Jeb Bush Wimping Out in Schiavo Case?

NewsMax ^ | 10/17/03 | Limbacher

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday that his legal team has been unable to find a basis for him to intervene in the case of Terri Schiavo, who is expected to starve to death as soon as this weekend after her feeding tube was removed at the direction of her husband yesterday.

"The legal office has been talking to people trying to find some strategy where my office can intervene in a different fashion that will yield a different result," Bush said Thursday. "So far we have not found that option."

Gov. Bush's comments came before Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, met with him privately to present a letter from Florida's Thomas More Law Center citing a legal basis for the state to intervene to stop what one attorney described as "the execution of Terri Schiavo."

"We're waiting to hear from Gov. Bush" on the Thomas More letter, Mr. Schindler told national talk radio host Sean Hannity Thursday afternoon. Schindler said Gov. Bush's response is "probably is our last hope."

By Friday morning, Bush's office gave no hint that he had reached a decision. Thursday night Mr. Schindler told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes" that his daughter could die as early as this weekend if medical staff begin administering morphine to counter the pain of her starvation.

The Republican governor's caution over the legal technicalities of the case stands in marked contrast to the actions of Democrats, who often take a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later approach when an issue of importance hangs in the balance.

In April 2000, for instance, the Clinton administration didn't let the law interfere with its plan to return 6-year-old boat boy Elian Gonzalez to Castro's Cuba. Instead of waiting for Gonzalez's legal case to play out in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, Attorney General Janet Reno executed White House plans to have the boy kidnapped from the home of his Miami relatives at machine gunpoint.

Normally Clinton-friendly legal powerhouse attorneys Alan Dershowitz and Lawrence Tribe were horrified, publicly condemning the raid as unconstitutional.

Gov. Bush reaction? He called the action "unconscionable" but showed no interest in pursuing legal sanctions against the White House.

When Republicans in Congress called for a congressional investigation into the Clinton administration's abuse of power in the Elian case, top aides to then-presidential candidate George Bush derailed the idea.

"A top Republican Party official told The Daily News that Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh informed Senate Republicans on Thursday that the candidate wanted the hearings scrapped because the issue is a political loser," reported the New York paper a week after the raid.

As it turned out, voter backlash over the Elian raid among Florida's Cuban-American community gave President Bush his razor thin margin of victory in the 2000 election.

[Jorge]

Please get your facts straight. Intentionally STARVING SOMEONE TO DEATH is not "letting them die naturally", just as if you purposely witheld food from an infant, it wouldn't be "letting them die", it's MURDER.

Please, you get your facts straight.

When you cannot eat or drink, walk, talk, read or watch TV, communicate with your loved ones for over 10 years...and in order to maintain this horrible existance a feeding tube needs to be shoved down your throat...and you can't even go to the bathroom, somebody has to wipe your butt daily....you tell me how humane it is to keep a person stuck in this state for as long as the machines can keep them alive.
That's cruel.

[SwordofTruth]

regardless of what the girls family is representing as fact as they are hostile witnesses in this argument

It's very telling of you that you would describe the family as a "hostile witness."

If anyone is a hostile witness here it is Michael Schiavo who, in his own words, "just wants that bitch to die."

[Coral Snake]

More like Andersonville than Aushwitz but still PLENTY bad.
I remember that Andersnnville's commander got hung for his attrocities too.

[Cold Heat]

I think you understand hostile very well.

[SwordofTruth]

...and in order to maintain this horrible existance a feeding tube needs to be shoved down your throat...

As reported by care givers your above statement is false.

She can eat pudding with someone feeding her with a spoon. She doesn't need a feeding tube to live.

[Constantine XIII]

Ah, but here's the hangup! Most people on this thread believe that allowing her to die would be wrong no matter what the law says, just as we believe abortion is wrong though the Supreme Court has said otherwise. Moreover, the judge's interpretation of the law is itself in doubt. This is just the sort of case that could be easily influinced by politically a motivated judge; a thing of a sort FReepers have bemoaned for a long time.

Euthanasia is a liberal plank issue, though it tends not to come out in the open often outside of the pacific NW. Had a 9th circuit judge done this in Oregon, the respose would have been even more overwhelming.

We always hope and pray that the law will coincide with what is right, though that is not always the case. Here, though, it seems to me, though I am no authority, that the law is on the side of Terry's family, in that 1) Terry is not what could be considered terminal or beyond recovery and 2) that her husband as a serious conflict-of-interest.

