Posted on 03/23/2005 10:54:01 AM PST by BluH2o
GOP Off-Track
The Republican Party has gone seriously off-track in recent days.
As the ‘conservative' political party, the GOP is supposed to believe in and to practice the policy of the less federal involvement, the better. This has been the ‘conservative' position for decades – and the very reason that we rose to national power under President Reagan and then retook the House and Senate after Hillary Clinton's power-grab attempt to nationalize health care.
Last week – in the course of two days – the Republicans who control the House of Representatives acted like liberal Democrats by first butting into baseball on Thursday and then butting into a family's suffering on Friday.
Baseball is a private business; do we need congressmen commenting on the aptitude and competency of the baseball commissioner? Are they qualified to even express an opinion over the running of a business they have never even worked in?
Yes, Mark McGwire embarrassed himself at that committee hearing. But these same congressmen, who heaped scorn on the use of steroids by these players, all posed in the anterooms with the same players and even asked for autographs!
Then the next day they turn their (short) attention spans to the tragedy in the Schiavo family: a case that has been looked at by Florida courts for over a decade.
Why, suddenly, do these congressmen in D.C. know more about this case – and about Florida law – than do Florida judges and doctors?
How dare the too-ambitious Senate Majority leader, Bill Frist, a former heart surgeon, say that he can diagnose Terri Schiavo from a 30-second TV news clip? How irresponsible can you get? I can diagnose this: Frist has a terminal case of Potomac Fever!
These Republicans – so-called ‘conservatives' – have now fallen into the habit of meddling in everyone's – and anyone's – business.
They have opened Pandora's box: What internal family dispute cannot now be grist for their mill? A child custody case? A divorce that involves controlling shares in an important business? Disputed ownership of a valuable asset? Why can't – and why won't – the Congress now feel it is suddenly their business to intercede?
The liberals were always the ones who fell in love with massive federal power. And it ultimately led to their political downfall.
Now the Bush Republicans have fallen in love with it. From the very ‘nation-building' that then-candidate GW Bush criticized in 2000 to the massive new Department of Homeland Security and now their intrusion into baseball and the Schiavo case, these ‘conservatives' have become Big Government Republicans.
They spend money like liberals, they run up the debt like liberals and they ignore their own past beliefs like liberals. If it quacks like a duck ...
Fiscal responsibility is out the door nowadays; the very same congressmen who balanced the budget with Bill Clinton in the Oval Office now are presiding over massive federal debt and over-spending with GW Bush calling the shots.
And the one case that calls for intervention by the feds – stopping the influx of illegals – is ignored! GW Bush even wants to give them amnesty!
Yes, the Republican Party is seriously off-track. Their saving grace is that the Democrats are so left-wing and out of touch that they are no threat to Republican power.
But conservatives are left to scratch their heads and ask, "Who speaks for us?"
More crap from LeButthead!
Bullshyt: Again, I say:
There are really two issues here. The first is a pro-life, pro-death conflict. That is the issue that many have chosen to focus on because it makes it easy to label Congress' action as being extremist and hypocritical.
But, don't fall for the MSM's spin or their polls based upon questions that misrepresent the facts of the case to the person answering the question. In addition, many people are completely unaware that Terri left no living will. The MSM is spinning it as if Terri clearly articulated she wanted no heroic measures taken to prolong here life. Hence, Congress acted to intervene in a personal manner. That is patently false. Moreover, the MSM is finding a few Conservatives here and there to quote as proof that the Republicans have abandoned conservatism.
The second issue is the more important issue. (Yes, I know that a woman's life is at stake). The second issue is that Congress acted to exercise authority over the Judicial Branch. That is what is scaring the bejesus out of the Left. The manner in which the MSM is attacking this, is to portray it as the Republicans acting in a hypocritical manner by abandoning Conservative principles of Federalism. I beg to differ. Congress did not mandate an outcome in this case, although it wanted to. It exercised its Constitutional authority to determine the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts, no more, no less. That interrupts the Left's plan to obviate Congress and the Democratic process by promoting the notion that the Judiciary rules this country.
