Posted on 07/31/2005 3:38:47 AM PDT by amdgmary
TALLAHASSEE - It was one of the shortest speeches of Charlie Crist's career, but as a campaign for governor unfolds, it may prove to be one of the most memorable.
Two weeks ago, the Republican attorney general and candidate for governor gave a late-night speech to a roomful of lawyers in Miami where he referred to the judges in the Terri Schiavo case as "heroes."
Crist insists he wasn't endorsing court rulings that prevented the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube from being reconnected, but critics view it differently. And by appearing to break his silence in the Schiavo case, Crist has sharpened the contrast between himself and Republican rival Tom Gallagher, who has said he favored government action to "prevent Terri's starvation."
At the dinner in Miami, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge George Greer and U.S. District Judge James Whittemore of Tampa were honored as jurists of the year by the Florida chapter of ABOTA, the American Board of Trial Advocates. The group champions judicial independence and its members are lawyers who represent both plaintiffs and defendants.
Greer is the judge who ordered Schiavo's feeding tube removed, rejecting a subpoena from Congress and pleas from Gov. Jeb Bush, and Whittemore also denied emergency requests to reinsert the tube in the weeks before Schiavo died March 31. Both men's decisions were later upheld by higher courts, and both were praised and vilified by opposing sides of the emotionally charged end-of-life case.
Crist said he was "proud" of both judges.
"You are heroes to all of us, and your defense of the judiciary and what is right is beyond admirable," Crist was quoted in the Daily Business Review, a Miami newspaper that provided the only news account of the July 15 event at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables.
In an interview, Crist did not dispute the quotations. Nor did he offer a view of whether he agreed with their decisions. Rather, he said, he praised them for fulfilling their constitutional duty to provide checks and balances against the other two branches of government.
"I try to say nice things about judges. I'm sure I was complimentary," said Crist, who as the state's chief legal officer often speaks at bar-related events. "I didn't talk about any specific case. ... It's important that those checks and balances exist. Our system of government needs to have that."
Crist's comments have resonated far beyond the Biltmore.
"Judge Greer is a poster child for everything that's wrong with the judiciary," said Gary Cass, executive director of the Center for Reclaiming America, a grass roots Christian political group in Fort Lauderdale that lists "sanctity of life" as one of its priorities and plans to form a political action committee.
"For Charlie Crist to hold that up as an example of good judicial practice concerns me," Cass said. "I think it was a mistake for Charlie to say that. I don't know how anybody can be happy about a woman being deprived food and water."
Rep. Dennis Baxley, the Republican from Ocala who sponsored legislation last spring to force the tube to be reconnected, said Crist's speech was revealing.
"I think it is one of those very important moments for us to know where he (Crist) stands," Baxley said. "I truly believe there's a lot of people out there who were sensitive to this case who are going to find those comments, and that association, very instructive. I'm understanding where people line up on this."
Baxley said that while Crist was "conspicuously absent" from the Schiavo debate in the Legislature, Gallagher sent Baxley a personal letter of support last spring. While activists in the Schiavo debate take aim at Crist, his Republican rival Gallagher is not.
"Tom's made his position very clear in the past. There's really no comment we're going to make on that," said David Johnson, a Gallagher adviser.
Polls show a majority of Americans agreed with the judges' decisions to order the removal of Schiavo's tube, as her husband, Michael, said she wanted. By a greater margin, polls show people were opposed to Congress' intervention in the case.
But to those who view the long-running Schiavo saga as a test case of support for the sanctity of life - like abortion - Greer and Whittemore are "judicial activists" who starved a woman to death.
Many of those people can vote in the Republican primary for governor in September 2006. Crist's stand on the Schiavo case could prove to be an asset if he wins the GOP nomination and faces a Democrat. But one Republican strategist said the damage has been done.
"Schiavo killed the Republicans. They've lost the women's vote," said Matt Towery, an ex-Republican legislator who now runs an Atlanta media and polling firm. "It's one of those turning points that you just can't get away from."
When that happens, I will bring the popcorn.
Perenich is going to use HINO just like Atty Feeble and Deathknell did. He's just a pawn and Perenich doesn't care if Hospice counter-claims because billable hours are "sweet". Perenich won't care how long this drags out - money in the bank for the law firm.
If HINO were smart, he would get away from all these lawyers. He won with Greer and Feeble but he won't win with Perenich because they will milk him and it's a frivolous lawsuit. Hospice will get back what they paid in police protection. HINO should listen to freepers instead of just lurking here.
Terri was murdered and it was a high crime and misdemeanor.
bttt
Ping to 411. More on suing Hospice.
What a great email. Lv it to you to come up with a list.
THE DORKTOWN SCHIAVO'S BALL
I'll be out to get you with a lawsuit, baby!
Please be ready 'bout a quarter past eight,
Now Baby don't be late, you'd better be there when the clerk starts filing.
They're gonna pay me for my lost consortium,
Megabucks for shmucks like me!
I'm going to chop off both of my feet
Because those billable hours are sweet!
Tomorrow noon at my new Malpractice Trial.
What's FR for if not to have some fun? And what's more fun that tweaking wrongdoers and swindlers?
Thank you very much.
Yes, I got the phone numbers. What do you expect from the RNC these days? They don't care about anything.
I'll bet he hears it in his sleep. No job is that important to lie about such a thing.
I wonder how many times he's been startled awake by that sound, only to realize he was making that very sound himself. What a horrible thing to live with.
Thankfully, I can't get my speakers to work. This is the last thing I need to hear right now.
No, you don't need to hear it. You already know it was wrong to kill her. Before anyone comes out in support of her murder, they should forced to view her videos and listen to the audio tapes.
I really cannot understand how people can do things like this, and live with themselves. I do need to find a way to hook my speakers up. My bf's pc was old as dirt, so I got mine fixed, but it's a hodgepodge of different components. I think I should hear this.
I'm so sorry to hear about your grandpa. May God take him quickly and painlessly. You have my sympathy and prayers. He is blessed to have devoted family with him in his last days.
((hugs))
Just waiting for the locusts - they show up by the end of August and buzz in the trees.
God will not be mocked. Locusts and grasshopper infestations just suck : (
"A Christian radio station wanted to interview soft spoken Christians from the Vigil"
I remember Charlie Belcher giving the news from in front of the hospice. He looked like he was about to cry.
Later on the news station had a different reporter there.
A source with knowledge of the petition, who did not want to be identified, speculated that Michael might be planning to sue the hospice where Terri was being kept at that time for alleged violation of a "Do Not Resuscitate" order he had placed on her medical chart. Michael had asked the court to intervene and block the hospital from treating Terri's infection, but a judge refused the request.
My aunt mentioned something about DNR's and what they started to mean to the younger nurses. She caught a couple of them neglecting fluid intake and antibiotics of patients with a DNR. I'm going to have to spell out my will to live very specifically.
I'll bet I know what the infection was, too. MRSA. It's an antibiotic resistant infection. I used to know the proper wording for it. Anyway, my mom caught it along with several others. No one notified us that we needed masks, and all of us went to visit. My daughter was pregnant, I kissed my mom on the mouth, and the two youngest were there. The nurse came in, and laughed saying we were supposed to be wearing masks. A couple of months later, my son came down with pneumonia bout #1. He had a total of 3 in a year. Talk about suing someone...
Is anyone looking into that angle? If anyone lied to obtain a malpractice award, you'd think the insurance companies and the lawyers who represented the doctors, would be gathering evidence.
This is how criminals get caught eventually. They keep getting away with it, and start to get sloppy. Hubris, I think applies.
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