Posted on 04/05/2005 2:06:47 PM PDT by Crackingham
U.S. Senate Republican leader Bill Frist said on Tuesday that courts had acted fairly in the Terri Schiavo "right-to-die" case, differing sharply from a vow of retribution by his House of Representatives counterpart, Tom DeLay.
"I believe we have a fair and independent judiciary today," said Frist, now trying to resolve a battle with Democrats over judicial nominations that threatens to tie his chamber into knots. "I respect that."
Frist and DeLay, as the Senate and House majority leaders, had led a charge for emergency legislation calling on the federal courts to review the Schiavo case. President Bush flew back from a Texas vacation to sign the bill into law. But federal courts refused to intervene and let stand a Florida state court order to remove a feeding tube from the brain-damaged woman. Schiavo's husband had said she would not have wanted to live in her condition, but her parents fought against the tube's removal. Schiavo died last week after spending 15 years in what courts had ruled was a persistent vegetative state.
DeLay, a Texas Republican, said afterward: "We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at the Congress and president when given jurisdiction to hear this case anew."
In a written statement, DeLay said: "The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior."
Frist, asked about the furor over the case, told reporters, "I will let members (of Congress) ... speak for themselves."
But the Tennessee Republican said he believed the courts "acted in a fair and independent way."
The Schiavo case was unique, Frist said. "Our bill said, 'let's let the courts take another look,"' he said.
Senator Frist, leading the Republican Party straight into the minority.
Last week, the Bush boys and the Judiciary had their crack at it, and blew it.
Now Frist and the Senate look to be blowing their chance.
Sister Frist strikes again. He needs to keep puffin on his crack pipe if he thinks he has a snowball's chance of being president.
Reuters is so stupid.
Frist is such a sissy boy. And to think some people think this milquetoast could be president.
Looks like after his term is up, Sen. Frist will have a bright future -- in the practice of medicine.
That's a relief!!! For a while there I thought Senator Frist actually had a chance at getting the Republican presidential nomination!
My reaction was that he was talking about what the judge(s) will have to answer for to God.
Another target for the Crackpots determined to drive sanity from the GOP.
Frist has long since become a member of the Senate "club."
For members of the Senate club, public opinion simply doesn't matter.
He should be dumped at the end of this session (late '05) and replaced with Mitch McConnell.
I think these comments also suggest that the "nuclear option" -- why were we so stupid as to let it get this name??? -- is a dead option. If Frist, who is supposed to make this happen, can't even mildly criticize the judicial branch or the Schiavo courts, how in God's name can we expect that he'll stand up to Harry Reid's threats, let alone get all but five of the GOP senators to?
Don't count your Frists before they chicken?
We'll need to come up with a new joke for his spinelessness... this old one just works a lot better on Orrin Hatch.
Hillary Clinton has bigger testicles than Senate Eunuch Leader Frist. He is a disgraceful coward. I thought Lott was an ineffectual milquetoast but Frist reaches new lows of cravenly resignation daily.
It is interesting that many Republicans thought that Congress did enough, while many others thought they shouldn't have done as much as they did, yet the prevailing sentiment here so far has been that Frist has ruined his career by saying Congress did enough. I'd like to see a reliable poll or survey to show the numbers on this.
Independant,fine,as it should be.
But fair?What in the world is he talking about?
I've been a Frist supporter for some time, but the above is absurd.
For one thing, it misses the point entirely. I don't want them fair or independent...I want them constitutional.
The constitution is a piece of paper. It says some things, and it doesn't say others. It's that simple.
When a Conservative has the balls to speak the truth he is attacked from all sides.
When a RINO says what the MSM/Liberal Left wants to hear his statement is trumpeted far and wide!
Frist has or had a chance to set himself up for a President run. But, if he and the Republicans fail on the issue of the judiciary, he'd be better off thinking about retirement.
Think you may have read the posts wrong. Frist is the one everyone is talking about, Delay did say what you saw, I.E. "We will look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at the Congress and president when given jurisdiction to hear this case anew.".
More sterling leadership from the GOP.
And the diehards can't figure out why so many conservatives are sick of the GOP's "our candidate's the lesser of two evils" strategy toward its base, and why we're thinking third party at this point.
Suck-up.
The Senate considers itself a "gentlemens' club". A common euphemism for high roller topless nightclubs are "gentlemens' clubs."
