Posted on 07/31/2005 3:38:47 AM PDT by amdgmary
TALLAHASSEE - It was one of the shortest speeches of Charlie Crist's career, but as a campaign for governor unfolds, it may prove to be one of the most memorable.
Two weeks ago, the Republican attorney general and candidate for governor gave a late-night speech to a roomful of lawyers in Miami where he referred to the judges in the Terri Schiavo case as "heroes."
Crist insists he wasn't endorsing court rulings that prevented the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube from being reconnected, but critics view it differently. And by appearing to break his silence in the Schiavo case, Crist has sharpened the contrast between himself and Republican rival Tom Gallagher, who has said he favored government action to "prevent Terri's starvation."
At the dinner in Miami, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer and U.S. District Judge James Whittemore of Tampa were honored as jurists of the year by the Florida chapter of ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates. The group champions judicial independence and its members are lawyers who represent both plaintiffs and defendants.
Greer is the judge who ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed, rejecting a subpoena from Congress and pleas from Gov. Jeb Bush, and Whittemore also denied emergency requests to reinsert the tube in the weeks before Schiavo died March 31. Both men's decisions were later upheld by higher courts, and both were praised and vilified by opposing sides of the emotionally charged end-of-life case.
Crist said he was "proud" of both judges.
"You are heroes to all of us, and your defense of the judiciary and what is right is beyond admirable," Crist was quoted in the Daily Business Review, a Miami newspaper that provided the only news account of the July 15 event at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.
In an interview, Crist did not dispute the quotations. Nor did he offer a view of whether he agreed with their decisions. Rather, he said, he praised them for fulfilling their constitutional duty to provide checks and balances against the other two branches of government.
"I try to say nice things about judges. I'm sure I was complimentary," said Crist, who as the state's chief legal officer often speaks at bar-related events. "I didn't talk about any specific case. ... It's important that those checks and balances exist. Our system of government needs to have that."
Crist's comments have resonated far beyond the Biltmore.
"Judge Greer is a poster child for everything that's wrong with the judiciary," said Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, a grass roots Christian political group in Fort Lauderdale that lists "sanctity of life" as one of its priorities and plans to form a political action committee.
"For Charlie Crist to hold that up as an example of good judicial practice concerns me," Cass said. "I think it was a mistake for Charlie to say that. I don't know how anybody can be happy about a woman being deprived food and water."
Rep. Dennis Baxley, the Republican from Ocala who sponsored legislation last spring to force the tube to be reconnected, said Crist's speech was revealing.
"I think it is one of those very important moments for us to know where he (Crist) stands," Baxley said. "I truly believe there's a lot of people out there who were sensitive to this case who are going to find those comments, and that association, very instructive. I'm understanding where people line up on this."
Baxley said that while Crist was "conspicuously absent" from the Schiavo debate in the Legislature, Gallagher sent Baxley a personal letter of support last spring. While activists in the Schiavo debate take aim at Crist, his Republican rival Gallagher is not.
"Tom's made his position very clear in the past. There's really no comment we're going to make on that," said David Johnson, a Gallagher adviser.
Polls show a majority of Americans agreed with the judges' decisions to order the removal of Schiavo's tube, as her husband, Michael, said she wanted. By a greater margin, polls show people were opposed to Congress' intervention in the case.
But to those who view the long-running Schiavo saga as a test case of support for the sanctity of life - like abortion - Greer and Whittemore are "judicial activists" who starved a woman to death.
Many of those people can vote in the Republican primary for governor in September 2006. Crist's stand on the Schiavo case could prove to be an asset if he wins the GOP nomination and faces a Democrat. But one Republican strategist said the damage has been done.
"Schiavo killed the Republicans. They've lost the women's vote," said Matt Towery, an ex-Republican legislator who now runs an Atlanta media and polling firm. "It's one of those turning points that you just can't get away from."
August 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “The degree of disconnect between the description of the Terri Schiavo case in the media, and the reality of the case is pretty profound,” laments Robert Destro, the lawyer who performed vital pro bono legal work for the family of Terri Schiavo in their final bid to save Terri’s life from the hands of her husband and the courts.
In an interview with Anita Crane of the American Life League Destro reveals many of the disturbing legal anomalies, often stepping into the realm of the patently illegal, that sadly distinguished the Schiavo case.
In particular Destro remains deeply critical of the actions of judge Greer, whose failure to act and whose often illegal handling of the case resulted in Terri’s eventual murder by starvation and dehydration. “You can’t really make up facts of this case—I felt like I was caught in Wonderland or Neverland. Terri never got a fair hearing,” attests Destro. “Florida law expressly requires probate judges to see the incompetent patients whose cases are pending before them, but Greer never went to see Terri.”
