Posted on 03/30/2005 4:07:26 PM PST by churchillbuff
I never had any desire to run for political office, but, if I did, it would be to make a difference.
If I didn't think I could make a difference, what would be the point?
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told us last week he just didn't have the power and authority to save one innocent woman forced by court order and armed guard to starve to death in his state.
I don't believe that's true. Not for a minute do I believe it. Jeb Bush blinked. And that weakness that he showed for the whole world should represent the end of his political career.
It's unfortunate, because I believe Jeb Bush knew, deep in his convictions, it was wrong to let Terri Schiavo be murdered by a judge's order.
He even dispatched a team of state law enforcement officers to seize her hours after Judge George Greer refused to listen to his pleadings in the courtroom.
But he backed down. When local cops informed the state officers that they would enforce the judge's order, the agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement stopped.
That's not leadership. That's capitulation.
Gov. Jeb Bush shouldn't have merely dispatched officers to the scene to negotiate with the local cops, he should have led them. He should have personally persuaded those local officers that he was the highest law enforcement official in the state and he was ordering them to stand down.
He should have been a field general, not an armchair general.
He should have walked up to that hospice with overwhelming force behind him.
He should have done so with the whole world watching.
Jeb Bush has been talked about as a potential presidential candidate. But who is going to seriously consider a commander in chief who backs down at the first sign of resistance?
Bush may have been trying to take the safe route in this crisis, but it represents, in my estimation, the end of his political ambitions.
Jeb Bush was tested, and he was found lacking.
He allowed a terribly immoral action to take place in his state and did nothing but huff and puff about it.
And it wasn't the first time.
Say what you will about former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. I think she was a fascist. I think she was a criminal. I think she was possibly stark, raving mad. But she backed up her misguided convictions by sending armed federal agents swooping in to pick up little Elian Gonzalez and take him back to Cuba. It was wrong, but she wasn't afraid.
Back then, Gov. Jeb Bush sat by and watched his authority breached by Washington.
This time, he sat by and watched his authority breached by a puny, little county bureaucrat, a local politician, Judge George Greer.
Does the Florida governor have any authority?
If not, we shouldn't take the position seriously as a stepping stone to higher office. If it does, why didn't he use it when it counted?
I feel sorry for Jeb Bush today.
I think he knew right from wrong in this case but didn't have the courage of his convictions. I think he listened to all the wrong advisers. I think he will carry regrets about Terri Schiavo to his grave.
He could have been a hero. He could have been a leader.
Instead, he appears weak. Instead, he appears to vacillate.
My wife told me: "If Jeb Bush had done the right thing for Terri, I would have given up six months of my life to campaign for him. I would have done anything to help him."
I'm sure many people feel like that. Let me ask you today: Is anyone excited about the possibility of a third Bush administration?
Judges can order enforcement of their orders. Always have, always will.
Well put LisaMalia.
Fort Lauderdale (March 24, 2005) — Dr. D. James Kennedy issued the following statement today:
Governor Jeb Bush is to be commended for all he has done in seeking to save the life of Terri Schiavo. His course of action thus far has proven fruitless. Neither the state legislature nor the courts, state or federal, have been willing to act on behalf of this helpless woman who is now within hours of death.
As Governor, Jeb Bush is the only legal authority who can save the life of Terri Schiavo. He must act and he must act immediately on her behalf. He must disregard the order of Judge Greer. He has both the authority and the duty to do so under the state constitution.
The Florida constitution states in Article I, Section 2, that "[a]ll natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law, and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life ...." According to the Constitution, "no person shall be deprived of any right [including the right to enjoy life] because of ... physical disability."
As governor, Jeb Bush has the “supreme executive power,” and the constitutional duty, stated in Article IV, Section 1, to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." The governor, who is sworn to uphold the constitution, is obligated to safeguard this constitutional guarantee of the "inalienable right ... to enjoy and defend life," regardless of physical disability.
The Governor may not disregard that obligation even if a member of the judiciary has ordered otherwise. He is not bound by a court order that is at odds with a constitutional guarantee.
Thomas Jefferson said that “[T]o consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.” Abraham Lincoln disregarded the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott when he issued the Emancipation Declaration.
Governor Bush has tried patiently to work with the courts and the legislature but to no avail. Now, at the very last moment, he has a constitutional duty to protect Terri Schiavo’s "inalienable right ... to enjoy and defend life." Jeb Bush must choose between the clear mandate of Florida’s constitution and a judiciary which, in this case, has acted in defiance of that state supreme law.
After all this time of praying, petitioning, and lobbying, it comes down to this.
###
The CENTER FOR RECLAIMING AMERICA, founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy, is an outreach of Coral Ridge Ministries to inform the American public and motivate Christians to defend and implement the biblical principles on which our country was founded. The CENTER provides non-partisan, interdenominational information, training, and support to all those interested in impacting the culture and renewing the vision set forth by our Founding Fathers.
If you really think that Terri's federal law was nothing but a bone to the Christian base you're nuts, because the end ineffectiveness makes Congress, particularly the Senate, look weak. That's not tossing the base a bone, it's painting a target for them to shoot at on the back of your head.
Dear Govenor Bush,
Although I was one of the people here who publicly lost a bit of faith in you earlier this week and advocated putting some political pressure on you ,I want you to know how much I apprecite your efforts. I stand before you humbled that I lost faith for while, I can only say it is human nature.
As I tuck my children in at night, for the first time in over a week, I feel much more secure in the fact that our elected representatives did hear our cries and acted upon our deepest wishes, to see a woman saved from an unjust death sentance. Furhter to stand up for our most vunerable citizens and protect their rights to the fullest.
. I know the days ahead will be difficult, and you will face much political re-hashing of what unfolded. I pray that God will give you the strength to fight, and the security in your heart of knowing that what you did was right and just for Florida ,and for America.
Please be well Govenor Bush, I will look for ways to support you in the future.
Typos: yours.
You sound like a sports owner who puts "utmost confidence" in his coach and fires him the next day.
you would never have voted for Jeb or any other Bush for that matter, no matter what...
Gators and Bobcats!Oh,my!
BUMP!
No were just not ready for a heartless commie loving liberal for President.
He never did. He's one of FR's more skilled trolls.
I agree with the National Guard stuff. That was never the answer. The answer was in the making sure the criminal case was being investigated and in making certain the allegations of abuse were properly investigated and making sure the allegations of improper representation was looked into.
Voting for a Dem, because you don't want a RINO ( whose meaning you don't understand! ),is stupid and beyond reason. Thank you for proving that you are NOT a Conservative at all, don't understand politics at all, and have less than no knowledge of how this nation's government works.
Keep posting; every post of yours shows just how ill-informed you are.
You're here to disrupt.
JimRob does not suffer fools lightly. churchillbuff (as many posters with a diverse post portfolio) has been given a lot of rope. And he's not stupid, he'll lie low, won't start new threads for a while and then start up again.
Enough of them.
They come a dime a dozen.
Grimmaced faces and lame explanations; whiny, terse statements with a deer-in- the-headlights look, voice quivering, "Mother, May I?" tone toward Judicial Tyranny, IS NOT LEADERSHIP. NOT OUR LEADERSHIP.
We need Leaders. We need Real Men and Real Women.
BTW, didn't I see that posted over at DU earlier today.
You expose yourself.
.
This thread is the list of usual suspects who claim to be conservative but only on cetain issues, just like the Log Cabin Republicans. You can't lose a vote you never had in the first place.
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