This Majority "Leader" perfectly illustrates the number-one principle of life in Washington:
"If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck -- duck!"
No they didn't, Bill Frist. Terri needed her entire case to be heard in a court far away from George Greer. Greer was obviously not ruling in favor of Terri and the rehabilitation she was supposed to be getting, and he was letting her husband and his vampire lawyer waste her $750,000.00 rehabilitation and therapy fund. Greer deserved to be overturned years ago.
As a friend of mine from Alabama told me recently, "Frist" is short for "Floppy Wrist".
I feel like a gay guy after his first Fristing.
Frist is the Senate Majority Leader.
Delay is the House Majority Leader.
Hastert is Speaker of the House.
Ted Stevens is the President Pro Tem of the Senate
Vice President Cheney is the President of the Senate.
It just happens that the most powerful position in the House is speaker, while the most powerful position in the senate is Majority Leader.
Fair yes, after all they do consider European precedent in holdings where they have sworn to obey the Supreme Law of the Land, taht being the Constituion and laws enacted by Congress. What could be more fair than that?
Independent? Certainly, they have decided they are a law unto themsleves. Sodomy is enshrined somewhere in the Constituion but the right to life of full term babies is not nor is the right of parents to approve of medical intervention in their young children.
Can't get much more independent than that.
Of course that is what he meant. Since the MSM doesn't understand religion, it doesn't see how anybody could be held responsible in the afterlife, so of course he must have meant in this life.
I am NOT endorsing DeLay's view of what will happen with these judges in the afterlife, just agreeing that he meant they had to be judged by God, not us.
Frist, what loser. Doesn't he realize that he and the whole House and Senate have just been bit** slapped by that federal judge?
What an imposing line-up
DeLay risks losing the House with his crusade against the judiciary.
Frist? In the WPPFF?
"The Whip" and "The Hammer"- there was such a delightful similitude.
Guess I could still criticize Reuters for not capitalizing the term...
Figures...no backbone...
wppff ?
Not all Senators are limp willed, at least one has cajones
http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2005/03/santorum-terri-ruling-defied-congress.html
That's what I was thinking too.
If he's considering a Presidential run in '08, he ought to be a little more discreet in his comments.
You got that right.........these fricking Republicans are a joke....... between this weenie and Bush backing down from Senor Fox.....not sure why I voted for these ballless b@stards.
Figures. This kind of thing is why I left the Republican Party and re-registered as "Decline to State".
I heard that Republicans are leaving in droves - Terri AND the illegal immigration issue.
What are the Republicans thinking? Can they really be this stupid?!
That's utter nonsense. The only threats to Republican control of the House in '06 are 1) a serious recession and 2) the "leadership's" lack of action on immigration issues.
Here all along I thought it was the 'right-to-live' issue on the human side and the 'right to kill' issue on the other. What we need to do is create a court system that knows the difference.
"that Republicans are leaving in droves."
This is a very inflammatory and potential damaging statement. Don't say it unless you can back it up.
Where did you hear this from, and what do you mean by "droves"?
"not sure why" -- aren't there a lot of other issues you care about, or are you one of these single-issue idiots?
Don't you understand how much worse the Rats are?
Confirms my choice to change my registration to "Independent" and refuse to donate to the GOP.
Please. If we don't affirm people's righteous indignation at the judiciary, it won't matter who is in control of the House. It will become irrelevant.
Frist is spineless.
There were many of us on the Terri threads who cut up our RNC cards and shipped them back with nasty notes. And re-registered as independent or for me "decline to state".
This morning on Sacramento talk radio (Armstrong & Getty) they were talking about how "droves" of Republicans were leaving the Party over the illegal immigration issue. You know, the Minutemen are in the news.
I know of ONE person personally who left the Republican Party when Terri died (Jeb Bush being the last man to turn his back on her and walk away). AND THAT'S ME!!! AND I WILL NEVER FORGET!!
Frist "diagnosed" Terri as non PVS and now he says the court acted fairly? Hmm.
re: Frist, Lott, McConnell "an imposing lineup" (LOL) ...
Frist and Lott are sissies, although I believe Frist is worse.
McConnell, though, is another story. Look more closely at him ... he seems more courageous and more effective. The White House was foolish to push Frist instead of McConnell as majority leader when Lott made his faux pas.
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