DeLay Pledges Contempt Charge for Terri Judge

NewsMax ^ | 3/18/05 | Limbacher

[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."

[JFK_Lib]

We revert back to erring on the side of life. That's what a judge is supposed to do.

But not leftist judges. They make law and dont merely base decisions on it.

[jwalsh07]

True enough but when you see your friends posting absolute ignorant balogna, the wheels have a tendency to come off. I'm better now. Blowoff the steam, hit the bag, go for jog. it works for me and keeps my remaining teeth in place. :-}

[Halls]

You know who else called Felos evil tonight was James Dobson on Hannity tonight! I was impressed!!! I think it is high time these Congressman and moral leaders start looking at Felos/Greer/Schiavo for the evil men they are and do something about it!

[The Red Zone]

Well, last time through with this kind of treatment she stuck in there for what, 8 days, and when the feeding resumed she came roaring back with nothing more than a cursory stabilization. I'm sure hino hopes she'll go quickly, but Terri's will may surprise us.

[Dog Gone]

You used to make intelligent replies instead of relying on ridicule.

I'm just going to chalk your replies on this thread to Friday night and see if things improve later. You're out of character, and before I rip you a new one, I'm going to let it rest.

[Americanchild]

Your arrogance is wearing thin. Ditto your blind adherance to a law whatever the cost. The rightness or wrongness of an issue seem to be lost on you.

In any case, my arguments have been clear and not based on feelings. Accepting laws based on death is contrary to human nature. It's as simple as that. Furthermore I fail to see why a change in the laws frightens you so, when it would not affect those with explicit wishes.

Your inability to admit to the personhood of Terri shows your true beliefs, and your dissertation on her inconvenience is most disturbing.Her fault?? How many young newlyweds think about a living will, for pete's sake? Did you?

[Leatherneck_MT]

Federal Marshals are already in FL. They need to remove that thug from the bench.

[kimmie7]

Yes, she is inconvenient, and she is inconvenient through her own negligence, so let her die.

I had to sit a while after reading this. This statement angered, then saddened me. After coming out of my stunned stare, I wanted to blast away. Then I realized that this kind of attitude shouldn't surprise any of us.

It actually comes as no surprise that this kind of attitude exists. In our elitist society, convenience is king. Only the pretty, young and easy should exist.

What has really broken my heart tonight is the realization that we (pro-life Christian type peoples) have actually encouraged this. Yes, we have! How? Initially by allowing the "justice" system to inflict the wound of abortion-on-demand on our great country. Years of allowing this wound to fester have taken their toll and this is what we've come to. A society that regards life as a disposable commodity.

Several years ago I read a Christian-Fiction book called "A Perfect Persecution". In that book, euthanasia is common. Right to die becomes "duty to die". Abortions are state ordered after state-ordered testing reveals an imperfect "fetus", and innocent babies in the womb are referred to as "meat". And I thought, after I read this book..."That stuff will never happen, but it was an interesting read."

I re-read that book 2 days ago. Stayed up 'til 4:30 a.m. to finish it because I was so stunned. Many of the laws cited in the first part of the book have already become reality. We're headed toward bringing much more of that book into the non-fiction world. And I don't know when I will sleep again. I'm not kidding. My heart is broken. I hate the world my beautiful child will inherit. It's not that life has no value, only that "certain" life has no value.

God help us. God help us all. Non-Christians and liberals are so upset about having morals "pushed" onto them. Quite frankly, I'm abso-freakin-lutely sick and tired of these people systematically trying to tie me to the sled on which they're sliding to hell. I've made mistakes, gigantic ones, sins even -- things I'm ashamed of. But I never expected anyone else to enable or accompany me down the awful path I took.

I'm sorry this is so long and disjointed. I'm emotionally exhausted, like many of us.

[The Red Zone]

Dobson called Felos? That would be an interesting conversation!

Oh, he called Felos evil. My eyes are getting tired.

[cajungirl]

I have never seen a discussion of something I have seen in hospitals and seen with elderly relatives that has alarmed me.

Now when you go in, they ask you to sign "advance directives". Most people don't give it much thought, they are sick and check the things they are given to expect or ordinary.

My mother signed a DNR order,,she did not want to be put on "machines". Now there is a good reason not to do so.. Ventilators are used for brief periods when people have overwhelming pneumonia. It gives them time to respond to antibiotics and live. Nobody tells them that.

At her last hospitalization, about two days into it, she was 84, I noticed she was not being given her heart meds, no meds. I went down to see what was up and was told, "she signed a DNR order". Now she was elderly and frail and had early dementia and had a respiratory arrest when she came in the ER but had recovered and had seemed alert and fine and asking when lunch was. She was enjoying life at home with her cat and her TV and visits from children, etc. She was not asking to die.

