Jeb Bush, still pushing the Schiavo case

June 17, 2005

I was more than willing to let the Terri Schiavo controversy fade away. We can look back and realize that Congress was wrong to intervene, Bill Frist was wrong to falsely diagnose a patient he’d never seen, and conservatives in general were wrong to slander Michael Schiavo by falsely accusing him of abusing and trying to kill his wife. It was all a disturbing right-wing exploitation of a tragedy, but fortunately, we’re ready to move on.

Well, most of us are; Jeb Bush isn’t.

Gov. Jeb Bush asked a prosecutor Friday to investigate why Terri Schiavo collapsed 15 years ago, calling into question how long it took her husband to call 911 after he found her.

It’s not enough that the Florida Department of Children and Families examined each of the 89 complaints of abuse levied against Michael Schiavo since 2001 and found none of them credible; now Florida’s governor wants him prosecuted anyway.

Maybe ol’ Jeb is running for something after all. Rational people with sound judgment don’t behave this way; politicians fighting for positioning with the GOP base do.

I think that the Republicans should apologize for what they did. But they won’t.

In my opinion, Frist should have his doctor’s license revoked.

Republicans aren’t really sorry for anything. We all know that.

  • When does Schaivo file the slander suit against all these guys? What’s the holdup? He’s not a public figure.

  • Seems like these bastards just keep asking for more and more rope with which to politically hang themselves. The parents say the coroner’s report changes nothing; Frist lied on TV this morning when he said he never said (on the Senate floor) that Schiavo was not in a PVS; the religious wingnuts say that, since there was no determinable reason for her collapse and loss of oxygen to her brain 15 years ago, the husband must have done it intentionally; and now Jeb is getting in on the act, too.

    I say, we keep feeding them the rope. All of the polls say that Americans were disgusted with the Rethugs’ handling of the Schiavo matter. By refusing to accept this reality-based and thoroughly exonerating coroner’s report, those who created the controvery will continue to get politically hammered by most Americans.

    Who knows, their approval ratings may yet get down to single digits!! 🙂

  • I agree with Anal Lib. Never let the Terri Shiavo case fade away. Hang it around the Republicans’ necks all the way through 2008. It was their defining moment and should be made to haunt them all their days.

  • I co-sponsor all of the above. And I would love to see a TV ad showing Dr. Frist denying what he said on the Senate Floor in the first cut and in the second cut the footage of his actual speech showing him beyond question to be the incompetent lying fool he really is.

    Go get him, all you media hounds out there!

  • more Schiavo! more rope! More Delay and Cunningham! more rope! Please please please GOP keep it up through the mid-term elections!

  • And don’t forget: Part of Frist’s wrong diagnosis is that he’s not a brain doctor. He’s a heart guy (ironically enough for someone without one). Yet he’s using his professional opinion as a heart guy to over-rule brain experts…who actually saw the patient. It would have been bad enough had he diagnosed a patient like this in his field of expertise, but his wasn’t it.

    And I’m not an expert, but I thought that doctors were forbidden from giving medical diagnoses in situations like this. I thought that was unethical.

    And while we don’t necessarily need to harp on this one issue, I definitely think we should include this as one of our go-to examples of Republican Power Run Amok. It showcases both the “We can invent our own rules” attitude of the right-wing leadership, and the “We’ll do anything for a cheap vote” appeasement of the religious. And because it was fairly unpopular with most people, and because our side has been given a clear victory; it’s an easy example for us to use. We shouldn’t make it our rallying cry, but we should certainly make reference to it as necessary.

  • It’s only falsely accusing Michael Schiavo of abusing his wife if he didn’t. The courts found OJ and Robert Blake innocent — shall we say they were falsely accused? How can you come out so confidently with your proclamation of a false accusation? Do I think that he abused his wife? I don’t know, but I think it’s possible from what I’ve read of their home life and his actions and words. Is it smart for Jeb Bush to pursue this further? I don’t think it really is, unless he does indeed turn up some evidence of foul play. Which seems unlikely to find definitively after so much time has passed.

  • My email to Jeb:

    Gee, Jeb, now you are going after Terri’s husband?

    Do you really enjoy digging your own grave? Heh!

    You, like your brother, just can’t stand it when you are wrong. Must be a defective gene in your family history!

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