2 from state voted across party lines

WASHINGTON — House members Dave Reichert, a Republican representing the Eastside, and Brian Baird, a Democrat who represents Southwest Washington, have little in common politically.

As expected, they voted on opposite sides yesterday morning on legislation to allow the federal courts to intervene in Terri Schiavo's case.

But they startled their colleagues by crossing party lines.

Saying "Congress overstepped itself here," Reichert was one of only five Republicans who voted against a bill that allowed Schiavo's parents to ask a federal court to intervene to have her feeding tube replaced.

But Baird voted for the legislation, saying that since the Schiavo case had already been in court many years, "What is one more review?"

Both cited personal experience as helping drive their decisions.

In recent years, Reichert's family twice has had to deal with questions of life support for family members. In one instance, he and his mother decided to turn off life support for his grandmother.

"We agonized over this five days," he said.

Reichert says he talked about his decision with his pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Cross in Kent.

"I don't think of this as an execution, the way it has been portrayed," Reichert said. "It's been going on 15 years, with 19 judges. Do we know more than those judges?"

Reichert had been home in Auburn only a few hours when he got an e-mail from Republican congressional leaders asking him to fly back to D.C. to vote on the Schiavo bill.

Unusual vote

Still, he says there was no pressure to vote with the GOP.

His vote was unusual, say other politicians and staffers, because Reichert is considered one of the most vulnerable GOP House members in the 2006 election and needs to stay close to GOP leadership.

On Thursday evening he worked the room at the Capitol Hill Club, where Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas was throwing a fund-raiser for Reichert and other GOP members who may need extra support. DeLay led the effort for the Schiavo bill.

However, Reichert said, "I gave no thought at all about going against the leadership."

Baird was with his wife, visiting their 2-week-old twins in a hospital in the nation's capital, when he learned he would be needed back on the Hill.

At 11:05 p.m. Sunday, Baird addressed the members who had straggled in from the Easter recess in their home districts.

"I do not know what to do tonight. I honestly do not," said Baird, a psychologist who has helped patients prepare for relatives' deaths.

He talked about the existence Schiavo faces without a functioning brain stem. "The cortex makes us who we are ... It [the case] is so tragic."

However, an hour later, Baird voted to send Schiavo's case back to a federal judge.

"I surprised myself," Baird said.

Baird explained that one reason he voted "yes" was that the "no" decision was "irreversible;" sending the case back to court was not.

However, Baird complained about conservative Republicans who described "no" votes as "anti-life."

He noted that some of the strongest backers of keeping the Schiavo case open also support the death penalty, yet they don't mind that "irreversible" decision.

"I hope some people notice that they have not been consistent," Baird said.

House members absent

Many House members were out of town and missed the hastily called vote. Only five of Washington's nine House members made it back to D.C. in time to cast a vote.

Among those was Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Seattle, who flew back to D.C. to vote against the legislation.

One of the few medical doctors in Congress, McDermott said that "no one who has gone through this with their family would want the government to get in the middle of this."

"For members, this was probably one of those few votes where what you were voting on was your own personal deepest feelings about death, and about the process of death," he said.

Alicia Mundy: 202-662-7457 or amundy@seattletimes.com