With their handling of the heart-wrenching Terri Schiavo case, George W. Bush and his Republican allies in tragedy exploitation were awash in the currency of Washington: hypocrisy. The party that has looked to cut Medicaid services to millions of poor Americans (to close a budget gap caused in part by tax cuts for the well-off) dramatically recalled all its House members to Washington to decry what it disingenuously claimed was a denial of care to one person who has been in a severely brain-damaged state for fifteen years. Self-proclaimed conservatives who denounce outcome-oriented judicial activism at the drop of a gavel pushed through arguably unconstitutional legislation ...