Schiavo issue haunts Crist

St. Petersburg Times ^ | November 1, 2006 | ADAM C. SMITH

[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.\

[bjs1779]

The last line got me.

[T'wit]

Let me add my prayers for you and your mom. Your friends may be far from Florida, but we are with you in spirit.

[T'wit]

Yes...

I downloaded it for further listening.

[T'wit]

Hmm. Do you suppose anyone will write a sad song for Mikey :-) :-)

I guess I'll have to do one myself. No time at the moment, but how's "Sing for us, Michael" for the song title? Or, "If I did it, I'd hear a thud!"

[bjs1779]

Hmm. Do you suppose anyone will write a sad song for Mikey :-) :-)

Even O.J. didn't plan on killing his wife for 12 years.

[bjs1779]

That would be an interesting project for us to tackle - for improvement - I think. We all could run our ideas through BB and see what she could put together.

[floriduh voter]

Thanks, t'wit.

[floriduh voter]

The Judge may have been Mark Shames. There were several judges before greer. I can't recall who the GAL was at the time.

[supercat]

I may as well re-plug my own musical effort: A Bird in a Barren Cage.

[floriduh voter]

When Judge Greer said "the law of the case is that she will die" that kind of indicated that the scales of justice were tipped in Mikey's favor. If someone did a Terri movie that was actually representative of both Vigils, the excessive police presence would have changed some minds who think the govt was helping Terri. It was just the opposite.

It was totalitarian. Nice people were being yelled at by the cops to get off the sidewalk and the wouldn't talk to people who had questions. It went like this: "GET OFF THE SIDEWALK, NOW!"

[floriduh voter]

Cheryl Ford's web site:

http://www.fight4terri.com/main/

[T'wit]

Wow, that's very good! I can't read music -- which doomed my musical career early, when I was at the piano-lessons age -- but I'm always impressed with anyone who can write music, not to mention words AND music.

The words of your song are poignant and true.

[Sun]

I had this in my personal files:

Michael Schiavo Appointed Terri’s Guardian

On June 18, 1990, after a conducted investigation declaring Terri incapacitated, a hearing was held in a St. Petersburg courtroom appointing Michael Schiavo as Terri’s legal guardian.

The St. Petersburg court files state that Terri’s parents were notified by mail of these events, including the hearing, and had no objections to Michael Schiavo being appointed Terri’s guardian.

Terri’s parents emphatically state that they did not know of the investigation concluding that Terri was incapacitated, or the subsequent court hearing and were never notified.

Additionally, there is no evidence of any documentation in Terri's legal case files verifying that Terri’s parents supported Michael Schiavo's guardianship appointment, other than a reference that Terri's parents were in agreement.

In is important to note, during this 1990 time frame, Terri’s parents were in daily contact with Michael Schiavo, and nothing was ever mentioned regarding these court proceedings by Michael Schiavo or his attorney.
The entire legal Guardianship transaction was handled by attorney Daniel Grieco.

This information has been archived in the court’s microfiche files, but was only recently discovered, in June 2004, by Terri’s family.

http://www.zimp.org/stuff/02-michael_schiavo_appointed_terri.htm

[8mmMauser]

Just got this in email from Cheryl Ford. Hospices are now reaching into the funeral business, too.

..................

Dear friends and patient advocates,

As you know from the previous HPA newsletter emails, the public needs 
your help! You are much more informed than the general public and you 
know what type of problems may arise in SOME hospices.

Hope Hospice in Southwestern Florida has applied to become licensed as a 
funeral home service provider, as well as providing its regular hospice 
services.
See:
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2006/nov/15/hope_hospice_plans_offer_funeral_se
rvices/?print=1
and
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2006/nov/18/editorial_hospice_services/?opinion

This application is deeply troubling, to those who are concerned about 
patient rights, for numerous reasons, as I have already written. The 
conflict of interests and the potential for covering up crimes including 
medical killings is huge. A huge gap in protections for the public 
would open up, allowing for complete destruction of any evidence of 
wrongdoing and preventing any meaningful oversight of the industry.

