Posted on 11/02/2006 5:23:50 AM PST by 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 womans 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 womans death. But he maintained on Tuesday that he forcefully expressed his opposition from the start.
I spoke loudly, Crist said in Tallahassee. I think its 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 dont 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 governors office with legal work to keep Schiavo alive, even though he personally had qualms.
I dont remember that, but Ill 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 successors 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 didnt.
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. Crists involvement in the Schiavo case may be the only common ground between the Schindler family, Terri
Schiavos 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 hes going to be a leader, my heart dropped. Hes not a leader, hes 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. Hes a coward.
Terri Schiavos father, Bob Schindler, wrote an essay in August accusing Crist of snubbing the familys 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 Crists 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 doesnt 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.\
Terri's parents' attorneys were at a disadvantage because of money. Terri's attorneys were non-existent.
You are EXACTLY RIGHT!!!
Let me correct my previous comment. Amos did not say the judges "should" be impeached, he said they MUST be impeached by Congress, because they are accessories to murder.
Jay Wolfson may not be thought of as her attorney, but as an amazing Halloween trick in 2003, he did become a Guardian ad Litem for Terri. No, he wasn't your usual Guardian ad Litim but he did sleep in a Holiday Inn, or Motel 6 or Notel Motel, (it gets confusing in Clearwater...)
With that he could be eligible for the illustration in Wikipedia as "Fox guarding the henhouse".
Here is the report:
Here is one of their last minute exhortations:
AUSTIN, Texas Im still worried sick. The Rs have seized the news cycle! Which says more about how dim American politics is than anything I can think of.
Snip...
May I remind you what this election is about? Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, unprecedented presidential powers, unmatched incompetence, unparalleled corruption, unwarranted eavesdropping, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, global warming, Cheneys secret energy task force, record oil company profits, $3 gasoline, FEMA, the Supreme Court, Diebold, Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Terri Schiavo, stem cell research, golden parachutes, shrunken pensions, unavailable and expensive health care, habeas corpus, no weapons of mass destruction, sacrificed soldiers and Iraqi civilians, wasted billions, Taliban resurgence, expiration of the assault weapons ban, North Korea, Iran, intelligent design, swift boat hit squads, and on and on.
Forget Kerrys misstep remember what this election is really about
8mm
Here is one of their last minute exhortations:
AUSTIN, Texas Im still worried sick. The Rs have seized the news cycle! Which says more about how dim American politics is than anything I can think of.
Snip...
May I remind you what this election is about? Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, unprecedented presidential powers, unmatched incompetence, unparalleled corruption, unwarranted eavesdropping, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, global warming, Cheneys secret energy task force, record oil company profits, $3 gasoline, FEMA, the Supreme Court, Diebold, Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Terri Schiavo, stem cell research, golden parachutes, shrunken pensions, unavailable and expensive health care, habeas corpus, no weapons of mass destruction, sacrificed soldiers and Iraqi civilians, wasted billions, Taliban resurgence, expiration of the assault weapons ban, North Korea, Iran, intelligent design, swift boat hit squads, and on and on.
Forget Kerrys misstep remember what this election is really about
8mm
Here is one of their last minute exhortations:
AUSTIN, Texas Im still worried sick. The Rs have seized the news cycle! Which says more about how dim American politics is than anything I can think of.
Snip...
May I remind you what this election is about? Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, unprecedented presidential powers, unmatched incompetence, unparalleled corruption, unwarranted eavesdropping, Katrina, Enron, Halliburton, global warming, Cheneys secret energy task force, record oil company profits, $3 gasoline, FEMA, the Supreme Court, Diebold, Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004, Terri Schiavo, stem cell research, golden parachutes, shrunken pensions, unavailable and expensive health care, habeas corpus, no weapons of mass destruction, sacrificed soldiers and Iraqi civilians, wasted billions, Taliban resurgence, expiration of the assault weapons ban, North Korea, Iran, intelligent design, swift boat hit squads, and on and on.
Forget Kerrys misstep remember what this election is really about
8mm
Hmmm, got tricked by Mozilla and/or my server. Anyway, that is my excuse.
8mm
So, if you win power here, please dont assume it validates anything youve done. If you win, its because of Mark Foley and Theresa Schiavo and Randy Duke Cunningham and Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush and Jack Abramoff and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter and Dick Cheney and Hurricane Katrina and 2,800 dead soldiers and because, as my mom used to say, enough is enough and too much stinks.
Democrats new mission... Any GOP losses might have less to do with opponents
8mm
................
It's no accident that the anti-choice movement doesn't flaunt its real views. It doesn't want the vast majority of sensible Americans religious and secular alike to realize what's at stake in their so-called culture of life. We're all potential targets.
