The Terry Schiavo case was a win-win situation for the GOP, yet it somehow managed to backfire on them.
By win-win, I mean if the case went to a sympathetic conservative judge who ruled for continued life support and assistance for those in a persistent vegetative state, Republicans would have eaten it up as a declaration by all Americans that more conservative judges were needed to prevent 'unethical atrocities' from unfolding.
However, the federal judge upheld Michael Schiavo's legal guardian status which led to the removal of medical support and termination of what life, if any, was left. I speculate that Republicans hoped that this conclusion might infuriate the Christian Right base so much that it would lend more support to President Bush's argument that America needed less “activist judges” (and by activist, I presuppose he meant judges who didn't happen to share his intepretation of the Constitution).
For Republican politicians, if one gets down to the brass tax, Terri Schiavo was a mere referendum on judicial nominees. It never was truly about a person's right-to-die - only for those who bit the bait.
Side Note: Strangely enough, in the aftermath, the Christian Right turned a lot of frustration to the President and his inability to step up to the plate in a situation of grave moral importance to them (the criticism was even worse for the more closely associated Florida Governor, Jeb Bush).
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