Posted on 03/24/2005 10:10:41 PM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON, March 24 - Gov. Jeb Bush's last-minute intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, even after the president had ended his own effort to keep her alive, may have so far failed in a legal sense, but it has cemented the religious and social conservative credentials of a man whose political pedigree is huge and whose political future remains a subject of intense speculation.
On one level, the Florida governor's emergence as the most prominent politician still fighting, despite a string of court and legislative defeats, to have a feeding tube reinserted in Ms. Schiavo was very much in keeping with someone who has repeatedly declared a deep religious faith.
Several associates noted that he had been devoutly religious longer than President Bush, and even critics said his efforts - prodding the Florida Legislature and the courts and defying much of the electorate - were rooted in a deep-seated opposition to abortion and euthanasia rather than in political positioning.
Yet inevitably, the events of recent days have fed the mystique of Mr. Bush as a reluctant inheritor of perhaps America's most famous dynasty since the Adams family two centuries ago.
He has assumed a very high profile in this polarizing case just as Republicans are contemplating the void that will be left when President Bush begins his walk off the stage in two years or so. At a time when many of the most frequently mentioned possibilities to lead the party are moderates like John McCain and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the governor now certainly has a place, if he wants it, as a prime contender in what is shaping up as a fight to represent a conservative wing that has proved increasingly dominant.
"He has strongly identified himself with the Christian conservative movement," said Matthew Corrigan, a political science professor at the University of North Florida. "If the Republican Party is looking for someone with good ties with the Christian conservative movement, he is the one who is going to have them."
Mr. Bush is barred by term limits from seeking a third term in 2006, and associates say they cannot imagine his running for a third term even if he were permitted to do so. Further, he has said he will not run for the presidency in 2008, an assertion that all but a few associates say they accept, though some Republicans think he may well run in 2012 or 2016.
"He's got no - as far as I know, and I really believe him - he's got no future political ambitions," said Cory Tilley, a longtime adviser. "And even if he did, he would be doing exactly what he is doing now. This is very clearly an issue that strikes at his core beliefs."
Susan McManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida, said: "He is a very ideologically consistent person. He made no bones about that from the first day he ran for office. Those of us who watch him think this is Jeb, and how he truly believes and what he truly believes, and this may be one of those instances where he's putting politics aside."
Still, several Republicans said that while Mr. Bush might be ignoring any political calculations in a case that has etched grief on his face, it would be foolish to underestimate the political skills of someone who has managed to win two elections to lead one of the nation's most divided states. His decision to continue the Schiavo battle on his own, within hours after the White House had effectively withdrawn, followed a letter in which Bill Frist, the Senate Republican leader, urged that he make sure the Florida Legislature acted "expeditiously on Terri's behalf."
Dr. Frist is arguably the other most prominent Republican seeking to inherit the president's mantle as leader of the party's conservative wing. But Mike Murphy, a close adviser to the governor, disputes the notion of any rivalry between the two men, especially in regard to the Schiavo case.
"I don't think it's a competition at all: Jeb's the guy on the spot," Mr. Murphy said. "He's the governor of the state."
Some Democrats were skeptical, however.
"This is less about Terri Schiavo and more about shoring up the Republican base, and that's a shame," said Scott Maddox, who is departing as chairman of the Florida Democratic Party and is a potential candidate for governor. "Politics has to be in play here."
At times this week, it almost seemed as if the Bush brothers were working in tandem; the governor's decision to re-enter the case once the White House had dropped it in the face of repeated judicial rebuffs may have saved the president criticism from the right. (Paradoxically, the governor himself was pummeled Thursday by some conservative activists, who demanded that he have state authorities physically seize custody of Ms. Schiavo and reinsert the tube.)
That would not be the first time the governor has come to the aid of his brother. But it is also not the first time he has intervened in the Schiavo case. In 2003, after a court ordered the tube removed, he and the Legislature enacted a law that empowered him to order it reinserted. That measure was later overturned in another judicial decision.
