Posted on 11/02/2006 5:23:50 AM PST by 8mmMauser
Republican gubernatorial front-runner Charlie Crist says he was perfectly clear in opposing governmental intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.
He spoke out loudly.
And he was silent.
Loudly silent.
The day after limping through a tough nationally televised debate, the Republican attorney general wanted to talk about his plans to slash taxes. Instead reporters questioned him about his debate assertion that, “Yes, I did’’ speak out against Congress trying to force the reinsertion of the severely brain-damaged woman’s feeding tube in 2005.
Crist did not publicly express his opposition to the Schiavo intervention until April 2006, more than a year after the Pinellas woman’s death. But he maintained on Tuesday that he forcefully expressed his opposition from the start.
“I spoke loudly,” Crist said in Tallahassee. “I think it’s important that when issues like that come up and you believe that government is the appropriate place for it that you act that out, and you walk the walk, and don’t just talk the talk.’’
The attorney general noted that his office “by not going to court and pushing the agenda on that issue, that was speaking out louder than anybody else did in Florida.”
This is one of many issues — from insurance reform to abortion and civil unions — where Crist has been accused of ambiguity or trying please all sides.
Contrary to his comments Tuesday, during the Republican gubernatorial primary in August he stressed to the weekly newspaper of the Florida Baptist Convention that his office helped the governor’s office with legal work to keep Schiavo alive, even though he personally had qualms.
“I don’t remember that, but I’ll check on it and see,” Crist said when asked about that interview with the Florida Baptist Witness.
Gov. Jeb Bush came to his would-be successor’s defense. “He spoke out to me,” Bush told reporters. Crist, however, said he never directly talked to Bush.
There are few issues in the political realm so black and white as the Terri Schiavo case. People either supported the state and federal government intervening to keep her alive or they didn’t.
But Crist is the second statewide candidate recently to face questions about how he acted during the Schiavo end-of-life controversies that erupted in 2003 in the Legislature and in 2005 in both the Legislature and Congress.
Democratic Attorney General candidate Walter “Skip” Campbell, a state senator from Broward County, has been on the defensive this week for having voted to keep Schiavo alive and later criticizing the governmental intervention. Crist’s involvement in the Schiavo case may be the only common ground between the Schindler family, Terri
Schiavo’s parents and siblings who fought to keep her alive, and her husband, Michael Schiavo, who insisted his wife did not want to be kept alive in a persistent vegetative state. Both sides have criticized Crist.
“When he said in that debate that he’s going to be a leader, my heart dropped. He’s not a leader, he’s a follower,’’ Michael Schiavo said Tuesday. “If he really wanted to stand up he would have said, 'No, this is wrong. The government should stay out of this.’ ... Charlie Crist did not say a word, he was nowhere to be found. He’s a coward.’’
Terri Schiavo’s father, Bob Schindler, wrote an essay in August accusing Crist of snubbing the family’s pleas for him to help their efforts. “Florida Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist let my daughter die. He had it within his authority to save her life, but he turned a blind eye to her suffering,’’ Schindler wrote.
The Florida Democratic Party issued a release saying Crist “lied” about his role in the Schiavo case, but at a brief campaign stop at Arco-Iris restaurant in Tampa on Tuesday, Davis would only say that Crist “misrepresented his position.”
“I was up fighting George Bush and the entire United States Congress, both political parties, and Charlie Crist was unwilling to take a position,” Davis said.
Davis, trailing in polls and campaign money, is hoping his debate performance Monday night will cut Crist’s advantages. No statewide viewership numbers were available Tuesday, but in the Tampa Bay area about 152,000 households tuned in — a ratings jump for that time slot on WFLA — and that doesn’t include those who watched on MSNBC.
- Tallahassee bureau chief Steve Bousquet and staff writer Alex Leary contributed to this report. Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmith@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8241.\
Maybe as Fl AG, McCollum will answer the phone instead of referring people to Jeb's phone number who bounced calls back to Charlie Crist where they said "we don't have a civil rights dept."
I cannot vote for anybody who is inept and beholding to big money. Capitalism is great but it should not shield criminals. Crist was a lousy AG to put it mildly.
I guess NE voters who support Fortenberry don't read their constitution. Somebody needs to tell them that congress absolutely has the right to set subject matter for the federal court's jurisdiction.
I don't remember Crist being of help at all.
I understand Crist is also a homosexual, and I don't like seeing them elected to public office. Too easy to blackmail, too much chance of Foley-like shenanigans. It's not PC to be against candidates based on their being sodomites, but I have strong reasons not to trust them.
And you know this because?...
I think you are being played by the St. Pete Times. This story is being pushed in order to get you to vote for democrats when the fact of the matter is that Democrats are far more supportive of moving into DUTY to die.
What needs to be done is push for giving the Attorney ad litems more independence to represent the alleged incapacitated. As I stated before, if a spouse of the alleged incapacitated starts cohabitating (IOW moves on in the relationship) the blood parents should have standing to make their case and have them consided equal to the spouse upon a finding of cohabitation. (lives with the other person, has a new family, new kids, new dog, etc.)
I do not think you are correct on the "never sign claim" just remember who the source of this article is.
I know what because? I know a lot more than I wish I did, LTM.
and we know this because?....
Do you have actual EVIDENCE. (ala the miami herald having pictures of foley and his boyfriend they kept fromt he public. These were PUBLIC EVENT pictures) Is there a picture at a homosexual party or parade?
Perhaps there are witnesses at the protestant church with his parents.
Tom Ghalager put it out? along with the Crist has a love child?
In 2010 we are going to have redistricting. Do you seriously believe you will get pro republican conservative districts with a democrat in office? of course not.
