Jeb Bush Did All He Could Legally Do

http://newsmax.com ^ | Wednesday, March 30, 2005 | Phil Brennan

[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.

[Graymatter]

Don't think so. I have long suspected that Rove, being the object of such intense suspicion by the left wing, probably has trouble getting the President on the phone after 5 o'clock.
Seriously, I don't know where to look, but Rove is not at all plausible.

[GrandEagle]

Try reading the post, or maybe even the Constitution before you create conclusions to jump to.

Sorry, Got my feathers ruffled just a bit. This comment was un called for.

Regards,
GE

[Fido969]

[BobS]

"I don't recognize such an order as legal,...

Of course we don't. The majority of people are in the process of becoming desensitized to this. I don't know how much time we have left here for ourselves, but many people are going to die by order of the government. It happened before.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

and follow up with a good dose of the Federalist papers to get at what power the founders really intended be vested in the judiciary vs the executive and legislative branches.

When you or I bring up the Federalist Papers, lawyers immediately shout that they are not dispositive of constitutional interpretation. But that is only because the courts no longer use the Constitution for its dispositions. It is interesting that Judge Birch used them in his opinion for supporting denial of relief to Terri Schiavo. So I suppose currently they operate in only one direction.

But for some specific FP references, start with these. The clear implication is that the executive was never intended as the rubber stamp for and force behind judicial fiat:

"Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments."Federalist #78

"It may in the last place be observed that the supposed danger of judiciary encroachments on the legislative authority, which has been upon many occasions reiterated, is in reality a phantom. Particular misconstructions and contraventions of the will of the legislature may now and then happen; but they can never be so extensive as to amount to an inconvenience, or in any sensible degree to affect the order of the political system. This may be inferred with certainty, from the general nature of the judicial power, from the objects to which it relates, from the manner in which it is exercised, from its comparative weakness, and from its total incapacity to support its usurpations by force." Federalist #81

[Jim Noble]

I'm sick and tired of all the fools who say they can't vote for Jeb because he didn't go beyond the law.

A law is a bill passed by both houses of the Florida Legislature, and signed by a Governor.

What Florida law prevented Governor Bush from taking Mrs. Schiavo into protective custody?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

and follow up with a good dose of the Federalist papers to get at what power the founders really intended be vested in the judiciary vs the executive and legislative branches.

When you or I bring up the Federalist Papers, lawyers immediately shout that they are not dispositive of constitutional interpretation. But that is only because the courts no longer use the Constitution for its dispositions. It is interesting that Judge Birch used them in his opinion for supporting denial of relief to Terri Schiavo. So I suppose currently they operate in only one direction.

But for some specific FP references, start with these. The clear implication is that the executive was never intended as the rubber stamp for and force behind judicial fiat:

"Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them. The Executive not only dispenses the honors, but holds the sword of the community. The legislature not only commands the purse, but prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of every citizen are to be regulated. The judiciary, on the contrary, has no influence over either the sword or the purse; no direction either of the strength or of the wealth of the society; and can take no active resolution whatever. It may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments."Federalist #78

"It may in the last place be observed that the supposed danger of judiciary encroachments on the legislative authority, which has been upon many occasions reiterated, is in reality a phantom. Particular misconstructions and contraventions of the will of the legislature may now and then happen; but they can never be so extensive as to amount to an inconvenience, or in any sensible degree to affect the order of the political system. This may be inferred with certainty, from the general nature of the judicial power, from the objects to which it relates, from the manner in which it is exercised, from its comparative weakness, and from its total incapacity to support its usurpations by force." Federalist #81

[MACVSOG68]

I will never again vote for anyone who isn't 100% pro-life. I will never again vote for anyone named Bush. I will never vote for Condi Rice, and I was willing to overlook her pro-choice leanings, just a few weeks ago.

Glad you're not one of those one issue voters.

Somebody got the US Congress to back down about those subpoenas, and it wasn't a lousy lawyer, doctor or judge. Somebody convinced Gonzalez not to get involved, somebody convinced the FBI not to get involved. Somebody made Jeb Bush sit on his hands. It can't be the President, since he said the strong have a duty to protect the weak.

Ok, I've been in suspense long enough. Who was it?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

See post #11.

There was no need to "storm" the hospice in order to effect a rescue.

[sgtbono2002]

He could have sent in the National Guard with fixed bayonets and ridden a White Horse at the front of the pack.

sarcasm

[bobscot]

OK do you want another Janet Reno or would you want someone that works within the law.everyone thats wants to lay blame for this miscarriage of justice needs to place blame where it belongs and that is not with the Bush brothers

[joesnuffy]

Keep chanting that mantra...:)

[GrandEagle]

BANG! (the sound of hitting the nail on the head)

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

OK do you want another Janet Reno or would you want someone that works within the law.

I want someone who saves innocent lives, not someone who incinerates them or sends them back to communist slavery.

[farmer18th]

What planet is Brennan on? We live in a nation governed by an out of control pack of scumbag activist judges.

Yes, but you see, according to many Rinos it is somehow "nation of laws" to allow judges to do whatever they want, but it is "Elian Gonzales" for the executive to restrain the judiciary. (I know, I know; it doesn't make any sense.)

[BobS]

Who should follow the law when judges act and in effect delare our constitution innapropriate? What is the recourse?
It is entirely in the powers of the executive to declare martial law, clean the mess, then rescind martial law.

[an italian]

Jeb Bush Did All He Could Legally Do

I'm absolutely convinced of that.

[Graymatter]

This is hardly one issue for me. It's pro-life, anti-euthanasia, and the restoration of the balance of powers. It's being against globalism, against Ginsburg's unwarranted consideration of foreign law and opinion, against the LOST and the tide of illegal immigrants. The Schiavo disaster was just the last straw. I was way right before, now I'm extreme far right.

No idea, not a clue, who passed around the memo making everybody back off the Schiavo case. I just know somebody did.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Then read posts #11 and #65.

[Diogenesis]

No.

Dr. Gambone (R) and Toast

Below is Terri's Hospice Certificate for Woodside Hospice House (***)

NOTA BENE: Please notice the following:
1) NO physician signed this Certificate for Woodside Hospice House.

ERGO: Michael Schiavo and Greer acted without a medical license.

ERGO: They had to murder her and cover it up.

2) Look at the "Terminal Diagnosis.
It appears to have been changed after the fact. It was clearly written while the
rest was typed, AND in a handwriting different from the rest.

In medical records, that is a sign of tampering. I bet whiteout is underneath.

3) The Certificate states she will live less than 6 months.
Yet they took $$$ from the insurance company(ies?)
and you know the rest.

ERGO: They apparently had to murder Terri to cover it up.