"Terri Schiavo has been in what doctors call a persistent vegetative or coma-like state for 15 years, with no higher brain activity. Her husband says that Terri would not want to be kept alive artificially in this state. He has asked that the feeding tube that keeps her alive be removed. Her parents disagree, saying that Terri would not want to die this way, and contend that her condition could be improved. A Florida judge upheld her husband's request to remove the feeding tube. Do you agree or disagree with the decision to remove her feeding tube?" . Agree Disagree Unsure     % % %     3/22-24/05 59 35 7  

"Congress met in a special session this past weekend to pass legislation moving the Schiavo case from the Florida state courts, which have repeatedly ruled to remove the feeding tube, to the federal court system. Regardless of your opinion on the Schiavo case, do you think it was right for Congress to intervene in this matter, or not?" . Right Not Right Unsure     % % %     3/22-24/05 20 75 5     . "How about President Bush, who signed the legislation this weekend moving jurisdiction to the federal courts? Was it right for him to intervene, or not?" . Right Not Right Unsure     % % %     3/22-24/05 24 70 6

"Do you think Congress and the President should be involved in deciding what happens to Terri Schiavo, or is this a matter Congress and the President should stay out of?" . Should Be Involved Should Stay Out Unsure     % % %     3/21-22/05 13 82 5     . "Regardless of your opinion about the Terri Schiavo case, in general, do you think the federal government should decide whether it is legal for family members to remove a patient from life support, or should each state government decide, or are these issues something the government should stay out of?" . Federal State Government Stay Out Unsure   % % % %   3/21-22/05 9 13 75 3  

The knee-jerk way to review a colossus like this is to chip away at it, to whittle it down to one's own intellectual size by regretfully pointing to what Dickstein left out: What about comic strips or radio shows or doggerel poetry? (See? I'm not above such tricks.) But Dickstein puts a stop to this kind of gamesmanship at the outset when he tells readers that he "made no effort to cover everything."