Posted on 03/18/2005 4:32:07 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay pledged Friday to hold Florida state judge George Greer in contempt of Congress for ignoring a congressional subpoena for Terri Schiavo's testimony, saying, "No little judge sitting in a state district court in Florida is going to usurp the authority of Congress."
"The Congress will pursue this, if we have to hold him in contempt of Congress," DeLay told radio host Sean Hannity.
Pressed on whether he intended to hold Judge Greer in contempt, the top Republican told Hannity: "Absolutely, absolutely."
"We will do everything to enforce the power and authority of the Congress and no little judge sitting in a state district court in Florida is going to usurp the authority of Congress," he added.
Earlier in the day Judge Greer rebuffed the Schiavo subpoena, telling attorneys in the case, "I have had no cogent reason why the [congressional] committee should intervene." He claimed that the last-minute action on the part of Congress does not nullify years of legal proceedings.
But DeLay told Hannity, "This judge and the Supreme Court of Florida are well known to be liberal judges that have a different worldview and they're imposing their worldview on the law."
The top House leader said that "no sane person" could look at Schiavo and say she's in a persistent vegetative state.
DeLay called a lawyer for Michael Schiavo, who has pressed for years to have his wife starved to death, "the personification of evil."
DeLay: Terri Schiavo is Alive – This Fight Is Not Over; House Continues to Work to Save Terri Schiavo --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today delivered the following remarks at a press availability on the House of Representatives’ efforts to save the life of Terri Schiavo.
“It is now one o’clock on the East Coast, the time preordained by a Florida state judge to allow for denial of food and water to Terri Schiavo. This act of barbarism can be, and must be, prevented. The Senate has before it the Protection of Incapacitated Persons Act of 2005. This bill is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, they have chosen to adjourn rather than pass it.
“Those senators responsible for blocking the bill yesterday afternoon, Senators Boxer, Wyden, and Levin, have put Mrs. Schiavo’s life at risk to prove a point – an unprecedented profile in cowardice. The American people are not interested in squabbles between Republicans and Democrats, or between the House and Senate. They care, and we care, about saving Terri Schiavo’s life. The House bill will do that.
“Terri Schiavo is alive. She is not ‘barely alive.’ She is not ‘being kept alive.’ She is as alive as you or I, and as such we have a moral obligation to protect and defend her from the fate premeditated by the Florida courts. This is not over. We are still working, so are Mrs. Schiavo’s lawyers, and so is the Florida state legislature. This is not over.
“To friends, family, and millions of people praying around the world this Palm Sunday weekend: do not be afraid. Terri Schiavo will not be forsaken.”
Yes, when it comes to denying nutrition. Absolutely. It does not happen that often. If one really wants that, then write the living will, and make sure it can be found. Which reminds me, that I need to write one, because I would want an early exit.
Not really. Pilate set things in motion, but he thought he'd be held guiltless. Notice that Greer's defenders on this thread argue that it's the husband doing the killing.
I didn't say anything about the common law, um, law. I simply stated that adultery is, indeed, against the law in Florida. I said what I knew to be fact and attempted to let you know that IIRC, florida does recognize common law. However, I can't put my finger on the proof of that, and I stated as much.
Your point seems to be that the person who originally said "common law" was incorrect. That may or may not be true. I will certainly grant you that.
Of course, it's also just a whole lot easier to type "common law wife" than "live in girlfriend with whom the already married Schiavo has two children out of wedlock." ;-)
I agree this could be the wakeup call needed to clean up the Judiciary and wish them SPEED in resolving this. Is there any reason they can't vote before Monday if agreement is reached before then?
Again looking even from a humanist perspective (and I say this for argument's sake, not because I share that perspective) you ought to have committed the instrument granting the rights to such a grave decision to a safe deposit box, and told your doctor and lawyer about it.
Why anyone should want it to be anywhere close to as easy to trigger the right to death as the right to live, is beyond my ken.
Not so.
Slavery was an obvious unconstitutional practice which was headed for the trash heap of history.
This judge, or "State rights" as you describe it, is likewise violating the constitution, which specifically vows to protect "LIFE, Liberty and the pursuit of hapiness."
Just because a state judge claims a right or makes a ruling does not make it legally constitutional.
Consider what occurred during the 2000 election when the Florida "state" Supreme Court tried to give more weight to certain voters over others.
That's why the US Supreme Court had to step in and set things straight.
Seems reasonable to me too, but it's a judgment call, and he was upheld on appeal.
Is her husband a shit?
Probably.
Is Terri being railroaded?
Possibly.
Is that enough reason to trash a legal system that functions properly for thousands of similar cases every year and replace it with one doomed to cause many of those people years of legal misery?
NO
SO9
Yes. I know little about ht legalities of this case but it seems legislatures are just as influenced as ordinary folksa by the media, brainwashed into thinking that judges have more power, and are more intelligent and compassionate, than they are. So they have let this go on and on.
Florida legislature should have stood up to the FL Supremes in the first place when the overturned Terri'saw. They let it go. They in effect gave the judges more power than they were entitled to.
California's compliasant Dims grovel to their 9th Circuit and so on.
The legislatures have been throwing away their authority with both hands for a loooonnng time.
He is servant of the NINE. Get it?
Might be wise to prosecute some of these people AFTER removing them, of course. Or, maybe not. If you're going to have a revolution, even if only to set things right, it should be possible to determine guilt or innocence fairly quickly when it comes to a judge.
No, he's probably healthier overall.
SO9
That's sounds cute, but is simply not true. Can you name any instance where a judge ordered a state to free slaves in violation of their right to maintain them? Slaves were not freed by judicial fiat. They were freed by an amendment to the Constitution (the Emancipation Proclamation was a military tactic which did nothing to end slavery as a legitimate legal entity). Without the 13th amendment any state would have been free to reinstate slavery once they were no longer in rebellion.
< And you know Terri's not 'in there'...how? People have "woken up" from worse and claimed to have been fully aware the entire time. >
I keep screaming at everyone I know to look at that video. So many people seem to have the impression that Terri is on a ventilator and is brain dead. This person is a live human being. You see it in the video. When I make that clear to people, they have a change of heart.
Suspiciously, Michael Shiavo only remembered what he calls Terri's wishes "after" the monetary settlement. Strangely enough the only people to back him up is "his" family. There's a reason he wants Terri dead and it ain't got nothin' to do with "Terri said she didn't ever want to live like this". Otherwise, why has he denied rehab while all this has been going on?
You should give copies to your doctor(s) and to your lawyer. Also to close relatives.
"Not really. Pilate set things in motion, but he thought he'd be held guiltless. Notice that Greer's defenders on this thread argue that it's the husband doing the killing."
According to Psalms 22 things had already been set in motion long, long, long, before Pilate.
What else can one expect of anybody that would defend the starvation of a disabled person.
Terri is a canary in a mine which is cramfull of gas. It is not just her that flounders in this culture of death, death, death, and more death.
You are a blind as Greer if you cannot see a conflict.
If Terri dies, he gets the insurance money, he can marry his mistress who has had two children by him already. The sooner she dies, the more money that's left for him.
He's 'moved on' already. He has abandoned his wife. This is worse than mere cheating. He's spending money intended to care for Terri on the new 'woman.'
But you don't see a conflict? Amazing.
There is an entire way of life at stake.
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