Amy Sullivan Guest Blogging on 'Political Animal'

STOP THIS MAN BEFORE HE DIAGNOSES AGAIN....I wasn't going to comment on the Terry Schiavo case, mostly because it seems that any attention just feeds directly into what conservatives are hoping to achieve: a trumped-up culture war. (See Ed Kilgore's comments for my general take on the issue.) But Senator Frist's recent diagnosis--via a home-made video, it's important to note--that Schiavo is not actually in a persistent vegetative state, compels me to write. To the extent that Frist's comments have been covered at all, it has been through the 2008 "Oh, he's just trying to suck up to the Christian Right" lens. (And by the way, Senator, if that's what you're doing, let me save you the effort and a few years of your life: the Christian Right favorites are Santorum and Brownback. No amount of false diagnosing is going to change that. Oh, and by the time the Social Security debacle is over, your political career will be as well.)