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 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.\
Blame the victims, eh?
See 260 in re: 8mmmauser's post about Jeb's plans to exploit Terri. (He has NO GROUNDS.) A save in 2003 doesn't constitute what occurred in 2005 which was nothing short of murder.
Mikey's craft is attracting new widower wannabees.
We need Albert Jay Nock today, but I don't think the American people could understand his intellect. Remember Churchill said that the flaw of democracy is exposed in a five-minute conversation with Mr. Average Voter.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52895
He knew they wouldn't understand him and never worried his head about it. He wrote for himself and for anyone who cared to listen. I recall him reflecting that it was like speaking into the void; but every now and then you hear your own words and thoughts come echoing back to you, and know that you've been heard. It's a very pleasing feeling.
>> We need Albert Jay Nock today
Couldn't agree more. Happily, his works are pretty much available by one means or another, for anyone with ears to hear.
I don't think this dude has much future in the crime biz.
What I'm suggesting is that the legislature should have legislated before this happened. It's not as though no one ever thought this might happen. In fact, it's been years since Schiavo died, and the Florida legislature still has not clarified the law. I suspect that other states are in the same boat. It's just a matter of time before we have another case like that one, and the legislature will be pretending that they were caught by surprise, and never imagined that a judge might come to such a distorted view of the law.
But they did. Greer could not of pulled her feeding tube without the help of the 1999 Florida law that decreed that a feeding tube is life support - just like a respirator. Of course, the compassionate Greer took it just a tiny bit further and included any oral nourishment as well. That is why you have seen all types of people being arrested for trying to give her a drink of water.
sounds like he had motive to me. Too bad about the double jeopardy thing.
If Joe Lieberman becomes Homeland Security Chairman, that would be good because we'll just bug him if a judge tries to starve somebody to death. Terri's rescue was being handled by Homeland Security but were told to scuttle her rescue. I don't think Joe L. would have scuttled it.
What's going on? Glenn Beck, a conservative radio guy works for CNN and Dan Rather works for Fox Cable News.
They legislated, but they did not legislate enough. They left too many ambiguities, and even though it's been years since this happened, they have not fixed them.
I welcome you to do a little more reading on this subject. Many of us here can help you out.
News agencies, including Fox, are interchangeable. They are all part of the entertainment industry now. I am quite sure that for 99.7% of the news, a given media outlet could show the "news" from a year ago or five years ago and nobody would ever, ever notice. You could show last year's polls. You could show last year's health news. You could show last year's weather. On the 4th of July, you could show fireworks from 1977 with no one the wiser.
Have you noticed that the news dwindles to practically nothing on Sundays? That's because the industry doesn't bother manufacturing any. Weak time slot.
Indeed, open adultery is already a crime in Florida; while some would argue that it shouldn't be, I would suggest that if nothing else, it is an eggregious violation of contract; while contract issues are usually a civil matter, there are exceptions.
Although one might be able to argue that the law is vague, the only issue I see is whether all of the following are required:
That's the law that should have been named "Terri's Law." It was passed in order to kill her. You are quite right, as the law stood before this change, they had no authority to pull her tube. Felos knew it and is thought to have lobbied for the change. When the feeding tube was redefined to be "life-prolonging" "medical care," then Terri (under the right of privacy) could refuse it. Suicide is illegal, assisted suicide is illegal, but you have the right to decline further medical treatment.
Terri left no advance directive and DID NOT choose to refuse medical treatment. Ah, but the law can overcome petty technicalities of this sort. It declared her incompetent to make the decision and then made the decision for her, while maintaining the legal fiction that she made the decision even though she had nothing to do with it and they themselves made the decision, understand? The law is a wondrous thing.
For the sane observer, this poses another huge problem. The law was changed nine years after Terri's injury. It was not possible for her to give informed consent to the supposedly "medical" decision they used to kill her.
Taking an innocent person's life is unconstitutional under both Florida and federal law. The court made itself complicit in murder.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.