there's no hope of victory -- just resolution.

But certain folks on the right insist on making a private matter into a political cause -- funny, I missed the part where Mrs. Schiavo, in her state, said she wanted to be used as a fundraising mascot for the religious right.

Not only does the religious right see this in partisan terms -- as if Democrats were even trying to involve themselves -- they see it as part of their larger war against the judiciary. An unfortunate judge was chosen to determine the facts of the case and the wishes of Mrs. Schiavo. For those who wanted a different outcome, that alone is proof of judicial activism.

Meanwhile, liberals (and judges) must be behind what they are uniformly calling a "culture of death." What's next, are we Satanist commies? Do we sacrifice babies and drink their blood? How far does the right get to go on this one?

Here are some of the quotes from wingnuts pounding away at these two points, and warning that we (?) have awaked a "sleeping giant" of demogogic conservatives. With national polls showing Americans, like us, sympathetic to the family's troubles but able to see through political grandstanding, we're not sure about that. But we'll see how far the right is going to take this weird journey.

"Culture of death"

[A]ll too many have become unwitting disciples of a pagan death cult, which romanticizes death and the death process, and disturbingly discounts the universal human will to live. At the very least they are blind agents in the incremental, inexorable devaluation of sacred human life.... The enlightened among us pride themselves in rejecting the idea of slippery slopes, but it hardly takes a Nostradamus to see what our approach to the Schiavo case could lead to in the near future. (David Limbaugh, "Unwitting disciples of death," Town Hall, 3/29/05)

This event will be remembered as a giant signpost along the highway leading America down into the Valley of Death. We are being driven down that highway by judges who are a law unto themselves. (Terrence Jeffrey, "The good Samaritan goes to jail," Town Hall, 3/30/05)

Terri's battle for life, supported intelligently and passionately by so many, is serving to illustrate that Christians, Jews and other people possessed of moral fiber and common sense will no longer let liberalism trample all over their rights, no longer let liberalism hide from our view the moral and religious foundations of the law in this country.... You see, these guys [Democrats] are still so dedicated to the revolution of Marx and Lenin that even when common political sense points the way to standing up for what is right, and even when, for the sake of political survival, they promise to themselves that they will stand up for what is right, they can't bring themselves to do it. ... Democrats just can't seem to escape their reputation as the party of death and moral insensibility. (Steve Farrell, "Democratic Party exposed by Schiavo case," NewsMax, 3/25/05)

The decision to kill Terri Schiavo is not in deference to Terri's intentions, about which there is way too much doubt, but to godlessness, humanism and death. It is to quench society's lust for death. This case marks a turning point in the Culture War, where society is making a giant leap toward the dark side, embracing the lie over truth and death over life. (David Limbaugh, "Giant leap towards culture of death," NewsMax, 3/25/05)

As the fate of Terri Schiavo was decided and then carried out, the enigma of Jewish liberalism came again to the fore. What accounts for Jews whose idea of dying "with dignity" included this incapacitated Florida woman being dehydrated to a state of living mummification like the ghoulish images of Nazi death-camp survivors? (David Klinghoffer, "Liberal Jews and Terri Schiavo," National Review Online, 3/29/05)

[Terri Schiavo] has been transported to a new life where she will be able to communicate in a powerful new way. She will quickly become a saint to the pro-life movement as well as a metaphor for what is wrong with our federal and many state courts. Possibly her death might add momentum to President Bush's quest to get judges confirmed who believe in the fundamental right to life for all categories of human existence, instead of judicial freelancers who speak of a "living Constitution" even while they arrogantly preside over a prejudicial reading of that document and sentence new categories of life to death.

