Posted on 03/24/2005 6:51:21 PM PST by FairOpinion
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - It's not often Gov. Jeb Bush is frustrated pursuing his goals. He was the first governor to start a statewide school voucher program. He got rid of civil service protections for tens of thousands of state workers. He pushed through billions of dollars in tax cuts. His goal of prolonging the life of Terri Schiavo is proving much harder.
"It is frustrating for people to think that I have power that I don't, and not be able to act," Bush told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't have embedded special powers. I wish I did in this particular case."
Bush canceled travel plans Thursday to monitor the case of Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who has gone without food and water since a judge ordered her feeding tube removed March 18.
He was in constant contact with his legal office, ordered staffers to e-mail and call him with developments and demanded state laws be scoured for a way to reconnect Schiavo's feeding tube.
At his office, Bush waved an affidavit from neurologist William Cheshire that questions whether Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. The emotion in his voice rose as he detailed how the affidavit stated Schiavo made a crying sound, grimaced and pressed her eyebrows together when a doctor said he was going to turn her over.
She "signals her anticipation of pain. Just like you would, or just like I would. Now is it perfect? Is she responding with the same eloquence that you would respond to? ... No. She's severely, profoundly disabled," Bush said.
The governor's court record is mixed. He succeeded in removing affirmative action guarantees from state hiring and university admission practices, but a law requiring doctors to notify parents if they perform an abortion on minor girls was thrown out.
Still, he's been persistent. After a court threw out a law requiring tougher sentences for three-time felons, the governor went back to the Legislature and fixed the problem. Currently, he and lawmakers are working on a plan to require parents be notified before their minor daughters get abortions.
In the Schiavo case, he's running out of legal avenues — but not hope.
"You know what I hope for first and foremost? That Mr. Schiavo would say, 'I'm going to let Terri be with her parents. I'm going to move on with my life. I've made my point,'" Bush said, referring to Schiavo's husband, Michael, who insists she would not want to be kept alive artificially. "That obviously doesn't appear to be happening."
"So secondly I pray for an openness by the people who are responsible for making these decisions so we can act and allow for her to stabilize."
He says the courts appear to have turned a deaf ear to his arguments.
"For this lockdown to occur without having the ability to have an open mind, and say, 'Well, maybe there are new facts on the table, maybe there are new technologies, maybe, just maybe, we should be cautious about this' ... is very troubling," Bush said.
In 2003, when the Legislature passed a law allowing Bush to order the feeding tube reinserted after it had been removed, critics accused him of political grandstanding as his brother, President Bush (news - web sites), sought re-election.
Justin Sayfie, Bush's former communications director, said they were wrong: "He's term-limited out. His brother is term-limited out."
"Most strategists or political operatives would say 'Don't touch this,'" said GOP political strategist Geoffrey Becker, noting polls show most people don't believe government should be involved in the case. "I firmly believe that this is his personal conviction, that he believes this is the right thing to do."
Hands tied? Bull! He has the state police at his disposal. And even the national guard.
I assume you posted this from your PDA or SmartPhone outside the hospice.
Bush is so intent on getting the feeding tube in they are overlooking the fact that she may be able to take nourishment by mouth. She is swallowing saliva and we don't know that she can't handle nourishment by mouth because Greer and Michael have prevented any attempts. She has the basic human right to try. Has anyone attempted to challenge Greer on this? If Greer exceeded his authority and violated her basic human rights in his zeal to kill her then the Governor has every right and obligation to step in and stop this judicial abuse of her human rights and he can do it right now. The problem seems to be he wants the courts permission to do the right thing but he isn't going to get it.
Could be true for some, I suppose.I Know it frustrates me.
>> I assume you posted this from your PDA or SmartPhone outside the hospice.
Actually I posted this from my home in Pennsylvania. Why did you make that assumption?
Of course it is frustrating watching this innocent woman being starved to death. We should not ask others to do what we will not do.
Because you called another man a wimp. I didn't figure someone who would do that would be sitting comfortably in his house, while Jeb Bush works day and night to find a legal way to rescue this woman.
Amen, sister.
Speaking of trolls.
The ideology that we're fighting against is the ideology which says that legality only exists within the framework of "democracy". It's an ideology that unfortunately has been around for a surprisingly long time in this country, but needs to be euthanazed, fast.
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA ARTICLE I DECLARATION OF RIGHTS SECTION 1. Political power.--All political power is inherent in the people. The enunciation herein of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or impair others retained by the people.
Did you miss my point? The Co Sheriff is the Supreme law enforcement agency in that co. All I'm saying is that the Sheriff could save her and Jeb would be left holding the bag. Most people don't realize the power the Sheriff has.
What really bothers me, that a governor has the authority to give clemency to a criminal, sparing a murderer's life, but doesn't have the authority to commute the death sentence of an innocent woman, being murdered in a cruel way.
This is such a perfectly approriate cartoon...
Well,I think asking is OK.
It isn't Jeb -- it's the judges like Whittemore, who deliberately set on the case for a full 24 hrs, before ruling, to slow down the process deliberately.
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