Schiavo issue haunts Crist

St. Petersburg Times ^ | November 1, 2006 | ADAM C. SMITH

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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 woman’s 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 woman’s death. But he maintained on Tuesday that he forcefully expressed his opposition from the start.

“I spoke loudly,” Crist said in Tallahassee. “I think it’s 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 don’t 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 governor’s office with legal work to keep Schiavo alive, even though he personally had qualms.

“I don’t remember that, but I’ll 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 successor’s 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 didn’t.

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. Crist’s involvement in the Schiavo case may be the only common ground between the Schindler family, Terri

Schiavo’s 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 he’s going to be a leader, my heart dropped. He’s not a leader, he’s 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. He’s a coward.’’

Terri Schiavo’s father, Bob Schindler, wrote an essay in August accusing Crist of snubbing the family’s 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 Crist’s 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 doesn’t 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.\

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>> Supreme Court Debates Best Method To Execute A Baby

Next they will debate whether to roast the babies or to stew them with onions and a hint of sage. If the Supremes are still cool about using foreign laws and cultures to interpret the U.S. Constitution, here's a fine source for their study:

”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”

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I once would quote Jonathan Swift for the shock value as the most outrageous thought one could possibly imagine, but these days it is hardly outrageous at all, even quite thinkable.

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???? Lesson learned?

Sen. Mel Martinez's reported selection as the next general chairman of the Republican National Committee catapults Florida to the front lines in the battle for the White House and Congress in 2008.

Snip...

But as he moved to the national stage, Martinez seemed to move more to the right. In the senate primary, his campaign labeled former U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum, now Florida's attorney general-elect, the "new darling of the homosexual extremists." In the general election, he portrayed Democratic nominee Betty Castor as being soft on terrorism.

As a senator, Martinez pushed for federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case -- a move, polls showed, that was very unpopular with the public. He later was linked to a memo that touted the political benefits for Republicans if they interceded on behalf of the brain-damaged woman.

Sen. Martinez reportedly gets job of restoring GOP fortunes

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More on Martinez from Steven Ertelt of Life News...

In the Senate, Martinez has been a strong pro-life advocate, earning a 100 percent pro-life voting record from the National Right to Life Committee.

Martinez has repeatedly voted against abortion and abortion funding, forcing taxpayers to pay for embryonic stem cell research and he supported allowing Terri Schiavo's parents to take their lawsuit to prevent her euthanasia death to federal courts for a review.

"Mel Martinez is a dedicated pro-life advocate with a heart for unborn children," Rai Rojas, NRLC's director of Hispanic outreach who has known Martinez for years, told LifeNews.com. "He will help keep the Republican Party pro-life."

The move has strong implications for the 2008 presidential elections as Martinez can help the party reach out to Hispanic voters, who are overwhelmingly pro-life but voted in larger percentages for Democrats last week.

Pro-Life Hispanic Senator Will Head National Republican Party

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Yeah, right...

In a speech last year arising out of the Terri Schiavo case in Florida, former Rep. Tom DeLay revealed how many politicians misunderstand the role of judiciary. “I believe the judicial branch of our government has overstepped its authority on countless occasions, overturning and, in some cases, ignoring the legitimate will of the people,” said Delay.

The integrity of our justice system isn’t just another pawn in a partisan game of chess

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Golly, some are not happy with Martinez...

Washington, DC - Just days after the American people went to the polls and demanded a new direction for America, the Bush Republicans in Washington continue to stay the course with their failed, discredited agenda. While the voters sent a clear and decisive message last Tuesday by electing strong Democratic leaders who pledged the put the interests of the American people first, media reports indicate that Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez, a chief proponent of the GOP's failed agenda, has been selected to replace Ken Mehlman as the new Republican National Committee chairman.

Martinez Means More Of The Same From Bush Republicans

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>> these days it is hardly outrageous at all

It would still scandalize the death cult. They insist on harvesting the baby's organs when it is slaughtered. THEN they roast it.

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Elian Gonzalez, what say you?

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From Abraham Lincoln to Mel Martinez. That should answer any questions which direction the Republican Party is heading.

As for the Democrats, they have descended from Andrew Jackson to Charlie Rangel, John Murtha, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, Barney Frank, Ted Kennedy, and so on and on and on and on.

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In other news, Nancy eyes Murtha for Majority Leader...

Murtha has disappointed pro-life advocates with votes on euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research.

In March 2005, Murtha voted against allowing Terri Schiavo's parents to take their lawsuit seeking to stop her euthanasia death to federal courts for a review. He also voted for the bill to force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research, which involves the destruction of human life, and voted to overturn President Bush's veto of that measure.

Nancy Pelosi Backs Anti-Abortion Democrat for Number Two Spot

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>> Just days after the American people went to the polls and demanded a new direction for America, the Bush Republicans ...

Just days after Americans demanded a new direction, the media went to the Democratic National Committee to get a quotation blasting the Republican National Committee, and called it a news story.

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Bioethickists coven coming up...(If only we could wrestle with such moral issues, to kill or not to kill, what a quandary?)

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics will begin this week a three-part discussion series designed to better connect members of the general public with some of the nation's leading scholars of medical and public health ethics, all of whom are working on issues that affect society at large. As a public service to the local community, the institute will host its first-ever Grounds for Discussion series at the Evergreen coffee house in Baltimore.

"For concerned citizens, moral dialogue can be empowering," said Ruth Faden, executive director of the Berman Bioethics Institute. "Everyone remembers the dilemma of the Terry Schiavo case. It was an agonizing debate for the nation, but it could have been resolved much sooner if educated public discourse had taken place. Interacting with the public about such difficult moral issues is important to help inform future debates."

Bioethics Institute Hosts Free Public Discussion

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>> Nancy Pelosi Backs Anti-Abortion Democrat for Number Two Spot

For crying out loud, Murtha wants to be speaker himself. She is spiking his campaign by supporting him for a lesser job.

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It is a spoof, but...The Terri Schiavo Intervention:

"The visitor – President Bush – clicked the 'revert' button repeatedly, almost hysterically," Jarvis 229 said, "particularly in reference to the war in Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Plamegate, the NSA spy scandal, the Terry Schiavo intervention, the non-response to the Al Qaeda threat pre-9/11, the slow response to Hurricane Katrina, and the neutering of White House First Dog Barney. I think he thought he could actually roll back history."

President Bush Nabbed In Effort to Alter Own Wikipedia Entry

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Boy, if we have any more "anti-abortion" candidates like Murtha, they'll be sending our daughters to internment camps to manufacture embryos.

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>> The first lecture... will be given by Margaret R. Moon

Proof.

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Amazing how Terri plays in galvanizing the sides into real contrasts...

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>> ... to kill or not to kill, what a quandary?

The lady clearly is not in a quandary herself. Her committee is ready to 'splain to us hicks why we should killed Terri much faster. [The Schiavo] debate... could have been resolved much sooner ...

Ted Bundy didn't even bother with forming a committee.

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Committees are for hiding.

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Ping to NYer thread on the Church of England and the killing of kids. Thanks, tutstar...

The Church of England believes doctors should be given the right to withhold treatment from some seriously disabled newborn babies in exceptional circumstances, The Observer reported.

The view comes in a submission from the church to a British medical ethics committee looking at the implications of keeping severely premature babies alive through technological advances, the weekly newspaper said.

The Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, was said to have written that "it may in some circumstances be right to choose to withhold or withdraw treatment, knowing it will possibly, probably, or even certainly result in death".

Church of England says right to life for newborns not absolute: report

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