... This case will serve as a rallying cry for pro-lifers and other social conservatives. Expect "Remember Terri Schiavo" bumper stickers to appear soon. Expect conservative Republicans to make her death part of the campaign to win approval of federal judges. Watch liberal Democrats squirm, though some of them voted, along with conservatives, for the bill granting power to the federal courts to consider Terri's case. That judges refused to save her, or even grant a hearing to consider new facts, is another blot on the federal judiciary. It is a stain that won't be removed until those responsible are replaced. (Cal Thomas, "St. Theresa Schiavo," Town Hall, 3/31/05)

In the Vatican, we saw the culture of life on display, while in Florida, we saw the gruesome alternative: the culture of death. (Chuck Colson, "The Planter of Crosses," Town Hall, 4/4/05)

The behavior of liberals. Mystifying. While conservative opinion was severely splintered, liberal opinion seemed monolithic: Let her die. Liberals usually rally to the side of vulnerable people, but not in this case. (John Leo, "Some final notes on the Terri Schiavo case," Town Hall, 4/4/05)

What is inexplicable is the behavior of the media talking heads, who seemed so desperately anxious that the judge's ruling not be reversed and that Terri die. Why were they so pro-death?  ... Why were so many progressives on the side of death for Terri Schiavo?  (Pat Buchanan, "The execution of Terri Schiavo," Town Hall, 4/1/05)

War on judiciary

[We] deserve a judiciary that is respectful of democratic self-government and committed to a genuine constitutionalism. The Bush administration should nominate such judges, and Congress should confirm them. And the president and Congress should lead a serious national debate on the distinction between judicial independence and judicial arrogance, and on the difference between judicial review and judicial supremacy. After all, we are a "maturing society," as the Supreme Court has told us. Perhaps it is time, in mature reaction to this latest installment of what Hugh Hewitt has called a "robed charade," to rise up against our robed masters, and choose to govern ourselves. Call it Terri's revolution. (William Kristol, "'The evolving standards of decency,'" Weekly Standard, 4/4/05)

What was supposed to be the "least dangerous" branch has become the most dangerous ­ literally to the point of ordering an innocent American woman to die, and willfully disregarding congressional subpoenas. (Ann Coulter, "Starved for justice," Town Hall, 3/24/05)

For President Bush and the social conservatives who comprise the central rampart of his base, the courts' naked assertion of judicial supremacy in deciding the fate of Terri Schiavo represents an important moment. This is because the premise of the Democratic filibuster of the president's conservative judicial nominees is that the Roe v. Wade decision must never again be called into question.

The judicial confirmation debate will now unavoidably be about whether democratic decision-making on abortion should continue to be prohibited by our courts and (effectively) by the American legal profession. From the beginning, those who believed Roe would corrupt the rule of law feared that state sanction of private killing would put all public order and all private restraint in doubt. The fate of Terri Schiavo makes clear that those fears were utterly on target. (Jeffrey Bell and Frank Cannon, "The politics of the Schiavo case," Weekly Standard, 4/4/05)

For those of us in the grassroots, troubled by Terri Schiavo's impending demise and the courts' complicity in it, roll up your sleeves. The fight has only begun. (Kay Daly, "What Congress gives, Congress can take away," Insight on the News, 3/28/05)

Conservatives are hypocrites, they charge. The Right opposes judicial activism and preaches states' rights. But in Terri's case, the Right clamored for judicial activism and rejected states' rights.  But this is absurd. The judicial activist in Terri's case is Greer, who sentenced a brain-damaged woman to death by starvation and dehydration. If this is not judicial activism, in violation of a citizen's right to life, due process of law, and not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment, what is? (Pat Buchanan, "The execution of Terri Schiavo," Town Hall, 4/1/05)

The fact is, the people are mad, and they're not going to take it anymore. In the end, this case screams loudly for action by state legislatures and Congress against both the Death Culture and judicial activism. Indeed, many of my objections to the Schiavo case have even more to do with what I perceive to be gross injustices exacted by the courts -- based on their stunning disrespect for life -- than judicial activism.... The Schiavo case death merchants may rue the day they allowed their "dispassionate" absence of zeal for human life to go too far. They might just have awakened the sleeping giant of the Culture of Life. (David Limbaugh, "Schiavo: Awakening a sleeping giant," Town Hall, 4/1/05)