Surprised to see anti-GOP letters in South Carolina Paper including mine

[styersc]

My original letter:

"To The Editor-
Never before have I witnessed a more despicable display of raw politics than that which is being played out by Conservative Republicans at the expense of a mentally incapacitated woman and her distraught family. This week conservatives in congress trashed the separation of powers, states rights and the sanctity of privacy between a man and wife, all so they could try to score points with radicals on the right. Unfortunately for them, their hypocrisy is crystal clear.

President Bush traveled from Arizona to Washington so that he could take his place in this circus, declaring that Government should "err on the side of life". However this stance represents a giant flip-flop as events in Texas revealed. In 1999, while governor of Texas, Bush gave the medical insurance industry a giant present when he signed a law that gave medical professionals the ability to terminate life supporting care, even against the wishes of the family. During the same week that Michael Shiavo was trying to satisfy his wife's wish to be released from the horror that she had endured in a vegetative state for 15 years, a hospital in Houston was employing Bush's "culture of death" law to remove an infant from life support against the wishes of its mother. The baby whose mother begged for more time, is now dead in accordance with the law signed by Bush, and the woman who told her husband she would never want to be kept alive on machines, is continuing to suffer so the GOP can score points with its far right constituents.

My suspicions were confirmed this weekend when Republican talking point memos were discovered that coach GOP candidates on how to make political hay of this tragedy. From Watergate to Whitewater, I've never seen a more detestable and cynical manipulation then what we have witnessed over the withering body of this suffering woman and the despair of her family."

It was edited a bit so it seems more tame but I was happy to get it
printed.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/state/news/editorial/letters/11206084.htm

[styersc]

1. I sent this by e-mail yesterday morning and received a phone call

from the editorial staff by lunch. They wanted to know if I was part of an organized group that was sending letters or was I an individual writing on my own. They also wanted to know what web pages I had been on lately.

I felt like using the old line, "I'm not a member of any organized party...I'm a Democrat."

[efhmc]

2. Well, written and I think you could have quoted old Will, but the person

calling probably would not have had a clue who that was. Maybe I will send something to my paper also. It is such a rw thinking, ultra-conservative small town rag, that it hardly seem worth the effort.

[trudyco]

3. Cool - but what diff does it make about the web pages?

I guess they just wanted to make sure you weren't part of some blogging letter writing campaign. Makes me wonder how many other letters they got.

Was this conservative paper for or against Bush in 2004?

Wouldn't this be nice if the Shiavo case finally cracked the MSM to start reporting all of the news. Not getting my hopes up, but...

[styersc]

4. This is The State Newspaper.. they for Bush...

and helped to destroy mcCain in the SC primary in 2000.

They grilled me particularly on where I had gotten the information concerning the Texas law and were particularly keen about wether I had gotten it off of Buzzflash. Seems there might have been a letter writing campaign elsewhere and maybe Knight-Ridder papers had informed each other to be on the look out.

[raccoon]

5. Great letter. nt

[TheFarseer]

6. I think you and the other writters on your side won easily

They had to break out Hitler!?