Schiavo politics

The Rudy Giuliani camaign tries to explain the candidate's shifting position on Terri Schiavo: ""Last night Mayor Giuliani said that ideally these types of difficult issues are best left up to families and when there are disputes, it is a matter for the courts to decide. As he said in Florida in April, there are sometimes extraordinary circumstances where the intentions of the person in question are not clear. The Schiavo case was one of those very special circumstances."

And Mitt Romney tries to avoid offending Jeb Bush: "In the case here, the courts decided what they thought was the right thing to do. And then I think Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature did the right thing by saying, 'We've got a concern.' They looked over the shoulder of the court. But I think the decision of Congress to get involved was a mistake, " the former Massachusetts governor said. More here.

Comments

Romney is an advocate of state rights… so, at least in this case, his comments are consistent with his overall philosophy.

It looks like Rudy's extended honeymoon period with the press is finally coming to an end.

pandering to the narrow evangelical base will not result in electoral victory in 2008.

[Joe from Philly]

Romney is the Bush family heir-designate..of course Romney wouldn't stand up for THE PEOPLE of the USA and their privacy...he sees himself as a Bush retainer. Jeb gives Mitt money;. Mitt gives Jeb homage.
More Bush? Vote Mitt.

Another Flip from Mitt...several weeks back he said no government intervention was appropriate...have we come to expect anything less from Flip Romney????

Rudy is not really being inconsistent. The fault lies with the way the questions are put. He seems to believe it is essentially a family matter unless the family is in dispute. The dispute may be because the person in question was not very clear about her wishes. Then the Courts would be asked to step in. That is exactly what hapenned here.

I do wish he had been more foreceful on his pro-choice position. It came out anyway and now he looks like he is ashamed of it or afraid to hold his position.

Rudy needs to stand up for himself. Most Republicans are pro-choice and could care less about who's gay. That's why he keeps ahead of all the others in the polls.

ATTENTION IDIOT POLITICIANS WHO PANDER TO MORALISTIC IDIOTS:

please stay out of my bedroom!
please stay out of my reproductive choices!
pleases stay out of my sex life!
please stay out of my end of life decisions!
please stay out of my sprititual life!

is there anything you jackasses -- both left and right -- dont understand!!??!!

there are far, far more important issues in this state, in this nation, in this world!!

thank you very much!!

[Paul D. Harvill]

What is wrong about offending Jeb and George W. Bush regarding the Terri Schiavo case?

THEY are the ones who offended most of America and others in similar situations.

5:09 PM -- YOUR comments are offensive-- Gov. Bush's actions were noble -- he was trying to save a life. If you had spent 5 minutes with her family -- her mother and father, and heard their pleas, you would have realized how important this was to them. They just wanted to take care of their daughter for the rest of her life. I'd do the same for my child.

as tragic as the situation was, jebba was purely exploiting it for his own gain and the gain of his fellow piggies...u know, the "small gobment" conservatives...who have never met an intrusive idea they didnt instantly fall in love with

please note, too...terri's folks had NO LEGAL standing and questionable MORAL standing to intervene!

This group is a pack of idiots pandering to the right wing.Either do away with the 1st amandment and let Jesus be president or cut the pandering.Hillary Obama and Edwards look mighty good compared to these duds!

[Paul D. Harvill]

Dear anonymous (no courage) poster:

Your wrote:

5:09 PM -- YOUR comments are offensive-- Gov. Bush's actions were noble -- he was trying to save a life. If you had spent 5 minutes with her family -- her mother and father, and heard their pleas, you would have realized how important this was to them. They just wanted to take care of their daughter for the rest of her life. I'd do the same for my child.

Posted by: | May 05, 2007 at 06:30 PM
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My reply:

As about 24 judges over multiple appeals over many years with many medical experts testifying, one of the basic conclusions was that Terri Schiavo was DEAD long before her body parts died.

The autopsy should have shamed you into respecting the rights of the family members and the courts as the method to resolve such issues if the family members cannot resolve the issues amongst themselves.

The parents can and did plea abundantly over all those years. I can understand their heartbreak as my spouse died in February 1996 at age 40 of colon cancer.

However every court basically said that the parents cannot prevail judicially, with the courts writing one legal decision after another that explained the various courts' rationales under law.

And that included the courts after the Florida Legislature and the United States Congress "intervened".

The Pinellas County Sheriff Office staff were at the nursing home to enforce the court order.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement or other agencies were there to enforce Jeb's order.

There could have been a lot of law enforcement officers and spectators killed that day.

Jeb finally - at least temporarily - backed off rather than have a shoot-out at the nursing home.

6:30, unless you're Jeb, I don't see how you could know the Governor's intentions. And there's a lot more lives that need saving based on his standard in the Schiavo case. The Governor as a politician who hadn't intervened in any other end of life issues in his entire tenure likely saw a political opportunity to be exploited, showing some nuts out there that he is really, really, really pro-life. But he didn't just want to intervene in the case, he also wanted to show his base that he was willing to punish a husband who had made this difficult decision by launching a criminal investigation based on absolutely nothing. If you're proud of that, say so. But calling it a noble action when it was a crying shame is wrong. I wish us all good health, but I don't think any of us wants to give the Governor or the Congress the authority to make end of life decisions for our families when they disagree with our own.

Paul D. Harvill - shouldn't you be doing the work of the people? Last time I checked, on the new orgizational chart for your agency, you all report to the Governor who reports to the PEOPLE. So, Mr. DCF employee, why don't you get to work and quit wasting my taxpayer dollars!

[Paul D. Harvill]

Posted by: Paul D. Harvill | May 06, 2007 at 05:00 PM
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Paul D. Harvill - shouldn't you be doing the work of the people? Last time I checked, on the new orgizational chart for your agency, you all report to the Governor who reports to the PEOPLE. So, Mr. DCF employee, why don't you get to work and quit wasting my taxpayer dollars!

Posted by: | May 07, 2007 at 01:54 PM
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May 6th was Sunday.

Guess what dimwit? I don't work on Sundays and as a state employee, I do have leave time.