Terri Schiavo and her husband Michael found this out the hard way. Rather than being able to heed the advice of their own excellently qualified doctors, they were subjected to a personal assault by Congress.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist '74 (R-Tenn.) led the charge. "In the video footage ... " Frist decided, "she certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." Of course, an autopsy later confirmed that Schiavo had been completely brain dead.
8mm
On the other hand, I am really going to miss the stories this Congress provided. Remember Terri Schiavo? I mean, you wake up one morning and there it is, kind of like finding Fidel Castro in the refrigerator. And you listen to these people who do hold high elective office having this debate -- as though they know, as though they have any idea, as though they have any right. And then there are some of the troops, like Randy "Duke" Cunningham, semi-owner of the houseboat "The Duke-Stir." Some days you couldn't wait to get up to find out who'd been indicted. I miss watching Katherine Harris from Florida wear less and less blue eye-shadow as she went through her Senate race.
Well, it's been rank -- racist, sleazy, lying and full of insinuating scare tactics. Thank God it's over.
Campaign '06 -- Goodbye and good riddance
8mm
....................
GARY NURENBERG, CNN REPORTER: The lengthy court battle over whether to withhold life support from a comatose Teri Schiavo angered many on each side and helped highlight growing discontent with the judicial process. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor tells CNN that, in recent years, she sensed...
RETIRED SUPREME COURT JUSTICE SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR: Unhappiness with judges, and it was erupting all over the country.
NURENBERG: The president taps into that frustration on the campaign trail.
U.S. PRESIDENT GORGE W. BUSH: If you think activist judges should be allowed to redefine our country and issue new laws from the bench, vote Democrat.
NURENBERG: This year, voters in several western states face ballot initiatives that would limit judges actions.
Quick Guide & Transcript: Special Edition - America Votes 2006
8mm
All I can say in his behalf is that he had a highly restricted legal assignment. He was not a real guardian ad litem at all, but only for served to address a couple of questions. There was one real g.a.l. earlier named Richard Pearse. He sided with the Schindlers on some points, so Greer fired him.
More on these matters here:
I am not desperate at all. I get to vote against Hillary! That is high civic duty, and fun, too :-)
P.S. I heard that Hillary's esteemed occasional husband orated yesterday that the Republicans can't run anything. I'm pretty sure this is the same fellow who got himself impeached by dribbling some of his precious seminal fluid on an intern's dress and then telling the whole country that he didn't. Doesn't seem like a very good job of "running things" to me.
Sandra Day O'Conner. A sad reminder that even Ronald Reagan made big mistakes now and then.
Sometimes leftwing humor goes right by me.
The clarification is from your link.
THE TERRI SCHIAVO CASE continues to take dramatic twists and turns. Even as Michael Schiavo attempts to have Terri's Law declared unconstitutional, pursuant to the law's requirements, a judge has appointed a guardian ad litem--Professor Jay Wolfson, of the College of Public Health at the University of South Florida in Tampa--to represent Terri's interests.
There has been some confusion as to whether Wolfson replaces Terri's quasi-estranged husband Michael Schiavo as guardian of Terri's person. (I use the term "quasi-estranged" because Schiavo effectively shattered the sanctity their marriage years ago by entering a committed relationship with another woman and starting a family with her.) He does not. Wolfson's sole responsibilities are to determine whether Terri should be allowed a swallow test, whether she should be provided rehabilitation, and to write a report with his recommendations about these matters--all within 30 days. In the meantime, Schiavo remains fully in control over Terri' life and care (or the lack thereof)--with the exception that he cannot, for now, remove her tube-supplied food and water.
A little known but interesting facet of this case is that Wolfson is not the first guardian ad litem appointed to represent Terri's interests. When Schiavo first petitioned the court for permission to dehydrate his wife in 1998, he properly admitted that he had two significant conflicts of interest: He was likely to want to remarry and if Terri died, he would inherit the more than $700,000 then on deposit in her trust account. (For those who have not followed this case, Terri received the money in a medical malpractice lawsuit.)
Because of these conflicts of interest, the Probate Court appointed Richard L. Pearse Jr. of Clearwater, Florida, as Terri's guardian ad litem and instructed him to investigate the matter and report back with a recommendation. Pearse filed his report with the court on December 28, 1998 urging that the court deny the petition to remove Terri's food and water.
8mm
Ditto!
"Leftwing humor" is an oxymoron, haw haw.
I didn't say I would vote Democrat, I voted straight republican, but I live in Alabama. If I were in Florida, I would leave Governor blank.
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