Political move? Definitely the federal part. It could be argued that since this is the kind of matter that's supposed to be handled by the states, Jeb was just doing his job.

Will it help them? Hard to say yet. I think a lot of moderates are not pleased, but I don't know how much it will matter compared to the war and the economy. Some hard-liners will be grateful, but there are others who have been saying that anything short of storming the hospice and abducting Terri is just lip service, and that Jeb will be out of a job if she dies.

What the liberals think isn't an issue; we already couldn't stand them.

Personal experience with the political impact of this:

I know that my mom, who is a moderate Republican, has sworn never to vote Republican again because of the asinine behavior of the Republicans in this case. (Her dad is on life support, and we have sort of the Schindler role in our personal drama, so she empathizes with him.) I think it's humorous that my mom, the pro-gay, pro-environment woman, has finally given up on the Republicans over (what should be) a small issue in the grand scheme of things. (For the record, we live in Florida.)

EDIT: Sorry, mistype. We totally have the Schiavo role. *embarrassed face* We've had 24-hour media coverage of it around here, living in Orlando, so my brain is shutting down.

My sense is that this is very good politically for Frist. He is definitely running for President and, despite being majority leader, had a name recognition problem which is now solved. Obviously, this helps him with the loonies who are essential to winning Republican primaries.

This also helps DeLay, by distracting attention from his ethical problems.

As for the Bushes, I don't see the political benefit from a national point of view. I think W sensed that and, while he did what the right wanted, he seemed pretty careful to avoid being out front on the issue.

That leaves Jeb, who swears up and down he's not running for President -- and who would be the frontrunner for the nomination if he were even without the Schiavo nonsense. Maybe this helps him politically in Florida (something I don't know enough about). Maybe, though I hate to suggest this, he genuinely believes in the cause. Maybe some combination of both plus a general desire to accommodate a core constituency -- that's the best I can do.

I know that most of the posters at this blog agree that the husband should be able to determine whether his wife lives or dies but I'd like you to consider the following article. It is the most sane and compassionate thing I've read so far about this case.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/

It's one of the most uninformed and irrelevant, actually. The author gets almost all of her base facts wrong, and then goes on to write a stirring piece about someone obviously in a completely different situation than Terri Schiavo.

Terri Schiavo has been dead for almost fifteen years. The husband has finally accepted that, and decided to stop animating her corpse.