"Jeb Bush is not doing this for political reasons, in my opinion," said Jim Kane, chief pollster for Florida Voter, a nonpartisan polling organization. "Jeb Bush is smart enough to know that he is not going to gain anything from this, and he's probably going to lose something."
Pressing the issue could prove particularly problematic in a state like Florida, with a heavy population of elderly voters, who analysts say are more likely to recoil at government intervention in such a case.
In any event, some of Mr. Bush's associates suggest that for all the intensity stirred by the Schiavo case now, it will ultimately fade.
"Issues have a way of coming and going," Mr. Tilley said. "This one is a very deep one. But it seems like other ones always come up, especially here in Florida."
surely you're not calling clinton, the low-life hillbilly that gives hillbillys a bad name - a "blue blood?"
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Well, he went to Oxford,Yale,G'town. Snob factories. That piousness rubbed off on him, some.
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but seriously, if you aren't a lefty, why don't you take your anger out on those that are the true enemy - the dem/socialists that have loaded the courts with these bloodless activist judges? And help Pres. Bush get his judges in -
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I don't blame dogs for acting like dogs, but I expected better out of the Bushes, but alas, find myself on the losing side.
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I get a bad feeling we're going to get another Souter on the court this fall. Experience since Jan. 20,1989 has made me rightly cynical.
I miss Reagan.
he can order the STATE police - not the local. and the local police who surround the hospice have been given orders by Greer no to let the state police on the grounds.
Short of a shoot out - ???
Well, the judge has made the order, right? So wouldn't jeb using his power to circumvent that order be "abuse of power" and "aiding and abetting a crime"? The Executive branch is neither higher no lower than either of the other two branches of government.
no - but he has issued a court order - and they have to obey
what did the judge tell him?
I've been of the opinion that Congress ought to send Federal Marshals to visit Greer with a contempt of Congress issuing, at the very least, for his actually taking action to kill the subpoenaed witness! Friday morning would be a good time to arrest Greer, say 6AM, while simultaneously taking protective custody of Terri and whisking her to a hospital for IV's and reinsertion of the food port. But then I fancy myself to be a storyteller/novelist ...
I don't get your reasoning. If the police, part of the executive branch, can be ordered around by a judge, how does that make the executive branch in any way separate, much less equal?
The people of Florida can and SHOULD impeach Greer. That is their legal recourse.
They could get the PET within 24 hours of rehydrating her. It shows what brain activity is happening.
"In a January 10th hearing, Florida Family Court Judge Rosa Rodriguez ruled that Elian should stay with Miami relatives until a later hearing, to be held in March. That hearing was to determine if Elian would be harmed by going back to communist Cuba.
Attorney General Janet Reno announced that the family court ruling had no validity, and she backed the INS decision on Elian's status."
maybe he's lying about that too because supposedly he injected terri with an insulin shot under the breast to throw of her sugar levels and her metabolism. nothing that that comes from that lying scumsucking sonavabitch is true. he should be fed alive to wild animals. oh, where is my compassion? right next to the ten gallon drum of tar.
Actually, he called a pressser and went to Greer to ask permission to take Terri. Some leadership, that!
So would most people.
Is this an accurate statement or is it attempt portray Jeb as religious nut?
I don't think President Bush wears his religion on his sleeve, so to speak, anymore than his predecessors did. Reagan is the first president I remember ever saying God Bless America. Clinton was always showing up at black churches followed by the paparazzi.
amen - there's an impeach movement on him now - been in the works for some time, I believe.
We just have to help Pres. Bush get his judges in - he's very aware that we have a runaway activist judiciary - we have to scream at our senators to pull the plug on the evil 60-vote illegal rule. We are in the majority, d*mn it!
I would gladly take a yes from Whittemore. There would still be the PET scan.
You get it. Thank GOD! :-)
dittos
police are part of the judical branch, they enforce laws that judges rule on. follow the tran of logic. you get arrested by the police, then you go before a judge. Police arrest, Judges sentence.
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