I suppose we will have to agree to disagree. I'm sorry for the loss of your brother, and I hope neither of us ever has to deal such a sad problem ourselves. Thanks for a good debate!

Sincerely,

C13

[Cold Heat]

Michael Schiavo who, in his own words,

LOL! Now that is rich!

These purported words related by ex-girl friend of 10 years or more ago who pops out of the woodwork to tell a media outlet?

Come on! This is here say at best and again from someone hostile to this man and apparently wrapped up in this emotional battle. It is too bad that they never can prosecute libel and smears like they should.

Any FReeper worth his or her salt would find these comments by her and others so sympathetic to the girls family and blasting this guy soon after the judgment by the court as very possibly not at all credible.

Why no body even questions this stuff is beyond me and very un-FReeper like.

Hell, a rational person cannot even debate or question any of this without getting blasted him/his self or being told to go read Terri's web site and come back when you learn something.

Do you know how silly that is.

Then when any other media report is mentioned that does not agree with the mass hysteria it is labeled immediately as lies.

Go figure.

[trussell]

and in order to maintain this horrible existance a feeding tube needs to be shoved down your throat

I wish you would at least read about Terri before you post B.S. like this.

Terri did not have a feeding tube "shoved down her throat", she had a feeding tube direct lined. They had to have the device surgically removed to prevent anyone from "re-inserting the feeding tube at the last minute".

[Cold Heat]

I enjoyed the debate and thank you as well.

[Concentrate]

"The legal office has been talking to people trying to find some strategy where my office can intervene in a different fashion that will yield a different result," Bush said Thursday. "So far we have not found that option."

What a wimp!

[Cold Heat]

She can eat pudding with someone feeding her with a spoon. She doesn't need a feeding tube to live.

That is a ten year old quote from one person who was attempting to coax her to eat.

It is quite obvious that they failed in the attempts.

[Schwaeky]

That's when Jeb Bush needs to do the following,

send the a military police unit of the Florida national guard out to enforce moving Terri from the death chamber/Hospice facility (actually the former is a more accurate description, given it is operated by Michael Schiavo's Atty--George Felos--who is a high leader in the Hemlock Society and a right-to-die advocate) to a place capable of providing restorative, maintainiative, and rehabiliatative care to Mrs. Schiavo.

send Florida Highway Patrol officers/state detectives (or both) to eject the armed guards blocking such a rescue from the premises--idea-- my gun is bigger than your gun, and then to provide clear path of transport for the FL national guard to transport Terri whereever it may be necesssary to take her.

when removing her to a more appropriate facility--have a medical unit of the FL National Guard to provide any needed emergency care to prevent degregation of her condition as she is being transfered

obviously because Jeb lacks judicial authority, he would be unable to legally bar Michael Schiavo from going around her, but such action and use of political muscle, even in an extralegal extracation (fine, call it kidnapping--but the cause is just) can make his life very difficult very quickly...

[Houmatt]

The only thing you have demonstrated with this post is how ignorant you are of the facts regarding this case. I strongly suggest you do a search using the keywords, "Terri Schiavo" and get up to speed on what is going on.

[sarasmom]

I am heartilly sick of you trying to equate the death of your terminally ill family member, and your decision to terminate life support, with Terri Schiavo.
Do you seek absolution for your past decisions?
See a priest.
Terri Schiavo is being murdered by court decree, because she is severely disabled, and inconvenient to her "husband".
If that fact makes you second guess your past decisions, oh well.
My store of sympathy has dried up for people like you.
You should seek out professional mental health practicioners, as opposed to advocating the murder of a disabled woman by court order, just to validate your own decisions, and allow you to FEEL better.
Terri Schiavo became terminal,a dying person, on 10/15/03.
Not from a lethal disease,not from devastating physical trauma, and not because she suddenly has no will to live.
Get over yourself!

[Schwaeky]

i agree there, he needs to act, and whatever action in this case he does, he needs to do it fast, but to be quite frank, it will require serious action that the courts can't easily countermand (ie, calling up the national guard). Courts can rebuke him, castigate him, or chastise him for such actions, but only the legislature can impeach him, and i don't think they would dare do such a thing in these circumstances... then the only step from there would be the president to federalize the national guard to block such a move, something that simply is not going to happen...

but if Jeb doesn't do it, then Dubya needs to step up to bat on this...