I have just learned that we should also send a copy of our letter or 
emails about the issue of hospices becoming licensed as funeral homes to 
Mr. Tom Gallagher. A short note in your own words is all that is needed.

Mr. Gallagher has the power (as the State of Florida's Chief Financial 
Officer) to independently grant or deny a hospice's application for 
licensure as a funeral home. He will be reviewing this issue this 
coming Friday, so please send your email to him as soon as possible, and 
ask others you know to do so as well!

He can be contacted at:

By email:
Tom.Gallagher@fldfs.com
or
cfo@fldfs.com

or by U.S. mail:
Tom Gallagher, Chief Financial Officer
State of Florida
Department of Financial Services
200 East Gaines Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0300
(850) 413-3100

Those of you who have already sent a letter or email to Diana Evans, 
Director of the Division of Funeral, Cemetery & Consumer Services at:
Diana.Evans@fldfs.com
should send a copy of what you sent to Mr. Gallagher as well so he has 
time to review your comments.

You can also post your comment online (so the public can learn about the 
issues) at Bonita News in Florida:
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2006/nov/18/editorial_hospice_services/?opinion


Thanks so much for your help!

If people contemplate and really see the sanctity of life, their 
"quality of life" arguments fall away and they will understand that we 
are here to care for each other, not to kill each other. Caring, and not 
convenience, is the sign of a civilized and just society!


Ron Panzer
for Hospice Patients Alliance
http://www.hospicepatients.org

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Jack Cashill in WND writes on the peculiar timing of the release of some Clinton news...

# The Bush Justice Department took no political advantage of Berger's fix. Just the opposite. Justice announced the punishment in the year's greatest media vacuum – the afternoon on which Terri Schiavo died and the day before the pope did.

# On that same afternoon, acting on a four-week old tip from Scarpa, the FBI uncovered an explosives cache underneath Terry Nichols' former home in Herington, Kan.

Protecting Clinton's legacy

8mm

[8mmMauser]

Ping to #926

[8mmMauser]

This is series, not tongue in cheek, comes from the Puffington Host. Please do not laugh at the title. It will hurt his feelings.

Recent history indicates, however, that much of the so-called liberal stereotype could fit neatly into a description of contemporary conservatism. The only difference being the conservatives' view of tax cuts as the sole mechanism by which problems are solved. And while conservatives do not throw other people's money at "deadbeats," they certainly throw it at people who are already economically stimulated.

Moreover, conservatives do it in the most fiscally irresponsible manner possible by borrowing so that our children and grandchildren will have to pay the debt. As for their belief in federalism, one need only review Bush v. Gore and the Terri Schiavo matter to understand that too is at best selective.

One would think that possessing such luminaries as John Kennedy,Hubert Humphrey, Paul Wellstone, Reinhold Niebuhr, Martin Luther King, Jr., along with Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, the term liberal would garner a bit more pride than it does.

What This Government Needs is a Few Good Liberals

8mm

[T'wit]

>> one need only review ... the Terri Schiavo matter

I wonder if they ever will? Until they do, we are left with the impression that all progressives are enthusiastic wife killers.

It occurs to one that future Johnny Cochranes will not have to scratch hard to find the kind of jury that let wife-killer O.J. Simpson get away with it. The jury pool for letting murderers walk is much bigger than we expected. You could practically use a list of registered Democrats. Or a list of reporters. Or Puffington Host pundits.

[syriacus]

If a doctor in a small town suddenly went into the funeral business, the citizens would be in an uproar.

The folks would be wondering if the doctor was in the funeral business to cover up mistakes and to have access to human organs.

[8mmMauser]

It occurs to one that future Johnny Cochranes will not have to scratch hard to find the kind of jury that let wife-killer O.J. Simpson get away with it. The jury pool for letting murderers walk is much bigger than we expected. You could practically use a list of registered Democrats. Or a list of reporters. Or Puffington Host pundits.

Problem is they are always searching for glove in the wrong places.