Posted on 04/05/2005 2:06:47 PM PDT by 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.
Figures. This kind of thing is why I left the Republican Party and re-registered as "Decline to State".
I heard that Republicans are leaving in droves - Terri AND the illegal immigration issue.
What are the Republicans thinking? Can they really be this stupid?!
That's utter nonsense. The only threats to Republican control of the House in '06 are 1) a serious recession and 2) the "leadership's" lack of action on immigration issues.
Here all along I thought it was the 'right-to-live' issue on the human side and the 'right to kill' issue on the other. What we need to do is create a court system that knows the difference.
"that Republicans are leaving in droves."
This is a very inflammatory and potential damaging statement. Don't say it unless you can back it up.
Where did you hear this from, and what do you mean by "droves"?
"not sure why" -- aren't there a lot of other issues you care about, or are you one of these single-issue idiots?
Don't you understand how much worse the Rats are?
Confirms my choice to change my registration to "Independent" and refuse to donate to the GOP.
Please. If we don't affirm people's righteous indignation at the judiciary, it won't matter who is in control of the House. It will become irrelevant.
Frist is spineless.
There were many of us on the Terri threads who cut up our RNC cards and shipped them back with nasty notes. And re-registered as independent or for me "decline to state".
This morning on Sacramento talk radio (Armstrong & Getty) they were talking about how "droves" of Republicans were leaving the Party over the illegal immigration issue. You know, the Minutemen are in the news.
I know of ONE person personally who left the Republican Party when Terri died (Jeb Bush being the last man to turn his back on her and walk away). AND THAT'S ME!!! AND I WILL NEVER FORGET!!
Frist "diagnosed" Terri as non PVS and now he says the court acted fairly? Hmm.
re: Frist, Lott, McConnell "an imposing lineup" (LOL) ...
Frist and Lott are sissies, although I believe Frist is worse.
McConnell, though, is another story. Look more closely at him ... he seems more courageous and more effective. The White House was foolish to push Frist instead of McConnell as majority leader when Lott made his faux pas.
Lott is spineless, Frist is spineless, McConnell is spineless......you guys are sure hard to please.
Well, thanks for the info. This is disturbing. You people are cutting your own throats. Anyone who doesn't stick with the GOP is helping the Democrats. And that will do no good at all. In fact, it will do enormous harm. You should be grown-up enough to realize that results are usually slow in coming. If you remove yourselves from the game like this, you are abandoning your fellow citizens, and frankly, you deserve what the Rats will do to this country when they regain full power ... perhaps as early as 2008. The problem is, while you deserve this, the rest of us don't.
An army can't function this way, and neither can a country.
WOW ... I'm speechless .. unbelievable .. right out in public, naked for all the world to see.
A prerequisite to being a good politician is possessing the ability to stand tall and look convincingly at the people while telling a lie. I was taught to never cite the obvious but I couldn't help myself on this one. It's complicity by corrupted politicians like Frist and many in our judiciary that will be the ruin of this country.
Fairly stupidly, I'd say.
I'm think strong 3-party, Constitutional Party.
I'm praying for a strong leader to come forward.
Frist -- NOT.
Silly?
No, I am not being silly.
The pro-life cause took a massive shellacking last week due to the collapse of Republican will in 6 different branches of government (3 federal, 3 state).
About the only saving hope in any of it was that the Republicans in the Senate would steel themselves to pass the Nuclear Option and thereby change the composition of the Judiciary.
Frist just gave us the finger.
Will he pass the Nuclear Option?
Does he sound like a man who has that in mind?
Anyway, when he fails, the coalition is done, because discouraged and defeated pro-lifers are not going to turn out in anything like the numbers they have in the past. The Republican Party has been forced by event to make a choice. I think that pro-lifers still don't fully believe that the party has chosen to leave them behind and seek new coalition partners, but then along comes Frist and makes a comment like that, not designed to calm the waters but to basically tell the pro-lifers that we are full of it when it comes to what happened to Terri Schiavo.
In other words, he doesn't represent us, and doesn't want to.
How can we continue to vote for people like that?
Many of us can't.
They had one clear shot to get out of the mess of last week.
Frist is the man who has to do it.
He has no intention of doing any such thing.
Who is stupid? Better learn how the Senate and House are organized before you further embarass yourself.
I hope.
The prevailing sentiment as you call it, is only the opinion of a vocal few.
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