Posted on 03/24/2005 11:02:42 AM PST by Destro
Posted on Wed, Mar. 23, 2005
GOP leaders unlikely to pursue new avenues to keep Schiavo alive
BY JEFF ZELENY
Chicago Tribune
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - President Bush and congressional leaders said Wednesday they had exhausted their options and could find no new political avenues to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo.
"Now, we'll watch the courts make its decisions," Bush said at a news conference in Texas. "But we looked at all options from the executive branch perspective."
The president's brevity on the subject - devoting only a few moments to an issue that had overshadowed other domestic issues for days - suggested Republicans had decided to not aggressively pursue other alternatives or try to change public opinion in the case of the severely brain-damaged woman.
A CBS News poll released Wednesday showed that 82 percent of Americans believe neither Congress nor the president should have intervened. And among people who describe themselves as evangelicals, more than two-thirds of respondents said Bush and lawmakers should stay out of the case.
As criticism mounted from some strict conservatives over the decision of fellow Republicans to inject Congress into a state's rights issue, Bush defended the legislation, saying the government "ought to err on the side of life, which we have."
Still, the White House said explicitly the administration had no intention of taking the Schiavo case any further.
"There really are not other legal options available to us," said spokesman Scott McClellan.
The House Government Reform Committee canceled a hearing, which had been hastily arranged as a means to stop Schiavo's feeding tube from being removed. While Republicans planned to file another appeal when the Schiavo case reached the Supreme Court, Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said lawmakers would not become deeply involved.
For days, Republicans have dismissed suggestions that their intervention in the case was rooted in politics, particularly to mollify anti-abortion and other social conservative groups. "The legal and political issues may be complicated, but the moral ones are not," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said last weekend.
But an audiotape obtained by CNN on Wednesday, featuring a speech by DeLay to the Family Research Council, offered another view. He said the case could be used to rally conservatives.
"One thing God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo," DeLay said, "to elevate the visibility of what is going on in America."
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(Chicago Tribune correspondent John Biemer contributed to this report.)
PS: I won't mention the sheer hypocrisy of Bush who signed a law in Texas that makes a mockery of all his posturing on this case. Sorry to sund so harsh.
No Mark.
The Nazi stuff does NOT apply,
no matter how you try to twist it.
Speaking of clowns.
Meantime, public opinion of Congress is hovering at or near Jimmy Carter lows.
He's worse than that. He's a swindler. Like P.T. Barnum, he knows there's a sucker born every minute, and his goal in life is to snatch as many bucks from as many suckers as possible.
HYPERBOLE.
Did you misread my post?
Check out my links page as well.
No matter who would be appointed guardian, the tube would stay out."
Per Terri's wishes.
Once again the executive and legislative branches bow to the ultimate authority of the judicial branch. What spineless twerps.
The prior poster said that all anyone hears is "clowns" like Delay - you responded by mentioning the involvement of Messrs. Terry, Klayman, and Keyes.
If you knew me, you'd realize I normally make every effort to reply to people respectfully, and to engage in reasoned discussion. However, there are exceptions.
You, sir or madam, are an idiot.
(I was right.)
You know, that makes me sick. To think that a mentally disabled woman being starved to death is a "fools' errand"... What kind of human being are you? The pro-life agenda will not end, just as the anti-homosexual agenda will not end. Our earthly life begins at conception, and ends at death. If it is cut short any time before this by another human being, it is murder. I see this issue as a junction point for our nation. We must choose to go down one of two roads: one leads to our success, one leads to our demise. I believe that if this woman dies, our demise will be imminent. I'm not sure where you stand in regards to an Almighty, but I can tell you with a fact that He exists, and when we are KILLING the innocent, be it a baby whose brains are being drilled out by a doctor at birth, or a court ordered starvation of a mentally disabled woman. The last society to define "Quality of Life" and the taking of that life based upon that quality was Germany circa 1930s to the 1940s. The empowered dictator ordered the extermination of millions of Jews, mentally disabled patients, and homosexuals. To not believe life needs to be preserved is disgusting and totally uncalled for...
And by virtue of what Authority? By my count that leaves them in a 2 against 1 situation.
I doubt he's willing to do that for one citizen or anyone else.
Sadly, Terri is not disabled - she is in a PVS - not the same thing.
ROTFLOL!
Well stated.
Bravo!
Have you seen the TV feed from down there? All that's missing is the cotton candy vendor and the guy that guesses your weight.
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