Frist Says Courts in Schiavo Case Acted Fairly

Reuters ^ | 4/5/05 | Thomas Ferraro

[Crackingham]

U.S. Senate Republican leader Bill Frist said on Tuesday that courts had acted fairly in the Terri Schiavo "right-to-die" case, differing sharply from a vow of retribution by his House of Representatives counterpart, Tom DeLay.

"I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," said Frist, now trying to resolve a battle with Democrats over judicial nominations that threatens to tie his chamber into knots. "I respect that."

Frist and DeLay, as the Senate and House majority leaders, had led a charge for emergency legislation calling on the federal courts to review the Schiavo case. President Bush flew back from a Texas vacation to sign the bill into law. But federal courts refused to intervene and let stand a Florida state court order to remove a feeding tube from the brain-damaged woman. Schiavo's husband had said she would not have wanted to live in her condition, but her parents fought against the tube's removal. Schiavo died last week after spending 15 years in what courts had ruled was a persistent vegetative state.

DeLay, a Texas Republican, said afterward: "We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at the Congress and president when given jurisdiction to hear this case anew."

In a written statement, DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."

Frist, asked about the furor over the case, told reporters, "I will let members (of Congress) ... speak for themselves."

But the Tennessee Republican said he believed the courts "acted in a fair and independent way."

The Schiavo case was unique, Frist said. "Our bill said, 'let's let the courts take another look,"' he said.

[La Enchiladita]

Have you seen the latest zogby poll re Terri?

[La Enchiladita]

If Frist cannot speak the truth and in language that the public can understand, then he's up to no good or doesn't know what he's doing. There's no strategery here, just useless weakness. It's not their job to keep us guessing.

[MeanWestTexan]

"Suck-up."

No, SPINELESS suck-up.

[trustandobey]

Saundra, I'm with you, the Republican Party has gone too far this time. I am so tired of our elected officials not doing what they were elected to do. Jeb and W too are no better than Frist, they let us down knowingly. I just can't wait for the day they realize their mistake. I will just say, I've done all I can do.

[Nick Danger]

I think all the people who want to blame the Congress or the judges for what went wrong in the federal courts are looking in the wrong place to find the Bad Guys.

The plea filed by the Schindlers' lawyers with the Federal District Court was the most misguided, stupid, incompetent piece of lawyering we shall see for some time. They literally gave the federal judge no 'out.' Even if he had been predisposed to ordering the re-insertion of the feeding tube, they gave him no legal basis for doing so.

Contrary to all the screams, these judges are not Kings. They can't rule on stuff that isn't in the case that the Plaintiff brings. I run out of words trying to describe how utterly stupid the Schindlers' lawyers were in squandering the chance they had to get that feeding tube re-inserted while a months-long court case proceeded. They just plain squandered it... by being unbelievably stupid.

If ever there was a case for legal malpractice, this is it.

[Dean Baker]

He's right.

God forbid that one day, the government, which quite possibly could be under the control of the Rats, override the actions of my spouse in a case similar to this.

Yes, Senator Frist is exactly right in this case. The "Conservative" thing was done.

[texasflower]

I'm not interested in polls. What I do know is that things that disturb people on FR aren't necessarily the big deal some of you think they are.

This whole thing is not going to be a factor in the way most people vote. Including me.

[livius]

Yes indeed.

I still have some faint hope that new laws will be written and that some attempts will be made to rein in the judiciary, but frankly, I'm not holding my breath. Everybody in the Bush camp has been so accomodating to the Dems on every level (witness the Sandy Berger wrist-slap) that I no longer seriously expect anything different.

[texasflower]

I agree with you Nick.

[Conservative_Rob]

Please, inform me how the GOP is "hurting" the Democrats??

Campaign Finance Reform

Billion dollar department of Education

Largest Federal Budget in History

Amnesty for Illegal Aliens

Prescription Drug Benefit

Politically Correct Warfare

Out of Control Judiciary

Kow-Towing to Environmentalists as an Energy Policy

No sign of domestic or political backbone from the White House, Capitol Hill, or the State House in Florida.

I live in Pennsylvania where the State Legislature is supposedly controlled by the GOP. All they are doing is working for creative ways to raise taxes without actually calling the "user fees" taxes. Government on all fronts is growing.

The GOP has abandoned the "Contract with America" and the ideals of Newt Gingrich. I joined the Republican party because of Newt. I stuck it out for the last 10 years because you people kept telling me that "it takes time" for change. Well if this is change you can have it.

The only things I can applaud the Bush Presidency for are the tax reductions (which are scheduled to phase out [wimp]) and the initial stages of the "War on Terror". With the court martial of soldiers who are more concerned with their lives and the lives of their buddies than being "politically correct", the "War on Terror" is morphing into the micro-managed quagmire that Vietnam became under Johnson.

You can blame me for the defeat of the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 and the return to power of the Democrats because I will not vote for ANY incumbent and I will not vote for a Republican presidential candidate unless that candidate is a Ronald Reagan conservative who promises real reductions in government - not just the reduction in the growth of government. I will no longer "hold my nose" and vote for the "lesser of two evils".

Teddy Roosevelt said "Speak softly and carry a big stick." The present GOP seems to me to be saying "Appear indignant but do nothing."

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Frig Frist, the wimp arse is now crawfishing on his judicial appointees nuke option threat.

[queenkathy]

He just hasn't read the new polls yet.

[don-o]

"I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," said Frist, now trying to resolve a battle with Democrats over judicial nominations that threatens to tie his chamber into knots. "I respect that."

Not to self: Get on the horn Wednesday morning and call my Senator. Offer help in extracting his head from his Clymer.

