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.\
I hit post 1000. Do I win a prize or anything? Just thought I'd ask. An Ipod would be nice. (just kidding)
Thank you, 8mmmauser for keeping Terri's Legacy moving ahead. Her legacy will outlast many politicians' careers who spin that they are just like average Americans. They are mistaken. They are disgusting.
Schiavo issue haunts Crist
Posted by 8mmMauser
On News/Activism 11/02/2006 8:23:50 AM EST · 1,000 replies ·
8,998+ views (thank u lurkers for dropping by. This topic is so important for the future of this country) FV
I thought Dillinger's problem was that he was "ventilated".
:-)
That, and robbing banks, and going to movies with FBI finks. It all adds up.
I don't remember these poor folks going to the movies, but they certainly got ventilated all right.
And the children at Waco died in a government ambush, for their own good btw.
Hillary Clinton wrote a book about that. IT TAKES A VILLAGE (to gas the little children and burn them to death for their own good). IT TAKES A VILLAGE (to tear Elian Gonzalez away from his family and his home in America and send him to Communist Cuba for his own good).
The government does everything for our own good. Just ask George Greer.
The government monopoly on information is breaking apart before our eyes. The media and other useful idiots, who manufacture "news" to manipulate public opinion, are losing their grip. They have stronger and stronger competition from -- everyone! We are all reporters and cameramen now. Matt Drudge was absolutely visionary in presenting that thesis to the National Press Club some years ago. They treated him rudely instead of listening. But today, Matt gets far more hits daily than the total circulation of the New York Times.
Happy Birthday, Terri. God love you!
You win a pink plastic flamingo for your front lawn, but you have to pay the shipping.
I know you'll like it.
It's fun for the bathtub, too.
Hornsby was initially believed to be dead at the scene, but responding medic units detected signs of life and put her on life support, Robinson said.
She was pronounced dead at about 12:40 p.m. Friday.
Henry man, pregnant woman killed in Clayton triple shooting
8mm
We can surmise that the relationship is a bit strained just now. He just shot her dead, y'know.
Perhaps, with a little patience, they can work through their problems and patch things up.
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