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.
Greer is a Florida state court judge and he was just re-elected in 2004.
Good for you, Saundra.
I quit the Republican Party over the illegal immigration issue. Terri's case simply affirmed to me that I did the right thing.
I'll take all the bashing anyone wants to dish out. I will stand by my principles.
I'll vote independent.
They dont care. They are just a bunch of philosophers stuck up in their ivory castles with their fingers up their asses. They dont care about squat but their moral crusade. But they will squeel the loudest when Hillary makes three or four nominations to the Supreme Court.
No, they are not "stupid".
"Corrupt" or "unprincipled" would be more accurate.
Me too.
Of course, the counterargument is, "But a Dem will get elected if enough people do that!" As if that's an irreversable event.
I'm thinking long term. It's time to get off the slippery slope now, and give the GOP a wake up call before it's too late to do that.
Can you believe this guy? I mean, maybe he's trying to soften the rhetoric given some unwise remarks by Cornyn and others, but come on. Fair and impartial?
The big deficits don't help much.
Nothing worse than having the power and being afraid to use it.
Spoken like a Doctor who happens to be a Senator (instead of vice versa).
In this case, Frist = Wimp.
Senator Frist
Coward
Wow. Somebody here actually gets it!
I understand your point about Delay (I don't know if you caught some of Cornyn's recent remarks, but they were a little over the top as well.) But it's not exactly news that Lott and Frist are gutless. McConnell is usually pretty good. If Frist wants to tone down the rhetoric, I understand that, but "fair and impartial" does not describe our current judiciary, and even President Bush has said as much. No?
The Senate has a new waffle king.
You fool. The 11th Circuit Federal Appeals Court which three or four times rejected Terri's claims is the most conservative court in the US. We want courts like the 11th which are strict constructionists and dont invent rights. We have enough activist Godless judges on the left. We dont need to create religious zealot activist judges too.
I am reminded of the Trent Lott wars and the newest, bestest Great Right Hope.
When wimps like Frist back down at the first little bit of controversy, then by God, you can count me in those droves. But as long as God fearing men like Delay with BACKBONE, who stand up to the truth about out of control Judges, want to be Republicans then I'll be a Republican.
Is Frist corrupt? Or simply stupid? Or maybe just hates disabled people?
I know. I was surprised that Cornyn implied, basically, that some of these judges deserved getting shot.
I don't know what's gotten into some of these Republicans. Inciting hatred of judges and linking arms with abortion-doctor-killer-lovers like Randall Terry is definitely not helpful.
"Me too.
Of course, the counterargument is, "But a Dem will get elected if enough people do that!" As if that's an irreversable event.
I'm thinking long term. It's time to get off the slippery slope now, and give the GOP a wake up call before it's too late to do that."
Not only that, but think clearly: Republicans are in power, and the pro-life cause is exactly where it was when the Dems were in power: at zero. We already have abortion on demand. Yes, the partial birth abortion ban was passed, but that's showboating if you know that the Court is going to strike it down and you are not, in turn, going to strike the Court down by limiting its jurisdiction (or overriding the filibuster to install a pro-life judiciary when you can).
Just like everything that was done in the Terry Schiavo case was showboating. They sure ran up a dangerous amount of credit on the pro-life side, but then, when the pro-death partisans did not flinch or blink, the Republicans completely backed down and caved. The Republican judges caved at all levels. The Republican Senators in Florida caved and did not pass the bill needed to protect her life. Congress talked a good game of subpoenas and a law that demanded de novo review, but those subpoenaed blew off Congress to its face, and suffered no retaliation. Indeed, they became heros of the pro-death movement overnight.
And then there are the Bush boys, where the buck stops.
They talked a good game, making it clear they at least understood the moral issues. But when it came to a choice of defending an innocent citizen from a judicial murder and provoking a hellstorm of protest for doing it, or washing their hands of the matter and saying they had done all they could do, they celebrated Easter by aping Pontius Pilate.
With that sort of catastrophic failure at every level, we are exactly where we would be with the democrats. Terri is dead, babies are still being murdered daily, and there is no will whatsoever to wrest political control from the Judiciary to get to a pro-life solution.
The Nuclear Option could have gone a long, long way towards repairing the rift. But what happened instead was that Frist, the man who has to press the nuclear option button, just stepped forward and supported the judges who murdered Terri Schiavo.
So, when the Republicans scream and scream at someone like you that you will lose it all if the Democrats take power, because you sit the next one out, the response should be an even and honest and true statement of the facts: the pro-life movement has already lost at all. We remain at zero, where we have been since 1963.
What will happen, really, is that the REST of the Republican agenda: low taxes, deregulation, strong gun rights - THAT will all come crashing down to the ground under the Democrats, AND life won't be protected either.
Well, life isn't being protected under the Republicans, so from a pro-life perspective, the rest of the pro-life "allies" - faithless allies who failed utterly in the clutch - will be down at zero with us.
We still don't have to go marching off the cliff.
The Senate has to pass the Nuclear Option, and they have to do it NOW. Otherwise the coalition is well and truly finished.
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