"Never send a monkey to do a man's job."
~ Captain Leo Davidson
Posted on 04/02/2005 9:25:17 AM PST by RedBloodedAmerican
"If Governor Bush wants to be the man that his brother is, he needs to step up to the plate like President Bush did when the United Nations told him not to go into Iraq," said Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue and an advocate for Terri Schiavo. "Be a man. Put politics aside."
Pardon me, but what would Mr. Terry have Jeb Bush – or, for that matter, his brother the president – do beyond what he has already done? Both men did everything within their legitimate powers to stop the judicial execution of Terri Schiavo. They were stopped by an out-of-control judiciary and constitutional limitations on their official duties.
In working with Congress to exercise its legislative authority in the case by transferring jurisdiction from the Florida courts to the federal judiciary, the president went out of his way to craft a solution to the gut-wrenching tragedy unfolding in Florida. He was stymied in his efforts to come down on the side of life, as he put it, by both the Florida and federal courts. Both he and the Congress found themselves facing a vexing question of state vs. federal rights.
Moreover, the federal courts given jurisdiction by Congress simply stepped aside and sided with the state courts, putting their stamp of approval on a judicial record shot through with the most egregious errors and omissions.
At that point no president subject to the Constitution had any authority to prevent the obscenity being perpetrated by Michael Schiavo with the enthusiastic backing of Judge George Greer and his judicial cronies. George Bush had run out of options.
There are those who would have had him apply the full power of the federal government, using armed force to wrest Terri from her executioners. Nothing would have delighted me more, but we live in a nation governed by the Constitution and there is nothing in that document that would permit such an action.
And had he so acted, the consequences would have been almost as politically explosive as President Lincoln's attempt to resupply the Fort Sumpter garrison, which started the shooting in a bloody war that would kill 600,000 Americans before it ended.
Florida's Governor Jeb Bush weighed in early on the controversy, seeking to protect Terri from her husband and all those right-to-die fanatics who had mounted an unholy crusade to kill Terri Schiavo and use her death to advance their cause. After the Legislature passed and the governor signed what came to be known as Terri's Law, the courts stepped in and quashed it as violative of the Florida constitution, and the matter was back to square one.
Faced with Judge Greer's order to cut off Terri's nourishment and hydration by removing her feeding tube – an order that was in reality a judicial death warrant – the governor sought to have the Legislature step in again and pass a law that would have saved Terri's life. He won the support of the Florida House but ran up against a stone wall in the Florida Senate. Despite the most vigorous lobbying, Jeb Bush was unable to move the Senate.
He then attempted to use his executive authority by having the state agency charged with protecting the disabled to take Terri into its custody and reconnect her life-giving feeding tube despite Judge Greer's prohibition against such an act. He went so far as to order state officials to seize Terri but found himself facing local police and sheriff's deputies who swore that they would resist. What was looming was a potential shooting war between local and state police.
Despite that real possibility, some of Terri's more belligerent supporters insist that Jeb Bush follow through and use force to free Terri. They ignore the possibilities inherent in such a confrontation between bodies of armed men.
According to those who know Jeb Bush, a deeply religious Roman Catholic, he is appalled by the spectacle of a court deliberately violating Terri's religious and civil rights and the ordeal to which she is being brutally subjected. In addition to the anguish he feels over Terri's ordeal, he is tortured by his inability to do anything to save her beyond praying and calling on the people to pray with him.
When the secular forces who targeted an innocent woman in pursuit of their immoral political agenda have gotten their wish and Terri is in a place where they can no longer reach and torture her, Jeb Bush will have an opportunity to see that the rampant corruption endemic in this case is vigorously investigated and those responsible for this atrocity are prosecuted to the full extent of the law they so wantonly abused.
That's when we need to hold his feet to the fire – not now, when he is powerless to do what he and so many of the rest of us so desperately wanted done.
No he did not. Murder compels action. Murder under color of law -- still compels action.
How about all the governors in all the states being blamed for removal of feeding tubes of people who left no living will and had relatives, spouse or parents or otherwise, deciding for them? Are these governors to blame also? Are they murderers as you would paint Jeb Bush?
What makes this case different from the thousands of others that have occured over the years? Is Clinton also responsible for all the feeding tube removal deaths that occured during his presidency? If he is why are you not bashing him for it? Why are you not calling for impeachment of every Govenor in every state? They all have had people who 's feeding tubes were removed without a living will or knowlege of their real wishes. Why are you not raising he** with them also?
I think the ones blaming the gov are simply Bush haters, IMO.
