Posted on 03/24/2005 11:02:42 AM PST by Destro
Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005
GOP leaders unlikely to pursue new avenues to keep Schiavo alive
BY JEFF ZELENY
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - President Bush and congressional leaders said Wednesday they had exhausted their options and could find no new political avenues to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo.
"Now, we'll watch the courts make its decisions," Bush said at a news conference in Texas. "But we looked at all options from the executive branch perspective."
The president's brevity on the subject - devoting only a few moments to an issue that had overshadowed other domestic issues for days - suggested Republicans had decided to not aggressively pursue other alternatives or try to change public opinion in the case of the severely brain-damaged woman.
A CBS News poll released Wednesday showed that 82 percent of Americans believe neither Congress nor the president should have intervened. And among people who describe themselves as evangelicals, more than two-thirds of respondents said Bush and lawmakers should stay out of the case.
As criticism mounted from some strict conservatives over the decision of fellow Republicans to inject Congress into a state's rights issue, Bush defended the legislation, saying the government "ought to err on the side of life, which we have."
Still, the White House said explicitly the administration had no intention of taking the Schiavo case any further.
"There really are not other legal options available to us," said spokesman Scott McClellan.
The House Government Reform Committee canceled a hearing, which had been hastily arranged as a means to stop Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed. While Republicans planned to file another appeal when the Schiavo case reached the Supreme Court, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said lawmakers would not become deeply involved.
For days, Republicans have dismissed suggestions that their intervention in the case was rooted in politics, particularly to mollify anti-abortion and other social conservative groups. "The legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said last weekend.
But an audiotape obtained by CNN on Wednesday, featuring a speech by DeLay to the Family Research Council, offered another view. He said the case could be used to rally conservatives.
"One thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo," DeLay said, "to elevate the visibility of what is going on in America."
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(Chicago Tribune correspondent John Biemer contributed to this report.)
Many of the same people who were outraged by
Janet Reno sending in the troops to grab Elian,
are now advocating that Jeb do much the same.
There are a lot of people around here who are obsessed with that Nazi thing.
"Your post was the stuff of a drunken fool."
I was aiming for satire, but I'll take that. ;)
Exaclty....they want to "pick & choose,"
when it comes to law.
Precisely.
Enjoy your time in the Wilderness and the death of your pro-life aspirations.
You know, you pro-life wackos need to accept the fact that Democracy is hard, ugly, slow as hell, and in the Shiavo case, sometimes cruel.
The pro-life agenda is slowly making gains, I would advise you to keep your eye on the prize and keep working for steady, slow change.
Go have a stiff drink and come back in the morning.
It's gotten way out of control.
So how is Terri today?
Getting Klayman on the team has never proven to be good luck in the past.
Oh, yes. On to victory!
I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now, or into the future.
Last night, Dershowitz said he wished ppl would just stop it! There's nothing to compare.
(First time I agreed w/anything he's said.)
Perhaps Larry Klayman can do a class action suit, and sue his mother in addition to Michael Schiavo. It seems he shines best when he is suing mom.
Then hold the Bush's and their legislatures which passed these laws that compels the judge to rule as he did. Don't hold me in contempt for advocating prservation of procedure and the law.
You are so right!
The "family feud" is the only unique aspect to this entire case.
All the other stuff takes root from their feud.
Ok, Ok, thought people could tell.
Add to my first post:
"< /sarcasm>"
Yes, and that's why we have courts. The Florida legislature and governor had the right to try changing the law. They did all they could. Anything more would be foolish in the extreme, in my opinion. As for the Congress and my beloved GWB, they should have stayed out of it.
What you takin' about? Just 'cause Klayman has never, ever won a case, (Did I say never)doesn't mean he isn't a brilliant lawyer in his own mind.
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