Posted on 03/24/2005 11:02:42 AM PST by Destro
Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005
GOP leaders unlikely to pursue new avenues to keep Schiavo alive
BY JEFF ZELENY
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - President Bush and congressional leaders said Wednesday they had exhausted their options and could find no new political avenues to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo.
"Now, we'll watch the courts make its decisions," Bush said at a news conference in Texas. "But we looked at all options from the executive branch perspective."
The president's brevity on the subject - devoting only a few moments to an issue that had overshadowed other domestic issues for days - suggested Republicans had decided to not aggressively pursue other alternatives or try to change public opinion in the case of the severely brain-damaged woman.
A CBS News poll released Wednesday showed that 82 percent of Americans believe neither Congress nor the president should have intervened. And among people who describe themselves as evangelicals, more than two-thirds of respondents said Bush and lawmakers should stay out of the case.
As criticism mounted from some strict conservatives over the decision of fellow Republicans to inject Congress into a state's rights issue, Bush defended the legislation, saying the government "ought to err on the side of life, which we have."
Still, the White House said explicitly the administration had no intention of taking the Schiavo case any further.
"There really are not other legal options available to us," said spokesman Scott McClellan.
The House Government Reform Committee canceled a hearing, which had been hastily arranged as a means to stop Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed. While Republicans planned to file another appeal when the Schiavo case reached the Supreme Court, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said lawmakers would not become deeply involved.
For days, Republicans have dismissed suggestions that their intervention in the case was rooted in politics, particularly to mollify anti-abortion and other social conservative groups. "The legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said last weekend.
But an audiotape obtained by CNN on Wednesday, featuring a speech by DeLay to the Family Research Council, offered another view. He said the case could be used to rally conservatives.
"One thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo," DeLay said, "to elevate the visibility of what is going on in America."
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(Chicago Tribune correspondent John Biemer contributed to this report.)
When do they plan on meeting late August or next Christmas
I guess the real power of the land is the courts now. The true title of the piece should read, "US law not worth the paper it is written on."
Mike
I know that there are good people who are genuinely concerned for Terri's well-being.. but all the public sees is clowns likes Delay who want to exploit a tragedy for political gain. It isn't pretty.
Congress passed a law empowering federal courts to rule on the Terri issue. The courts have ruled.
Actually the law of the land (in Florida) was followed on this case. Many just don't like the outcome - heck, the law Bush signed in Texas would have sided with the husband in this case back in 1999.
They've seen the public opinion polls.
There comes a time when abiding by the injunctions of these robed tyrants should be disregarded, the legal consequences be damned. Life takes precedence over the convenience of the court and every basic sense of justice to humanity dictates that this woman should be allowed to live. The courts of the past recognized this once upon a time, but have long since abdicated themselves to a culture of death. In that case it is up to Governor Bush to say to hell with the courts and act. Let justice be done, though the Heavens may fall.
Yet, DCS has a clear legal mandate to intervene according to Florida law... but Judge Greer has forbade that from happening. He has disallowed evidence contrary to what Michael Schaivo has submitted, and he has denied a hearing on charges of abuse. What more do you need?
Mike
Delay is the only pol to speak out for a few days.
Deflects the charges that he just might be as slimy
as Jim Wright.
hyperbole - the Texas Gov. Bush would have had her off the tube back in 1999. They just took a premature infant off the life support in Texas this week. You have been duped into investing self in an issue rigged to gain a politicial edge, IMHO.
Not true - evidence was presented in court by both sides plus court appointed medical team - the Court found for the hospital and the husband's experts per Florida law. You just don't like the decision. Like I keeps saying - if this was Texas, this would not even be an issue.
If Bush would've done the same then he would have fault on his hands there as well. Schaivo's case is a matter of life and death at its very core and was so long before it became politicized. It is a matter of ethics, not law, and ethics state that in uncertain cases such as these we should always err on the side of caution, not death. The only person who has been duped around here is you.
All this blame of the Bushes' inept reactions to Peggy Noonan's ignorant article is off target.
This was a court matter from the beginning. The anger needs to be directed there. The Supreme Court is the problem. We need to impeach them. They are full of libruls like Scalia. Scalia = libural = murderer = killer = "living" will suicide pact supporter = Hitler = Stalin = guy who keyed my car = Pilate. Two minute clip of four hours of video all that need to prove Terri speaks. Plus her mother's lawyer said so to. A LAWYER. Why would she lie?
Well, not now; evidently Randall Terry and Alan Keyes and Larry Klayman are doing all the talking.
That is a sign the higher ups are giving up the "fight" and passing he issue to the talk show radio fodder.
Jeb Bush has one last clear shot to act and save this woman's life. So does the President.
If they don't, they will have reduced themselves as leaders.
The Senate has one chance to fix the more general problem by invoking the so-called "Nuclear Option" and installing strict constructionist judges. But they too are wavering.
If they don't, the Republican party will split. The pro-life Christians will have been definitively betrayed and, demoralized, they will sit out the next election, or vote for a new "Pro-life party" or the like.
I hope the Republican leadership realizes that they are standing on a precipice. But I get the feeling they believe this Life issue can be finessed.
It can't be. The Republicans have the power. The Christians know it. It's the only issue the pro-life Christians really care about, or have cared about for a long time.
If the Republicans don't stand up and do the right thing, electoral disaster awaits.
It's hard to sort through what's true anymore; IMO, the two nurses did nothing to help this case with their wild accusations; one of them even said she was able to move from the bed to use the bedpan!
Linear thinking.
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