Selective Restraint: Liberals Cheered When Janet Reno Defied the Courts to Seize Elian Gonzalez [Sch

Wall Street Journal ^ | Monday, March 28, 2005 | John Fund

[West Coast Conservative]

The sad case of Terri Schiavo has raised passions not seen since five years ago. Then another bitterly divided family argued in Florida courts over someone who couldn't speak on his own behalf: Elian Gonzalez.

In both cases, those who were unhappy with the courts' decisions strained to assert the federal government's power to produce a different outcome. The difference is that in Mrs. Schiavo's case, Congress backed off after passing a bill that merely asked a federal court to hear the case from scratch, something that U.S. District Judge James Whittemore declined to do. By contrast, those who wanted the federal government to intervene in Elian Gonzalez's case went all the way, supporting a predawn armed federal raid on the morning before Easter to seize the 6-year-old boy despite a federal appeals court's refusal to order his surrender.

Both cases were marked with hypocrisy and political posturing galore. Both times some conservative Republicans talked about issuing subpoenas to compel the person at the center of the case to appear before Congress; they swiftly backed down when public opinion failed to support their stunt. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, argued that by opposing Elian's return to his father in communist Cuba, conservatives were abandoning the principle that "the state should not supersede the parents' wishes." In the case of Terri Schiavo, many conservatives who normally support spousal rights decided that Michael Schiavo's decision to abandon his marital vows while at the same time refusing to divorce his wife rendered him unfit to override the wishes of his wife's parents to have her cared for.

But liberals have gotten off easy for some of the somersaulting arguments they have made on behalf of judicial independence and states' rights to justify their position that Terri Schiavo should not be saved.

[-=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-]

of course. free speech only if you agree with them. If you don't agree with the liberals then you must be a bigot and an extremist.

[swilhelm73]

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

--Yeats

[Echo Talon]

Go ahead ask many members on FR now they think Jeb and the POTUS are Pilate! Amazing.

[Txsleuth]

I heard John Fund on Drudge tonight making the points here in this article--

He lays out a pretty good case against both the Congress for letting her down, and the Courts for not following the law that the Congress passed and the President signed last week---

[Enterprise]

Even now, the rats are in contented bliss aboard their garbage barge.

[cpdiii]

It is ironic that the seizure of Elian Gonzales mobilized the Cubanos in Florida and was the reason that Al Gore was defeated. There is a God and he operates in strange ways.
Why did a mere child and none of the adults survive the crossing from Cuba? In the real world he would have been one of the first to perish.

[goldstategop]

Then as now, liberals said it was a state matter. Elian Gonzalez belonged with his father and Terri Schiavo belongs with her husband. Except for the little detail, that in the former case, liberals cheered the federal executive branch for defying state courts and forcibly reuniting the boy with his father. There was no talk from them about respecting state court decisions. So its amusing to hear them mount their high moral horses and accuse Republicans of not respecting Florida's domestic laws. We all know its a state matter.

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[Cherokee Conservative]

Go ahead ask many members on FR now they think Jeb and the POTUS are Pilate! Amazing.

Not so amazing. That's one of the big differences between conservatives and liberals. Conservatives will criticize their party if they do something stupid. They'll let their party leaders know they don't like it. Liberals on the other hand will do just what we made fun of them for during the Clinton years. No matter what the slimy liberal leaders do, they cover for them, make excuses for them, and use moral equivalence to say their leaders are always right. Only sheeple blindly follow their party leaders no matter what they do. The more people that do that, the less power the regular people have to cause change. If someone prefers to be a sheeple and just praise and support their party no matter what they do, they'd probably be more comfortable being a Democrat.

I voted for Bush and would vote for Jeb if I lived there, but I think if President Bush can send our soldiers to die to save millions of Iraqis and liberate 2 countries even when it's wildly unpopular, he could step up and prevent a woman from being starved to death by judges right here in the United States of America. Americans are just as worthy of political sacrifice as Muslims are.

[Echo Talon]

So you want Bush to step up to the plate and be Elian Clinton?
No thanks.

[carlo3b]

The innocent victim of LOVE and HATE. Between those parallel lines, sadly, Terry Schiavo's needless death will be the tragic outcome, but it will never be the end of the problem or anything close to the solution.

There has always existed two distinct ideologies within our cultural boarders. Two passions, each so clearly framed, and both sides so absolutely convinced of the simple unlabored, appropriateness of their own beliefs. Each side incapable, or unwilling to understand the shortsighted intransigence the other.

Thus, we have another fracture in the body of our culture, and once again it will claim another innocent victim..

Of course I understand this because I have already chosen my dog in this fight, and cannot honestly see any merit in the other side's argument..

SO SAD

[carl in alaska]

I'm afraid Jeb may have signed legislation in 1999 that made the starvation of Terri Schiavo possible. Do a search on "Biography of George Greer" and you'll find a thread from Friday night that covers this subject. If that article is accurate, Jeb made a rookie mistake in '99 that has come back to haunt him and GWB in the form of this horrible national disgrace in Florida. Jeb may have the IQ but not the judgement needed for higher office. W has both.

[Echo Talon]

He signed a law that said an unfaithful husband should make decisions on his (common law X-wife)?

[henbane]

Thus, we have another fracture in the body of our culture, and once again it will claim another innocent victim.

In Elian's case, it was Life in America or Life in Cuba.

Sadly, it ended with Elian alive in Cuba.

In Terri's case, it is Life against Death.

Criminally, it's ending in Death--By County Probate Judge.

[carl in alaska]

Here's the thread about changes to Florida law in 1999:
This thread is unsourced so it will have to be verified.

[carl in alaska]

Please go to post #5 of that thread for a formatted verison with paragraphs.

[Echo Talon]

Here's the thread about changes to Florida law in 1999:

And here is the person that posted that thread
mercyme
Since Mar 25, 2005

FR and been taken over by liberals ever since the case blew up.

[Echo Talon]

look at post 17

[carl in alaska]

Yeah, that thread will have to be verified for factual accuracy. On a first read, it sounds a little exagerrated in the way the writer states that the hospice operators were given a blank check to write their own regulations. But you still have to wonder how and when this law was passed to allow starvation and dehydration of a disabled person. Was it during Jeb's administraiton or not? Maybe that's always been the law down there. This thread is somewhat suspicious. It doesn't read like a liberal screed that's full of obvious false statements, but it will have to be verified by other writers.

[SeaBiscuit]

Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.
--Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833