Destro complains that his efforts to represent Terri and her family were frustrated by the courts at every turn of the road. Laws created to protect Terri were struck down as unconstitutional, appeals to higher courts intended to rectify blatant and gross legal malpractices in the lower courts were refused, and painstakingly slow court processes were unnecessarily initiated in the midst of emergency time restraints.
But Destro’s criticisms aren’t only reserved for the anti-life forces that expended immense amounts of time, effort and money in ensuring that Terri served as the poster-child for their pro-euthanasia agenda. The experienced and able lawyer believes that in many ways pro-life forces failed to act to the fullest of their abilities to protect Terri, especially their unwillingness or inability to work with perceived political enemies who offered support.
“My experience in civil rights,” says Destro, “teaches me that it makes no difference that some civil rights advocates are pro-choice. If our goal is to protect and preserve the rights of vulnerable persons, we must put those vulnerable persons first and try as best we can to understand the needs and wants of those whom we are trying to protect. [But sometimes] we fail in our duty to the extent that we are unwilling or unable, for whatever reason, to work with our political opponents on behalf of those whose lives society does not value. Terri Schiavo was one of those persons. There are many, many more like her.”
Destro warns pro-life advocates not to underestimate the extent of the cultural force that they are facing. “The visibility of Terri’s case is the exception, not the rule. Euthanasia is already happening every day. We need to understand that families like the Schindlers exist all over this country and the system isn’t designed to help them to care for their loved ones at home.”
Read Anita Crane’s full-length report, outlining the many abuses of the Schiavo case as explained by the Schinler’s lawyer, Robert Destro:
Inside the Terri Schiavo case: And why it matters now
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005_docs/Destro.pdf
...a philosophy.
Things were proceeding in a lively, yet deliberate, manner until last week when the urge to wisecrack apparently got to be too much for FSU trustee Richard McFarlain, FSU alum and state senator, Jim King, and President T.K. Wetherell. Each inadvertently insulted Oklahoma Seminoles, whom they thought at the time supported the NCAA ban.
Mr. McFarlain and Mr. King have apologized for their remarks. But they have caused even people who aren't PC zealots to wince. McFarlain, known for his acerbic wit -locally, anyway - took the cake when he weighed in, saying the Oklahoma Seminoles "got run out of here, by who was it, Andrew Jackson? The Trail of Tears. The real Seminoles stayed here."
Comments by Mr. King and Mr. Wetherell were more vague, but also touched indelicately on the Trail of Tears that, under the 1830 Indian Removal Act, forced thousands of Seminoles out of Florida and west to Oklahoma, with legions dying en route. Such observations, however unintended, struck many as too close for comfort to the Holocaust and other acts of genocide.
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Hold on! Am parachuting emergency French Roast.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1467638/posts
Hi, MVA's have their ups and downs. Good days and bad. The kindness of Terri's extended family is helping me and freepers are the very best. The bozo was a 16 year old kid.
538 ZOT
Hope you are feeling fine again! xo
Thanks for the ping!
The police, the judge, the prosecutor and other witnesses who I can tell you are already going to lie on the stand against this person.
This may be the next breaking news from Pinellas should the Christian, do gooder, well mannered scapegoat decide to go public.
You see, they changed the trespass to incitement to riot. That is absolutely false. The only incitement was by paid operatives on the other side who also stalked Terri supporters in Tampa after Terri was murdered.
Pinellas County persecutes Christians and is anyone surprised?
Ping. I'm coming around. Thanks for the posts about the event on Wednesday. Pls see my last about kangaroo criminal court in Pinellas County tomorrow.
And Jeb said the MOSI corpse exhibit was "artistic". So, we don't respect life or the dead. R E S P E C T, not in floriduh.
I expect nothing good from politicians, nothing at all, ever, zero, zip, nada, nothing. Jeb is falling somewhat short of my standards.
You should have said something, I would have mailed you some.
Yeah, thanx for the french roast. It arrived just in time, with just the right shade of roasting, darker than the rest except expresso, higher octane than French gasoline.
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You would have written me a funny poem about groceries, I know how you are...
poster " prayersforfloriduhvoter " has already been banned. Wonder what happened?
The poster was dripping with sarcasm on the prayers thread and in responses was unravelling, then, suddenly was no longer with us.
Here it is, beginning at #153-160 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1465466/posts?q=1&&page=153
Former Schindler Attorney Campbell Lauds Greer for Judicial Excellence A former attorney for the parents of Terri Schindler-Schiavo has presented an award for judicial excellence to Pinellas County probate court judge George W. Greer, the judge who issued the death order resulting in the execution of the brain damaged woman in March by dehydration and starvation.
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