If he fails to act and Terri Schiavo dies of starvation, here is how I will forever see Jeb Bush:
It's too bad, too. I thought Jeb was made of sterner stuff.
Posted on 03/24/2005 6:51:21 PM PST by FairOpinion
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - It's not often Gov. Jeb Bush is frustrated pursuing his goals. He was the first governor to start a statewide school voucher program. He got rid of civil service protections for tens of thousands of state workers. He pushed through billions of dollars in tax cuts. His goal of prolonging the life of Terri Schiavo is proving much harder.
"It is frustrating for people to think that I have power that I don't, and not be able to act," Bush told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I don't have embedded special powers. I wish I did in this particular case."
Bush canceled travel plans Thursday to monitor the case of Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman who has gone without food and water since a judge ordered her feeding tube removed March 18.
He was in constant contact with his legal office, ordered staffers to e-mail and call him with developments and demanded state laws be scoured for a way to reconnect Schiavo's feeding tube.
At his office, Bush waved an affidavit from neurologist William Cheshire that questions whether Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state. The emotion in his voice rose as he detailed how the affidavit stated Schiavo made a crying sound, grimaced and pressed her eyebrows together when a doctor said he was going to turn her over.
She "signals her anticipation of pain. Just like you would, or just like I would. Now is it perfect? Is she responding with the same eloquence that you would respond to? ... No. She's severely, profoundly disabled," Bush said.
The governor's court record is mixed. He succeeded in removing affirmative action guarantees from state hiring and university admission practices, but a law requiring doctors to notify parents if they perform an abortion on minor girls was thrown out.
Still, he's been persistent. After a court threw out a law requiring tougher sentences for three-time felons, the governor went back to the Legislature and fixed the problem. Currently, he and lawmakers are working on a plan to require parents be notified before their minor daughters get abortions.
In the Schiavo case, he's running out of legal avenues — but not hope.
"You know what I hope for first and foremost? That Mr. Schiavo would say, 'I'm going to let Terri be with her parents. I'm going to move on with my life. I've made my point,'" Bush said, referring to Schiavo's husband, Michael, who insists she would not want to be kept alive artificially. "That obviously doesn't appear to be happening."
"So secondly I pray for an openness by the people who are responsible for making these decisions so we can act and allow for her to stabilize."
He says the courts appear to have turned a deaf ear to his arguments.
"For this lockdown to occur without having the ability to have an open mind, and say, 'Well, maybe there are new facts on the table, maybe there are new technologies, maybe, just maybe, we should be cautious about this' ... is very troubling," Bush said.
In 2003, when the Legislature passed a law allowing Bush to order the feeding tube reinserted after it had been removed, critics accused him of political grandstanding as his brother, President Bush (news - web sites), sought re-election.
Justin Sayfie, Bush's former communications director, said they were wrong: "He's term-limited out. His brother is term-limited out."
"Most strategists or political operatives would say 'Don't touch this,'" said GOP political strategist Geoffrey Becker, noting polls show most people don't believe government should be involved in the case. "I firmly believe that this is his personal conviction, that he believes this is the right thing to do."
If the Bushes defy court orders, they could be impeached and have their powers stripped from them!
And NO ONE has done a thing to HOLD SWAMP JUDGE GREER ACCOUNTABLE!
If you want to get someone to investigate Michael Schiavo because you suspect him of a crime, then you should probably put pressure on the D.A.'s office. It has not (so far) been determined that a crime has been committed.
This is an irrelevant statement. The posters you are so incensed with are not the elected officials charged with the duty and authority to act on these matters. The Bush brothers (and Congress) are. What both Bush brothers have is the moral, ethical, and most of all, the legal obligation to uphold their oaths of office, to enforce the laws of their state and nation, and to protect the rights and the lives of their citizens, whether the threat is from common criminals or from a rogue, out-of-control branch of government. They ran for the offices, they said "elect me" because I'll make the hard decisions that leadership requires. Now that the time has come for those hard decisions, they dither and falter. They are not alone in shirking their duty, however. Congress has issued a subpoena, which the judge has defied. Congress has the lawful, Constitutional power to compel compliance. That they haven't done so makes them equally culpable.
