GOP: Lamm And Schiavo Fundraiser "Shameful"

More reaction from Michael Schiavo's appearance in Colorado on behalf of Peggy Lamm:

The chairman of Colorado's Republican Party chastised Democratic congressional candidate Peggy Lamm on Wednesday for "shamefully" inviting Michael Shiavo to raise money tonight for her campaign.

Lamm fired back immediately, saying it was the Republican Party's fault for dragging the Schiavo family into the national debate over the right to live vs. the right to die with dignity.

Michael Shiavo won a drawn-out court battle with Republican lawmakers who joined his wife's parents in trying to stop him from taking his wife, Terri Shiavo, off life support last year.

GOP chairman Bob Martinez called on Lamm to cancel tonight's event, which he said showed the hypocrisy of Democrats who blamed Republicans last year of using the Schiavo tragedy for their own political gain.

"It's disgusting that Peggy Lamm would seek to raise money off of the Schiavo family's personal tragedy," Martinez said in a statement.

The Democrats, recently labeled the "party of death", are once again capitalizing on personal tragedy and grief (Sheehan, 9/11 widows) for political gain.

Lamm considers "considers the right to die with dignity a civil-rights issue" and "once tried unsuccessfully to pass a bill that would have legalized doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill people who give competent consent".

Lamm is also a former member of the Hemlock Society.