Brain Dead

Nice piece on the aftermath of the Schiavo autopsy in the Washington Post.

In "Where's The Apology?: Bending the Facts on Schiavo," E. J. Dionne Jr. writes, "We are entitled to our moral, ethical and philosophical commitments. We are not entitled to our own facts."

"So why is this basic rule of argument often ignored by politicians whose certainty about their righteousness convinces them that they can say absolutely anything to further their causes?"

Dionne goes on to remind us of what Bill Frist and Tom DeLay had to say at the time, and how hard Frist is backpedaling now that the results are out. "I never made the diagnosis, never said that she was not (in a vegetative state)," Frist told Good Morning America, doing his best impression of Sgt. Schultz.

"We cannot move on," Dionne writes, "until those politicians who felt entitled to make up facts and toss around unwarranted conclusions about Schiavo's condition take responsibility for what they said -- and apologize."

The folks in charge aren’t really keen on apologies at the moment, you may have noticed. The best you can hope for is "It’s time to leave behind this bitter partisan squabbling and bind the nation’s wounds, etc."

But "I’m sorry I done it"? Not unless one of them gets pumped full of sodium pentathol.

Or cash.