[He Rides A White Horse]

"I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today,"

I believe you've dropped too much acid, an it's time to go.

[bvw]

My guess is Frist was mis-quoted, or quoted in spun-context. An attempt to drive a wedge by the reporter and editor perhaps.

[mtntop3]

I don't know of any departures, but I do know of a hell of lot of coming aboards.

If some are unable to see that the only solution to changing the liberal courts is through the Republican party and, ultimately, the Supreme Court, then there is no hope for them. They are doing a suicide dance to the liberals' tune.

Have Faith and don't go into hysterics and seizures as a result of a Reuters story.

[bvw]

Any Judge who accepted that Florida Order to Murder as legal is G-d-less. And heartless. And to the extent this kind of thing continues -- the mortal enemy of those who wish to live.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

In a civilized society, the skill of lawyers should not be relevant to define an act of barbarism so obvious an affront to God and all humanity.

The law itself has become the enemy of decency. The law itself has become the enemy of God. No lawyer can save a people from pervasive wickedness wherein amoral judges can no longer descern an obvious atrocity.

An army of lawyers cannot keep us out of Hell if we are determined to see it.

[rocksblues]

Yes Frist is sort of behind the news/fact that the polls were rigged with unfair questions.

Most responders were told that she was just lying in a bed since 1990 and asked would you like to live like this!

The Judges in this case will regret their hands off attitude.

This is not a threat to our judiciary, just a fact that will happen due to fact that they killed this woman without giving her a chance to express her views!

[Vicomte13]

"If pro-life anti-abortion republicans are going to abandon the Republican party over the Terri Schiavo case and not vote, they will be acting like the first gradrers they have sounded like the last two weeks. They deserve Hillary Clinton as president and to lose control of the Senate. Hillary and a democratic Senate will really show them."

And what difference, from the perspective of pro-life, would there be if the Democrats win back the Senate for a little while, or a long while?

The whole bargain was that pro-lifers support Republicans for decades, literally thirty-two years in the wilderness, with NO pro-life content of our laws yet and, when the Republicans eventually get majority power, they will install pro-life judges who will protect the sanctity of life and end abortion.

That was always the deal. It has never been anything different. And pro-lifers have been single-mindedly working towards that for thirty-two years.

Well, the Republicans have control. White House, both Houses of Congress, the majority of the federal judiciary, and in the Schiavo case the Florida State House, Governor's mansion and many seats in the judiciary too. Judge Greer is a Republican.

And when a clear issue involving life and death, the sacredness of life, and the question of erring on the side of life or death, the Republicans, with their majorities in 5 out of 6 of the branches of government that looked at the Schiavo case, collapsed completely and erred on the side of death and retreat in the face of pro-death stubbornness.

There was always the hope of the Nuclear Option to redeem the party's fortunes, but now you've got Bill Frist out there giving the finger to everybody who stood up for life against judicial murder.

So, what exactly have we got?
We have nothing.
Zero.
We have abortion on demand, a bold new euthanasia precedent, and Republicans walking as far away from the pro-life base as they can, as though we're radioactive.

Then there's folks like you here calling folks like me first graders, and threatening us with the boogeyman of Big Bad Hillary.

Got news for you, pal. Hillary cannot do any more damage to the pro-life cause than we've already got. We already HAVE abortion on demand, and a judicial precedent of euthanizing the infirm. We have a Republican majority we worked to install, who were supposed to stand up and stop that sort of thing, but they abandoned the field and made it PERFECTLY CLEAR they have no intention of actually fighting to the death on this.

So, what do WE get with Big Bad Hillary?
Absolutely nothing that we don't already have.
Death, death and more death.
With Republicans we've got death, death and more death...and oh, by the way, "We're with you guys".

Democrats do this with Blacks and get 90% of the vote.
Republicans are not going to be able to pull it off with pro-lifers.

On the other hand, if you're NOT a pro-lifer, what do you get with Big Bad Hillary? Higher taxes. Estate taxes and dividends taxes return. More economic regulation. Probably more gun control. All things that are mildly malefic and not at all conservative. All the things YOU care most about fall to ashes.

That does not have to happen.
To stop it from happening, YOU have to keep US in your coalition.
We are not terribly demanding.
What we are is very hard-minded.
We campaigned for 32 years for you for one specific thing. You have the power to grant that specific thing now. You are withholding it, and pretending that you don't have the power.

We know you do, and take you as either wimps or liars.
Just stop it.
Pass the nuclear option, give us OUR victory, for which we have worked so hard. That holds the coalition together, and keeps all of YOUR programs in place.

As it is, calling us a bunch of babies for demanding, as you economic conservatives did, that we get what we fought for isn't helpful. Us telling you that you have betrayed us, that you need to stop it right now, and that you need to pass the Nuclear Option, right now, to hold your coalition together is an exercise in honesty and truth. That's the way it is.
That is what it has come down to.

It needn't have.
The Bushes, or the Florida Senate, or some Republican judge could have done the right thing.
But they all caved.
And now Frist is continuing the retreat.

That ain't gonna fly.
And if we get President Hillary, it will be their fault, for leaving us behind and abandoning 32 years of campaign promises, not ours for being angry at being betrayed.

With President Hillary, we will still have a culture of death. But that persists under the Republicans, and right now we don't think you're going to lift a finger or fight the fight to change it.
But you'll lose your economic agenda.

To save your agenda you need to stop fighting with legitimately angry pro-lifers and tell your Senators to stop being idiots. If you don't want your taxes hiked by Dracula Clinton, pass the damned Nuclear Option.

It's that simple.