GOP leaders unlikely to pursue new avenues to keep Schiavo alive

kansascity.com ^ | Wed, Mar. 23, 2005 | JEFF ZELENY

[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.)

[Shermy]

"Being used even"

Yes.

[Howlin]

Does anybody but me wonder why -- in all his rantings today -- that Randall Terry hasn't MENTIONED Michael's "other family?"

[KDD]

Care to speculate.

[Poohbah]

Does anybody but me wonder why -- in all his rantings today -- that Randall Terry hasn't MENTIONED Michael's "other family?"

I don't wonder at all. Mr. Terry lives in a glass house, and is wisely refraining from throwing stones.

[Peach]

It was told to me by a very smart freeper it's because Randall Terry is cheating on his wife.

Isn't the hypocrisy stunning?

I hope the radical right is happy with their spokesman.

[RightWhale]

They have no moral authority left. We have seen their true colors.

[Antoninus]

Kind of like you don't know science - oh yea that's right - your kind killed scientists. Hyperbolic? 2 can play at it.

I wouldn't call it hyperbolic. More like incomprehensible. I guess you're used to writing in cyrillic, eh?

[Poohbah]

It was told to me by a very smart freeper it's because Randall Terry is cheating on his wife.

I do know that he has divorced his first wife; is he cheating on the current spouse?

[Howlin]

It's not speculation at all, it's fact:

Hi Flip,


Have you seen this letter going around by Alan Keyes trying to raise money for Randall Terry after everything was allegedly taken from him as a result of lawsuits? I would love to help out Randall. He gave many of us much, but if the former brother is still living in unrepentant adultery after having divorced his wife for unbiblical reasons, then I cannot in good conscience help him.

It's my understanding that he divorced Cindy for unbiblical reasons and then fairly soon thereafter married a younger woman. Is that not correct?

I received a hard-copy fundraising letter in the mail from Alan Keyes.
Included in the same envelope was a four page multi-picture spread with brief supporting comments from a few, including Terry Gensemer, Jim Cerbone III, Frank Pavone, and Bruce Moore. Have you seen this mailing yet? If not and you want to see it, I'll make a copy and send it to you.

Would you please correct me if I do not have my facts straight about Randall?

Thanks,

XXXXX

[Destro]

I guess you're used to writing in cyrillic, eh?

I have no Slavic blood. Nor do I read their lingo.

[KDD]

Terry Randal is an opportunist of the worst kind.

He is the driving force behind the mass propaganda disseminated to the public in this case. There was a right way to change this out-come without splitting conservatives and Randall was told that when he showed up here. A lady at the local GOP office told me that back in early summer Randal was offered the organizational assistance of the GOP to get enough names on a petition to put a modification to the nutrition and hydration clauses in the FL. constitution in time to put it to a vote in the general election. The offer was refused. Maybe he didn't think that the general population in Fl. wanted to change their end of life laws. He decided to take a more "visible" route. Now we know what that route was. The guy is a shyster.

[KDD]

I think a Constitutional Amendment by ballot would have passed. After all someone got an amendment on the ballot to give pregnant pigs protections. Can you you believe THAT passed.

[Trust but Verify]

I hope that at some point we will get a comprehensive, objective look at everything. Right now there is so much disinformation out there a person doesn't know what to make of it.

[Vicomte13]

"Let's see how it plays out before jumping to the conclusion that we've been betrayed."

I agree. Let's see how it plays out.

[Sandy]

obsessed with that Nazi thing.

Didn't you know that the Nazi's victims all got to spend years in court with multiple appeals followed by new laws specifically created to help them?