If you think Bush should have used force, did you use force? Did any of you Bush blamers rush the hospice and free Terri? Did any of you who advocate violence risk your job and career and jail time storming the hospice, shooting it out with guards, risking killing a few and risking getting yourself killed? Did I miss reading about that in the paper?
If Bush lacks cajones for not doing anything, what does that make you? Are you not then a coward for failing to act on your pricinples? Or is it only cowardly if a governor fails to act?
I disagree. It would have been within the law to enforce those subpoenas. The Governor and President both could have done plenty of things within the law. IMO. They both displayed a horrendous failure of leadership, of that I'm certain.
In order to qualify for office, judicial candidates must take and file an oath of office before being elected.
According to public records and state statutes, George Greer did not legally qualify for his current term of office and has no legal authority to sit on the case or issue any decisions.
Florida law is explicit that any person who fails to take the required oath shall be immediately discharged, his name removed from the state payroll and not permitted to receive any compensation.
Greer can’t claim that he is a “de facto” officer because he never had title to the office. His name shouldn’t have even been on the ballot according to the records provided by Florida’s Department of State.
Thus the question can be and should be legally raised if Greer has had jurisdiction in any of the adverse rulings affecting Terri Schiavo. Are all of his decisions null and void and should the entire matter be submitted for a new trial before a legally qualified judge?
According to rulings by the Attorney General’s office, statutory and case law, Greer has never qualified for office to gain access to the ballot, failing to file the mandatory oath of office, therefore he was not legally elected.
And even though election officials improperly allowed him access to the ballot, he still failed to comply with the statute which requires him to file his oath of office within 30 days of the commencement of his term.
According to the Department of State, the last oath on file for George Greer is dated Aug. 7, 1998. Although the Division of Elections says that Greer qualified for office on May 3, 2004, to date they have not been able to produce a copy of his oath of office that was presumably filed in order to qualify. VIEW THE ONLY OATH OBTAINABLE-CLICK HERE [must have Acrobat Reader]
The copy of the 1998 oath that they have produced for Greer is not in the proper form as required by statute which automatically disqualified him from the 1998 election. By law, his name should not have been on the ballot and therefore, he allegedly illegally served a six-year term as a judge and unlawfully collected compensation for the position.
"Never send a monkey to do a man's job."
~ Captain Leo Davidson
George W. Greer is exempt from rules others must follow. Pinellas-Pasco county voters think he is dynamite!
The article is right. Both Pres. and Gov. Bush did what they could. There were no police guarding Elian when Clinton did what he did.
Bush could have defied the judiciary through use of the National Guard. Surely no 2/3 of the FL House would have voted to impeach him, as the body is more than 60 percent "Republican," whatever that word means in FL politics. He could have been an "extralegal" hero, instead of a defensive one who will for years try to defend his nonaction. But you may be right, most people are glad that Bush did nothing.
sarcasm
Would Theodore Roosevelt have done that? There were feeding tubes back then, weren't there?
Mr. Bush's and Mr. Bush's ability to so command was in exact counter-balance to the Judge's making of a illegal order (no matter how many courts reviewed it) to murder an innocent.
Cops opening fire on each other? C'mon....
Some people watch too much TV.
But he did not do all that was morally required of him.
Moral Cowardice is no excuse.
Moral Cowardice is no excuse
Neither is shouting and condemning him from behind the comfort of your keyboard.
Pinellas county, Florida subhuman murderer uncertified Judgenfuhrer Greer:
"We are exempt from all rules.
The US Constitution - We have ignored it.
18 USC Section 1505 - We have ignored it.
Title 2 of the US code - We have ignored it.
Florida Statute 765.309 which prevents mercy killing and assisted suicide - We have ignored it.
Florida Statute 744.3215 which requires that incapacitated people cannot be deprived of food and water - We have ignored it.
Florida Statute 765.404, which says that clear and convincing evidence of the ward's intent for medical treatment must be established - We have ignored it..
"I murdered her to celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Month.
What are you gonna do about it?."
Same here.. We are a constitutional republic..
Ya know: I am not sure. Probably a feeding tube back in Teddy Roosevelts day was a piece of garden hose and a funnel, shove it down the throat and pour in the grub., But honestly I dont know.
"Neither is shouting and condemning him from behind the comfort of your keyboard."
you forgot: "....in your pajamas"
We are not quite Mexico yet -- that intra-police force (or police and army) shooting does occur there.
The people involved were more than just lousy - they were corrupt to the core.
"But he did not do all that was morally required of him.
Moral Cowardice is no excuse"
Isnt he bound by oath of office within confines of the law of his position?
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