I pointed out this and everyone glared at me, gave her meds and she got better. She died later, a few days later, of an unexpected pulmonary embolism probably brought about by two days of no heart meds and lying in bed.

But the point is, the hospital, a Catholic Hospital I might add, was erring on the side of assuming she came there to die just because she didn't want artificial proloonging of life when things were hopeless.

This alarms me and continues to do so. I wonder how many old people die because everyone assumes they are ready to when they really aren't.

[supercat]

IMO, this is a lot like the question of removing the filibuster on SC confirmations: it's attractive to a lot of conservatives in the short run, but once we start down such roads IMO a lot of people here may be very unhappy over where they eventually take us.

If refraining from certain types of unscrupulous maneuvers would mean liberals would likewise do so, then it would be virtuous to do so. But to allow liberals to exercise them without reprisal is to encourage them. The only effective deterrence in such cases is fear of retaliation.

Suppose the U.S. were to declare that it would never use nuclear weapons under any circumstances. Would such a declaration make it more or less likely that nukes would get used?

[jwalsh07]

:-}, Friday night is just another night to me Dog Gone. No special significance. Rip away if you think you can. But the facts are on my side. The law is on my side. The Constitution is on my side. Justice is on my side. Morality is on my side.

You have the corrupt Florida Courts.

Swing for the fences.

[rdcorso]

Maybe if someone was to urinate on the judge it would make him notice that thousands of people can see right through his bias rulings.The judge should pull his head out of Michael's ass and realize that his authority is about to be trampled just like he trampled on Terri's rights.Little piss-ant judge Greer is about to be cut down to size by a Texas chainsaw.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[billbears]

No offense, but if you care so much, drive yourself down to Florida and tell Judge Greer you'll take over the care for this woman. I want to know exactly what it is about this situation that you are willing to not allow her to move on. Personally if I was laying there after 15 years and I had the option to die, albeit somewhat painfully for a few days, and go to meet my Maker or lay there for another 15 years holding up the lives of those I loved, I know what I would choose. Sometimes people just give up. I've watched family members starve themselves at the end. And I know it was painful, but I also know they're in a much better place right now.

If you feel so strongly about subverting the rule of law, I suggest you ride up to Washington DC with all the other your kooky 'conservative' friends and tell the President of these United States along with Congress that you choose here and now to tear up the Constitution and any other founding document that stands in your way. The document is not perfect but it's all we have to run our government by.

And yes, that is indeed extremely conservative

You people are crazy. No I take that back. You're cracked. Do you honestly realize what you are suggesting? I don't know about you but when it's my time to go, I don't want some law that's been passed by the heavily centralized government telling me how and when I can go. And I don't plan to write a living will. You're suggesting the national government should have the right to tell doctors when they can take people off life support or IV tubes. I know I'm going to trust someone with a medical degree on the viability of whether or not I can live over what some d#mn politician who's grandstanding has to say about the issue. Will I have to move out of the country to die?

What's even worse is that this fight has been going on for six years. Do you think they didn't get a second opinion? Or are all the doctors and the judges in on the conspiracy with Michael to get rid of this woman?

Have you ever thought that perhaps it is God's Will that she does die? That it's her time to go to Heaven? Who are you to decide that? You know that does happen from time to time. I had my best friend in college declared legally brain dead after a serious car accident even though he wasn't completely yet. But the doctors knew there was no hope. Are his parents murderers because they chose to allow him to die in peace? They could have kept him in a vegetative state for many many years. But they didn't.

[TAdams8591]

And the trial court heard testimony from Terri's friends and Family that she would NOT want to die in such a situation. But Judge GREER discounted THAT testimony.

GREER based his decision to STARVE TERRI on the CONFLICTING HEARSAY testimony that he wanted to believe. That should be the CLEAR and CONVINCING standard to STARVE someone to DEATH??????

[Shortstop7]

IMO, this is a lot like the question of removing the filibuster on SC confirmations: it's attractive to a lot of conservatives in the short run, but once we start down such roads IMO a lot of people here may be very unhappy over where they eventually take us.

This woman will die. You want to relate her death to a silly filibuster in SC? Political pandering? Unbelievable....

[billbears]

If I'm not mistaken and read the information correctly, at the very first they did have Terri in their home. But they couldn't attend to her and returned her to the hospice

[lilypad]

I was at the hospice today attending the vigil. There were about five or six protestors against Terri. One of the signs that really got to me said "The Christian right is the Taliban of America". That is the thinking we are up against.

[TAdams8591]

"No parent should have to live through what the Schindlers have had to live through."

It's a DISGRACE!! The ENDLESS SUFFERING they have had to endure.