You are allowing yourselves to be distracted by considerations of personal loyalty. I like George Bush - I voted for him, twice. I also like Jeb Bush and would vote for him if I lived in Florida. That doesn't change the fact that right now they are failing to do their duty in the ultimate test to their oaths. As much as I like and admire both of them, or the members of Congress who "started" to take a stand for Truth, neither their political careers nor their very lives are more important than salvaging the Republic. If it becomes necessary for them to sacrifice themselves politically to do the Right and Necessary thing to get the job done, well, that's no greater sacrifice than they ask of our troops who are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We are dangerously near the successful culmination of a long-planned, gradually implemented slow-motion "coup d'etat" by the judicial branch of our government. It's time to put aside partisan passions and take a cold, hard look at who our real enemies are.
Jeb Bush has more authority the chief executive officer of the state of Fla. that a 2-bit county Judge. Greer is not even a State Judge.
If President Bush, whom I love dearly as our President can trump the UN, to go into Iraq, he certainly can do more than talk and shuffle papers here.
Yes, that's right, let's just let all our chief executives in the countries just ignore the court rulings they don't like because after all the judicial branch isn't an equal branch of govt. and chief executives are dictators. By the way, what does Bush trumping the UN have to do with this? That's a poor example anyway. The UN has no role or authority in our govt and thus can't restrain the president at all. However, our courts do, regardless of rather or no we agree with their decisions.
Have a right to your opinion...just kindly take it elsewhere. Speaking unkindly about our President is not tolerated here.
(You are funny to think that the President's actions regarding Iraq didn't take courage. I have a son who was in Iraq at the beginning of the war, and for 13 months after that. His Commander in Chief has courage. The brave men, like my son, who are fighting for our freedom have courage. YOU, Mssr frenchman, just type about it from your computer).
Agreed. And JEB went back to the CORRUPT Judge GREER who ordered Terri's execution, to ask if he could take her into protective custody. What a JOKE!
Judge Greer is an ELECTED judge, genius...he was RE-elected in his district last year with 65% of the vote, against a pro-Terri opponent. Oh, he's also a REPUBLICAN.
And you are an ignoramus, which everyone now knows.
You're not really that naive are you?
Judge Greer is an ELECTED judge, genius...he was RE-elected in his district last year with 65% of the vote, against a pro-Terri opponent. Oh, he's also a REPUBLICAN.
And you are an ignoramus, which everyone now knows.
Some on here don't know what checks and balances are or the rule of law. They want our chief executives to be dictators.
No problem. Well, I'm starting to feel contaminated by this thread again (trolls do that to me......all that hanging around under bridges), so I'm off again.....
The "restrictions he is operating under" is, he doesn't have the balls to make a decision contrary to the wishes of unelected judges. That is a fact.
I wouldn't be surprised if he lays down a royal flush and red dogs the table again.
I hope you are a prophet.
But death has no dominion over us. Dead or alive the spotlight is on these cock-a-roaches, and we are going to win.
Amen. Liberalism will certainly die a convincing death, for all to see. But that is not so comforting when I consider the torture Terri Schiavo and her parents are facing. I pray God will punish those who had the power to help her, but did not.
I'm done talking to you because you just don't get it.
Have you been following the legalities of this case at all?
I used the UN as an example of just what kind of power President Bush has if he wants to use it. He stood strong against the face of adversity when the whole world was against him, he stood up to the UN and went into Iraq without their permission, and you are trying to make me believe he has no power her. I don't believe that.
I have read here that under Florida law, a feeding tube is considered artificial life-sustaining equipment. (Peach, can you please confirm?)
I think this is just as crazy as you do - believe me. But I don't think it's illegal under Florida law...and that's the real problem.
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