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.

[pdunkin]

Would you call being feed day after day for 13 years by a machine with a tube stuck down your throat, natural?

Please, try to refrain from gracing us with your ignorance. As someone who works on a daily basis with profoundly retarded adults and as someone whose mother suffered from esophogeal cancer, let me explain to you that a feeding tube is NOT stuck down ones throat despite what you might imagine. It is a tube that is inserted in a persons stomach so that they can get the fluids and nutrition that they need to survive.
Thankfully, however, you have cleared things up for me in this matter and I can now go to work tomorrow and yank out the feeding tubes of the 2 people in my care who need them to exist. I will explain to them that, even though the tubes are not really in their throats, I am pulling them out so that they are not being kept alive by artificial means. My mom also would have been very relieved to hear your well informed dissertation on feeding tubes and, having read such, would have been more than willing to die a slow death of dehydration so as not to offend you. I only wish you had graced us with you wisdom sooner.

[deannadurbin]

>>I only wish you had graced us with you wisdom sooner.

LOL!!! :)

[deannadurbin]

>>I tell you we are living amongst barbarians.

We are indeed. If "naturalness" is the test for who may live and who may die, then I guess we should execute all those who walk with crutches, because it's not "natural" to walk that way. Or those in wheelchairs, they aren't walking naturally, they should be next on the executioner's orders. Then let's kill the blind people, it's not "natural" to walk with a seeing-eye dog.

And oh yes, what about all the millions of new babies whose mothers don't breastfeed them, and feed them by an un-natural bottle with un-natural cow's milk all day? Let's kill them too, because the only natural method of feeding a baby - mommy's breasts - is not being utilized.

Silly rabbit, tricks are for kids.

[Jorge]

Please, try to refrain from gracing us with your ignorance. As someone who works on a daily basis with profoundly retarded adults and as someone whose mother suffered from esophogeal cancer, let me explain to you that a feeding tube is NOT stuck down ones throat despite what you might imagine. It is a tube that is inserted in a persons stomach so that they can get the fluids and nutrition that they need to survive.

You should really refrain from embarrasing yourself by lecturing others on subjects you're ignorant of.

For your information there is more than one type of feeding tube.

The feeding tube I was refering to is the common type inserted through the nose and down the throat.
They are used in hospitals all the time.

If this is not type used on Terri, fine. Kudos to you.

[pdunkin]

Thanks for the info. Perhaps I was confused from the photos posted throughout the many different threads on the subject of Ms, Schiavo which show the tubes sticking out of her nose - oh wait...there aren't any of those. God, am I embarrassed. Thank you again for your insight and the straight-forward way in which you pointed out the flaws in my rebuttal to your post.
Your friend.
P. Dunkin

[Jorge]

Do you know there are thousands of people being fed this way. Guess they better line up for the gas chambers.

Don't be silly. Of course I know.

But there is a big difference between using a feeding tube for a person who cannot eat for a few days after surgery, or in the many other situations and circumstances that don't involve sustaining a human in a permanent vegetative state for years on end.

[Jorge]

God, am I embarrassed.

That's alright. You'll get over it :)

[pdunkin]

That's alright. You'll get over it.

tragically, Ms Schavio will not.

[blueriver]

No Jorge there are many people that are permanently paralyzed and can not feed themselves and need to be fed this way forever till they die. OR in Terri's case until a person who does not care anything about her decides it is time for her to be killed.

[Jorge]

tragically, Ms Schavio will not.

Tragically, she has not gotten over the heart attack that left her in this permanent vegetative state.

Supposedly she's already said that she would not want to be kept alive in this manner, and many people have living wills clearly stating the same thing.
If she is able to think, it might be her desire not to continue on in this awful state of existance.

You presume to speak on her behalf without knowing for sure what she would want.

[pdunkin]

Thanks blueriver. As someone who works on a daily basis with people in this situation, it drives me crazy to think that some judge could just out of the blue decide that their life is useless and that they should just be forced to die of dehydration. These guys are as aware of their surroundings as you and I and, yet, as this case shows, could be declared useless and done away with at the drop of a hat. I realize that I'm probably getting a little carried away here, but who is to say what this will lead to?
I am not one to get too wrapped up in 99% of the issues but this strikes such a chord with me.

[pdunkin]

If she is able to think, it might be her desire not to continue on in this awful state of existance.

You presume to speak on her behalf without knowing for sure what she would want.

unlike yourself

[ladyjane]

OR until the government and courts decide it costs too much to feed people this way. Watch out if you live in Florida and have a disability. If you don't have an advocate, don't have any money or if your relatives are in a hurry to get their inheritance - you're at risk!

[lawdude]

I guess following established law is "wimping out"!

[blueriver]

I do not know Terri and her parents but I feel their pain and grief. What they have endured at the hands of MS and the justice system is beyond belief. In this world there is so much injustice that it becomes overwhelming. This case puts it over the edge for me.

On top of all of it you get these people who think there is nothing wrong with murder as long as it is being done to a person they consider unworthy of life.

[pdunkin]

To steal a line from an old, favorite comic strip of mine...
"I suppose it will all make sense when we grow up."
Good night all. My prayers will be for Terri!
P.

[blueriver]

Supposedly she's already said that she would not want to be kept alive in this manner

This was hearsay - no proof that this conversation EVER took place. This fact alone should have prevented MS from killing her. He had no proof that this was her wish. He should have had to provide the burden of proof as this was a matter of life and death. In all court cases the burder of proof is always required when death is the ulitmate outcome. In this case no proof was even requested. His word was good enough.

On a side note do you think her wishes would have been to see her loving parents being tortured for 13 years. I sincerely think this was not her wish.

[honeygrl]

IMPORTANT UPDATE ON HOW JEB IS TRYING TO HELP
This person wanted this word to be spread:

Please help to get this info. spread out on other places here and on the net, etc. to individuals, and others you deem should be made aware. Let them know to convey the same info. to others.

Regards.

Please get this info. out:

Contact: Pamela Hennessy

Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation

Phone 727-445-1766

eFax 802-609-9121
email: phenn@zimp.org


Press Release

Special Session Called in State Legislature

Speaker of the House, Johnnie Byrd to introduce “Terri’s Bill”

Clearwater, FL October 19, 2003: The Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, has called a special session of the Florida Legislature for Monday, October 20, 2003. At that time, Florida’s Speaker of the House will introduce “Terri’s Bill”. By Florida law, two thirds majority vote are required to have a topic entered.

Volunteers with the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation have learned that Senate President, Jim King is against this bill.

The Bill would put an immediate moratorium on all dehydration and starvation deaths currently pending in Florida.

We have come to a time when the merchants of death have created a constitutional crisis and a justice gridlock, while the rightful life of Florida’s disabled and vulnerable citizens tragically hang on Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s court ordered dehydration and starvation death.

We urge all concerned Floridians to contact their Senators and State House members to vote for Terri’s bill.

Time is short.


77 posted on 10/19/2003 8:49 PM EDT by pc93 (A good site to visit is http://www.terrisfight.org . Oct. 15th 2pm death order must be stopped)

[honeygrl]

Hopefully, it won't be too late.. I fear that irrepairable damage may have already been done by this point from Terri not having any water.

[Jorge]

No Jorge there are many people that are permanently paralyzed and can not feed themselves and need to be fed this way forever till they die.

Are they all in a permanent vegetative state?

Go back and read my post again.
We're not arguing over a simple case of paralysis.