Divided GOP tent

What we have here, once again, is another hint at the divide inside the GOP between what White House scribe Michael Gerson described a few months ago as a consistently Catholic approach to public life and the Libertarian approach to social issues. The Holy Week (in the West) drama of the Terri Schiavo case is merely underlining what is already obvious. Here is New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney's crunch quote, with another use of the soon-to-be omnipresent T-word: "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. . . . "This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy," Mr. Shays said. The article contains only one clear quote making a case for the other side: "There's a larger issue in play," and Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, "and that is the whole issue of the definition of life. The issue of when is it a life is a broader issue than just a state defining that. I don't think we can have 50 different definitions of life."


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