It is simply a bogus argument to say the Republicans are acting hypocritically. It ignores the realities of how the Judiciary is curently deciding what jurisdiction it does and does not have. When it suits a liberal judge's agenda, you can bet your arse they miraculously find jurisdiction based on some, heretofore, unknown or undiscovered constitutional right that is being violated. For example, suddenly finding that terrorists, non-U.S. citizens, are protected by the Constitution. In this case, the Republicans acted in accordance WITH the Constitution in exercising control over the judiciary. For far too long Congress has abrogated its Constitutional duties vis-a-vis the Judicial Branch.
The MSM and Dems strategy is clear. Portray the Republicans as abusing power (the nuclear option and this bill) and portray the Republicans as Bible Thumping Jesus Freaks (Kerry only lost because of the evangelicals, this was already an extrapolation from the "values" responses in the exit polling data the point of which the Dems completely missed). What a shock, the Dems feel if they scare America enough, they will regain power. Vote for us, the Republicans want to interfere in your personal choices. But the opposite is more horrifying and true. Vote for the Dems, they will decide if you ever get born and, here is the BONUS, when you die.
I for one, am not falling for it. Not one bit. Besides, the Democrats, even when they have a decent strategy, just can't execute. As usual, they will overplay their hand. See for example, Corrzine comparing Cheyney to Saddam.
Less Government <> No Government
What idiocy, John. All the Congress and the President did, was give a total innocent the same rights of appeal from a death sentence imposed by the state courts, as any murderer enjoys!! The federal courts promptly dropped the ball by refusing to review the (quite suspicious) facts of this case anew. I am proud of what the Congress and the President did - they did what they could to protect the life of a fellow American, while the Democrats, the husband and others have tried to kill her.
LeBoutillier is equating federal involvement in a professional sport's drug policies to the federal government attempting to ensure a citizen not be denied their right to life.
To top it off, the writer makes the accusation (in the form of a snide question) that our congressmen assume to "know about this case – and about Florida law – than do Florida judges and doctors?" I say if Florida law doesn't protect life, then damn "states rights" and trump them with federal power.
This man claims to be a conservative yet is willing to see a state deprive a US citizen of the most important of rights - all on the basis of hearsay. If this is "conservative" - count me out.
'Tis not crap. It is right on the mark for people using their brains instead of their emotions. Regardless of how you stand on Terri you have to know this was not the business of the feds and the people who say the move was constitutional have simply never read the constitution.
If they are so concerned with Terri why didn't they intervene years ago or even months ago? Why didn't they call for an investigation if they had the power to do so many moons ago? The answer is simple: They didn't have the right and they didn't care until it became obvious that they could turn her death into a political football.
The conservatives congress critters set themselves up as the "good" guys by putting this through the federal grist mill. The only person I think did it because of his/her beliefs is President Bush. Most of the rest of them did it to gain votes. It worked too, a lot of people here on FR will vote for these people totally forgetting that a few days ago they were decrying the feds and the power they wield. Power is ok as long as it serves their purpose right?
Don't you see how much like the DUmmies you are being by embracing the fed intervention? No, I don't suppose you do all you see is that you want to impose YOUR will on this situation.
The conservative stance on this issue is less intrusive than the liberal stance. Conservatives value ALL human life equally. Liberal's are open to the proposition that some people live's are so limited that they are better off dead. In order to sort those people out, you're going to have to take a pretty close look at thier circumstances...
You're a riot!
You can't refute his argument, so you call him names.
Ouote:
'Tis not crap. It is right on the mark for people using their brains instead of their emotions. Regardless of how you stand on Terri you have to know this was not the business of the feds and the people who say the move was constitutional have simply never read the constitution."
Well, you really did not read my post then. I suppose those years in law school and practicing law I actually misread Article III of the Constitution. Say it with me, The, Congress, Can, Exercise, Jurisdictional, Authority, Over, The, Judicial, Branch, With, Limited, Exception.
