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."
So you think he's not just a wimp - you're also calling him a liar? Sorry. I don't agree. I think he knows more about what is within his power to do than Freepers do.
Besides - it's a lie to say that he "isn't doing a damn thing", and you know it. Why would you lie?
I am SICK of the bashing of this compassionate, brave man!
Thank You, Lord for Governor Bush and President Bush, who both stand STRONG for a culture of life!
FoxNews Alert: The hearing in front of Whittemore just ended.
Decision to come down, who knows when.
To think I voted this past election, for what? So W. could sign a bill to pass the buck back to the useless court system in Floriduh? And now J. makes some big statement about custody in Terri's case. Gimmie a break. LEGAL Schmegal. This is about doing something that is right, beyond anything LEGAL. Hey, when the libs were in office, Reno did whatever she wanted in the name of Klintoon in Waco and then in the Elian Gonzales case. I don't recall anything in the way of a governor or a president looking back over his shoulder to see if such action was legal. Voting third party next round. The two party system is a ONE party system.
Get off your high horse, woman. Jeb Bush has had nothing but opportunities to rescue this woman. Likewise his do-nothing brother. Both took an oath to support and defend the constitution, and the constitution is about as clear as can be when it states, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Both Jeb and his brother take oaths to enforce the law, and there is none higher than the Constitution.
BTW, I would call them wimps to their faces in a heartbeat. I voted for the jerk older brother -- twice -- but I am not a brain-dead dunce that supports everything he does. He was wrong on CFR, he is terribly wrong on immigration, and he has proved to be a total wimp when the time came to protect those that cannot protect themselves, like Terri. Kiss off, dunce.
You three are IDIOTS.
You sit there safely at your computers and say Jeb has no courage, while he has put himself on the line, and worked non-stop to save this dear woman's life.
Shut up, you cowards. JUST SHUT UP!
I think you should direct your anger towards those who deserve it: Terri's murderous husband, the murdereous Judge Greer and all the other judges, including Whittemore, who had an opportunity to save Terri, and instead, they approved of her murder, all of them becoming accessories to murder.
He's covereing his own butt for not doing anything 2 years ago when he was told by the Thomas E.Moore Law Firm that he had the authority (and still has). All these elected government officials are guilty, from the Judge, to the Attorney General, to Jeb Bush for the cover-up. If he does something now, they all will be implicated... it's as simple as that.
ping
>>>>The ideology that we're fighting against is the ideology which says that legality only exists within the framework of "democracy". It's an ideology that unfortunately has been around for a surprisingly long time in this country, but needs to be euthanazed, fast.<<<<<
It is due to the change in worldview. No longer does the ruling elite (Judges, Leftists and Professors) see God as an absolute. When Theism dies so does any moral absolute. Modernism died due to Shaeffer showing that Absolutes do exist, but something more sinister arose from it. Post-Modernism, we can't know truth.
Now the ruling elite says we can't know morality so the only way to have it exist is through the law. The law is moral, and nothing else outside the law is.
I just hope Jeb actually gets his second ball to drop and goes in and takes her.
Yet another troll
Hopefully they haven't adjourned until Monday.
Kiss off, dunce.
Predictable abusive language. I guess I hit a nerve.
Well, tough guy, better grab another cold one while Jeb Bush works.
>> You sit there safely at your computers and say Jeb has no courage, while he has put himself on the line, and worked non-stop to save this dear woman's life.
Worked non-stop? You are full of it. From the beginning he could have taken Terri into protective custody, but he, like his wimpy brother, always defer to the unelected courts. They are WIMPS! Get a clue.
God bless both of you. You may be the only sane voices on this thread.
No, he is not doing enough. Unfortunantely, he finds himself at a crossroad, and he needs to do "The Right Thing". It appears that he has instead chosen the road well traveled. Possibly another sad chapter in this horrid episode.
God bless both of you. You may be the only sane voices on this thread.
I'll second that one. I can't believe some people on here would actually blame the Bushes for this.
We don't need Jeb Bush anymore. This state is being ruled by a probate judge from the swamp.
Don't let them get to you, oWf. They don't have half the stones the Bush brothers have, and they know it.
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