With Terri Dead, The American Left Can Now Turn Its Attention To Scott Peterson

RUSH: Having now gotten their wish in having Terri Schiavo put to death by court order, the American left is now free to turn their attention to saving Scott Peterson (news) from the same fate, which will no doubt happen. Again greetings: 800-282-2882 is the number. Terri Schiavo passed away, 9:03 this morning at the hospice down in Pinellas Park, Florida. We're going to talk about that. We'll talk about the court decision, this majority opinion written from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal yesterday. This was incredible. It's arrogant. This judge, Mr. Birch, a Bush appointee, Bush 41 appointee, wrote an opinion yesterday. It's unbelievable. The judiciary is fighting back. This opinion lashed out at the president, lashed out at Congress, lashed out at the public, and basically ordered all other judges to stay away from this case. I have the ruling. We'll get to that in due course. (Limbaugh Legal Division: Judiciary Fights Back) Also, a great piece today from Judi McLeod, who's the editor of a newspaper in Toronto, the conflicts of interest that involve the Schiavo legal team and the sheriff and so forth and this hospice down in Pinellas Park. It's interesting because the mainstream press was all trying to find conflicts of interest on all the other sides of this issue, but when it comes to the Felos-Schiavo side of this they didn't seem to look very hard. Somebody has, and we'll pass that on to you as well. But first let's go to the audio sound bites. The president today, about 11:30, had this to say about the passing of Terri Schiavo.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Today millions of Americans are saddened by the death of Terri Schiavo. Laura and I extend or condolences to Terri Schiavo's families. I appreciate the example of grace and dignity they have displayed at a difficult time. I urge all those who honor Terri Schiavo to continue to work to build a culture of life where all Americans are welcomed and valued and protected, especially those who live at the mercy of others. The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak. In cases where there are serious doubts and questions, the presumption should be in favor of life.

RUSH: Now, this is interesting. In addition to the substance of what the president said -- if you just bear with me until we get there -- the president in this statement takes a mild swipe back at this judge and the whole 11th Circuit, and I think the judiciary as well. It's very mild. You have to have read that opinion and heard some of the primary points that judge made in his opinion to understand this. The president's next sentence, by the way, talked about the president's most important responsibility is to protect the lives of the American people, and he went then into a discussion of this intelligence report, which we'll also discuss as the program unfolds today. Let's move on to more audio sound bites. Jeb Bush spoke to the press. We have two sound bites.

FLORIDA GOVERNOR JEB BUSH: It's heartbreaking, to be honest with you. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, to all the people that wanted her to live, and to everybody. This was a very, very emotional couple of weeks. And I would hope that from this, that all of us can grow as people in terms of our appreciation for end of life issues.

RUSH: An unidentified reporter asked, "Governor Bush, do you feel like the debate and the time that's up here as taken emphasis away from this?"

GOVERNOR BUSH: This issue transcends politics and policy, and so, yes, it's taken -- deservedly so -- has taken attention away from other matters, but having said that, we've got time to deal with the policy initiatives of the leaders and the legislature and our agenda. So we'll continue to do our work.

GOVERNOR BUSH: As governor? I had challenges in my personal life that have created the same emotional challenge, but as governor this has been the toughest.

RUSH: We move on now to one of the family priests that ministered to the Schindler family. This is the national director of Priests for Life, Father Frank Pavone, speaking to the press after the passing of Terri Schiavo.

PAVONE: Unfortunately just ten or so minutes before she died we were told that we had to leave the room because there would be an assessment of her condition and then a visitation by Michael. Bobby Schindler, her brother, said, "We want to be in the room when she dies." Michael Schiavo said, "No, you cannot," and so his heartless cruelty continues until this very last moment. At the same time, once she did pass away, we were called back into the room and at that point only the immediate family was able to go in to give her their final embraces. I stood at the doorway and offered the prayers of the church for those who have just died.

PAVONE: Let me just say one more thing, that this is not only a death with all the sadness that brings; this is a killing -- and for that we not only grieve that Terri has passed, but we grieve that our nation has allowed such an atrocity as this, and we pray that it will never happen again.

RUSH: Last night Scarborough Country, MSNBC. This gets hot and heavy. The guests included Catherine Crier of Court TV, Pat Buchanan and Peter Beinart, the editor of The New Republic. Buchanan says to Peter Beinart, "You know how she's dying? The way they died at Dachau, the way they died at Andersonville."

BEINART: She cannot feel the pain that we would feel in starvation, and compared to the Nazis, when this woman, when the court said this woman wanted to die, it's just outrageous. Outrageous.

CRIER: And Pat? How dare you, Pat? How dare you ask us how much we want this woman to die, because there is no one on the other side of this that wants her to die. If I could will her to get up, to --

RUSH: If you want her to live, why don't you get up and give her some food and water? You know, Buchanan is onto something here that I picked up on in the early stages of this two weeks ago. There did seem to be this unbridled enthusiasm for this woman to die. We know that there was. Catherine Crier is wrong about this. We know that there was an enthusiasm for this woman to die -- and we know why. There are several reasons. Among them, the left in this country is just frightened to death of the Christian right, and they blame the Christian right for all their electoral losses since 1994 and they want to stick it to the Christian right. Anything the Christian right can lose on, the left will be happy about, even if it takes the death of Terri Schiavo to upset the Christian right and cause the Christian right to experience a so-called loss on an issue. We also had a number of people protesting down there that were in fact anti-Bush, members of the Communist Youth League or some such thing, and they're out there eagerly hoping that Bush loses this because he was on the side of Terri Schiavo living.

So it may be a thin line. There may not have been that many people eager for her to die, but there were that many people that were eager for the Christian right and Bush to lose. Of course, the outcome is the same: Terri Schiavo dies. They're asking to suspend quite a lot of reality by saying, "We didn't have any enthusiasm for her to die," but that was the end result of these rulings. That was the end result of what these courts decided. All of these courts decided, "This woman's gotta die and nobody can give her any sustenance whatsoever," and there were people that supported that, and they did so under the guise of supporting the rule of law or supporting federalism or not supporting federalism or what have you. But it is plain as day what happened here: The United States government ordered the starvation of an innocent citizen who was not dying.

There are few greater distortions of my beliefs than your comment. It is a dishonest comment.

In fact my greatest concern about this orchestrated orgy of outrage is that it will damage the fight to bring the RATs to heel so that control can be established over the appointments to the courts.

It only takes a couple of percents switch to bring the RATs back to power. And those in the middle watching this spectacle are not going to see the GOP acting like wise statemen but opportunists.

"There are few greater distortions of my beliefs than your comment. It is a dishonest comment."

Is it? You've certainly given that impression.

"In fact my greatest concern about this orchestrated orgy of outrage is that it will damage the fight to bring the RATs to heel so that control can be established over the appointments to the courts."

Orchestrated orgy of outrage? Orchestrated by who? Individuals who care about this issue? I guess you could say the anti-slavery movement was an 'orchestrated orgy of outrage' as well.

Things don't change without an 'orchestrated orgy of outrage.' Politicians aren't going to rock the boat on the status quo unless there is an 'orchestrated orgy of outrage' to let them know that the people want change.

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