You have clearly fallen into the Liberal trap of focusing on the micro issue rather than the larger issue, namely, Congress can exercise authority over the Judiciary. That is all Congress did, no more, no less.
The opposite is obviously true. States rights simply do not supercede a citizen's right to due process. Congress has the right and the duty to require a new trial in this case, in the light of the emerging facts. Faulty jurisprudence at the state level does not suprecede that right either, and during the 15 odd years of this judicial procedings, much evidence regarding both the veracity of Michael Schiavo's claims regrading his wife's wishes, his obvious conflict of interest, and new testimony and possible evidence of criminal acts against Terry Schiavo having been committed, was dismissed without hearing. This was more than judicial incompetence, and needs to be investigated. Pay attention to numerous other voices on this, all saying the same thing. All Congress did is to require a new hearing, before Terry Schiavo is starved to death. Why do you want her to die before this happens?
Until the fans(consumers) decide they will not put up with this crap, let these jocks kill themselves with steroids. Who gives a darn?
More than anything else, the Terri Schindler story is the death of the mainstream (broadcast) media; they've failed completely in covering the landmark event of the year -- not because of the conventional drama of armies on the march, but because they have no language and emotion for communicating this story. It's not about ideology; it is about compassion. The story is not so much about Terri -- as it is about the different responses to the facts, and what people regard as the facts, from their own experiences and understanding of life. The subject herself is almost the perfect Rohrschach ink blot. It's ultimately not about Terri -- but about everybody else.
The best the mainstream media can come up with is their bogus polls, "As you may already know..." What a presumption; we don't know, and the more one knows, the less one could say that it is merely a matter of a right to die issue; it is a right to die versus a right to live -- and which should trump which. Apparently to a lot of liberals, the right to die should trump the right to live only in the case of human beings but should be inviolable in the case of anything else -- even trumping the right of any other species over that of a human, so confused are they, so determined to be "right." It's not about rights or who is right. It is about what is human.
The richness in the discussion of this is where the new media of interaction vastly surpasses their laughable polling feedback which is already so biased in their design and intent. The death of Terri Schindler was the death of the mainstream media to be a viable, credible part of American life. To the end, they insisted on telling the people, vastly more intelligent, informed and compassionate than they are, what to think and how empty it was to be them. They had nothing worth learning about -- to be a better human being.
The legislation passed by the Congress ordered a new review (de novo) of the facts, right? If the federal courts refused to comply with that request, don't we have a fight brewing between the judiciary and the legislative? Wouldn't that be, after all, just what we want? Don't we want to bring the imperial judiciary into light for being the unelected and unaccountable legislators that they are?
He knows as much about Terri's case as Dan Rather knew about the authenticity of the missing documents. The party is by no means off track unless you believe in cold blooded murder whether it's done by an individual or the state. I trying to remember what Nazi Germany did to it's mentally handicapped citizen. Oh ya, now I remember. THEY KILLED THEM!!
Look: There are three types
of voters: The small number
of dedicated
liberals; The small
number of conservatives;
and the VASTLY large
number of people
who are "undecided" till
emotions sway them.
Liberals must be
laughing their sorry butts off
watching mainstream folks --
the undecided --
looking at current events
thinking "How the hell
Janet's breast, baseball,
a half-dead woman's full death,
and the stock market
"saving" of social
security can define
a Republican
government!" Who'd vote
for four more years of this if
you're not committed?!
I'll agree to the extent that Congress has better uses of taxpayer's time than to worry about baseball - the rest of the article is garbage.
The Congress has the power to determine the jurisdiction of the courts - and that makes what they did clearly Constitutional. You can debate whether or not it was something they should have done - but arguing it isn't Constitutional isn't one of the arguments that can be made in that regard. You are the one that hasn't read the document, obviously.
DemonRATS...the Party of Death...MUD
If anything Congress is reining in a overeaching Judiciary and following the 14th Amendment.
I lost respect for Leboutillier after his admiration for Gore and his support of Embryonic Stem Cell research just because he FEELS it will help his brother!
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