You only hurt the cause of doing something constructive with this pathetic inuendos.
Nobody's playing me. I'm watching the truth unfold. More truth is on the way very soon. If you're not on 8mmmauser's Terri ping list, you might want to join.
you will forgive me but your information has be lacking in acuracy in the past.
The goal of reform is good. However, quite frankly, that has nothing to do with crist. You need to get to the legislators who will write the laws.
You also need to write laws which will stand up in court.
....................
By KEVIN O'HANLON, The Associated Press
Sep 18, 2006 6:32 PM (24 days ago)
Current rank: Not ranked
LINCOLN, Neb. - Backers of a petition initiative in response to the 2005 death of Terri Schiavo criticized Secretary of State John Gale on Monday for keeping the issue off the Nov. 7 ballot.
Gale said recently that Nebraskans for Humane Care did not gather enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot.
But the group said because election officials have outdated or inaccurate records, the signature threshold was higher than necessary
"We call upon Secretary Gale to act now, while time yet remains, to fix errors by his people that threaten to disenfranchise the citizens of Nebraska for 2006," group spokeswoman Heidi Verougstraete said at a Capitol news conference. "To err is human and forgivable; to leave these official matters uncorrected would be a blatant assault on Nebraska's constitutional right of citizen initiative by those who are duty-bound to uphold it."
The measure was in response to the death of Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die battle between her husband and parents that divided the country.
It would have prevented caregivers from shutting off nourishment and water to a person in their care unless the person specifically gave pre-authorization in a living will or other document.
The group submitted about 109,000 valid signatures. The proposed constitutional amendment needed about 114,000.
The group, which also claims that many signatures were wrongfully rejected, has also filed a lawsuit to try to get the measure on the ballot.
Gale said it was "highly inappropriate" for the group to try to deal with his office when the matter is pending in court.
"It's not our job to prove their case or even to review their allegations unless it's in a formal setting," Gale said.
The number of registered voters used to verify petition signatures is certified by the state's 93 counties.
Nebraskans have voted on 60 petition initiatives since 1914 - approving 21 - but the rules and laws regarding the process are in an almost constant state of flux.
A group wanting to amend the state Constitution must gather about 114,000 signatures - 10 percent of the state's registered voters - to get the issue on the November ballot.
A group wanting only to create a state law and needs about 80,000 signatures - 7 percent of the state's registered voters.
Each group also must collect signatures from 5 percent of the registered voters in 38 of the 93 counties.
Prior to a 1994 ruling by the state Supreme Court, they only would have needed signatures equal to 10 percent of those who cast votes in the last gubernatorial election.
Petition supports say mistakes are keeping issue off the ballot
8mm
OK, vote for Crist. Sounds like he's the best bet, and if he denies it, who are we to say he's lying.
How did someone as creepy as Crist ever get the votes in the primary?
He asked?
(same as everyone else)
I caught the line "if he is lying to Florida about this how can we trust him."
I have no idea if it is true, but it is out there and on the News now.
I was wondering, is there a law that allows a Judge to deny food and water to anyone in this country? Apparently there is, but I can't find it.
Gabriel Keys is arrested by police officers for trespassing in Pinellas Park, Florida, March 23, 2005. The young protester attempted to take a glass of water into the Woodside Hospice for the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo.
I thought of making a smart alec remark but I thought better of it.
The fact is we need to stop judges from randomizing the laws. One judge says X the other judge says Y.
The law does allow a judge to deny food WHEN THE PERSON EXECUTES A VALID ADVANCED DIRECTIVE. The problem in this case was that there was no standing for parents to contest on equal footing to the legal husband. The judge had the discretion to use extrinsic evidence to create an advance directive.
The Attorney Ad litem laws need to be empowered too. (there should be better training for them)
It was a horrible and tradgic case that should have had different conclusions. That muche we can agree. However we need to not loose sight of the fact we have more we need to do.
We can just "take judicial discretion" away. We have to write the law to prevent judges from declaring the rewrites unconstitutional.
Could you show the us the ADVANCED DIRECTIVE in Terri's case?
We need to keep voting for pro-life, conservatives in the primaries to get rid of as many RINOs as we can.
Too bad Gallagher didn't win, but there will be other primaries, including POTUS.
now you are being a twit.
I am agreeing with you and you insist on being obtuse which only places everyone who sees the need to avoid a repeat of the schiavo mistakes in the same kook box.
The battle is over, terri is dead, so remember the alamo and start drafting laws.
I agree on much of what you are saying and especially the importance for us all to vote and help reset our course. One of the things many of us have seen in this case with Judge Greer is his cheerful flouting of existing laws and the Constitution itself, as if they were only guidelines meant for lesser souls.
He would brush aside the Constitution with the same alacrity as those who would rename the Ten Commandments the Ten Suggestions. Others here are better versed in how he abused the definitions of Guardian Ad Litim, but I am eyewitness to how he violated the Constitutional rights of a friend who was thrown out of a public place in Greer's imperial court for no legal reason whatsoever. Even the cops blushed with shame as they escorted out my friend.
That is what we face constantly in this epic battle of good versus evil.
We who fight for Terri's legacy will continue to be called kooks but do not concern ourselves that much considering who is doing the name calling, namely the far left, the euthanasia/bioethicists, the clintonists, the communists, and the terrorist. As time passes, Terri's legacy splits those definitions into cleaner lines. The factor appears in the races all over this country right now.
I guess what we see is that additional to drafting new laws, we need an implementation of present laws with real teeth and a way to keep mavericks like Greer to their contract or drive them out of power.
Meanwhile I will be doing my part on Tuesday, and hope we all do the same.
8mm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.