Bush signs emergency law to preempt state courts ref Terry Schiavo

[Dis]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
From a political angle, this looks like it could be bad news for the GOP. America does not like what Congress is doing:

http://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/978a1Schiavo.pdf

Removal of feeding tube
Support 63
Oppose 28

Federal Intervention

Support 35
Oppose 60

Appropriate for Congress to get involved?

Appropriate 27
Not Appropriate 70

Reason political leaders are trying to keep Shiavo alive

Concern about Shiavo 19
Political Advantage 67

Even 46% of Evangelicals support removing the tube, while 54% of all conservatives do.

yeah but americans always forget these issues when election time comes. That's nearly 2 years away for representatives.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Dissident
yeah but americans always forget these issues when election time comes. That's nearly 2 years away for representatives.

Part of a package. Dems have successfully outmaneuvered the GOP on Social Security and the budget so far, thanks largely to Reid (hey Rove, ousting Daschle may be the best thing you've done for the Dems!). He is keeping them disciplined and focused on the winnable battles. People are currently leaning towards the Dems in 2006, and every thing that keeps momentum going will help.

DeLay probably made a huge mistake by taking up the lead on this. He jumped in to save his political hide, but now it's looking like it might only hasten its tanning. The GOP had better ditch him like they did Lott and Gingrich, and they'd better do it fast.

[Imran Siddiqui]

if Michael Schiavo had spent a little of that malpractice money that he was supposed to spend on treatment for his wife on actually treating his wife

And where do you think it all went?

[Tuberski]

Here is an interesting article:

WASHINGTON – From a bedside in a Florida hospice to the halls of the US Congress, the fast-moving fight to prolong the life of Terri Schiavo is eclipsing war, budgets, and the looming battle over Social Security as a cause célèbre in Washington.
Behind the move by many Republicans on Capitol Hill is a desire to advance a "culture of life" agenda that they think will be important in the 2006 elections and beyond. At the same time, many conservative groups see the fight to save Mrs. Schiavo as an extension of the war over judicial nominations and "activist" judges.

But the decision of congressional leaders to intervene in the case, which played out dramatically over Palm Sunday weekend, reflects a highly charged mix of religion and politics that critics say could have broad and unintended consequences.

"Congress's overreaching flies in the face of our entire system of checks and balances, trashes the partial sovereignty of the states, and flouts the protections our laws afford state adjudication from drive-by attacks by those disaffected with the results," says Laurence Tribe, a Harvard University law professor.

The speed and intensity of the issue surprised many on Capitol Hill. Most members had already left Washington for a two-week recess and long-planned travel overseas when doctors removed the feeding tube from a brain-damaged woman in Florida on Friday.

In an unusual move, the Senate was called back for an extraordinary session on Saturday evening, opening the door for House and Senate votes expected during early Monday morning hours. The bipartisan compromise worked out between House and Senate leaders on Saturday asks a federal court in Florida to consider the parents' claim to restore the feeding tube. President Bush said he would return to the capital to sign the bill.

Mrs. Schiavo has been diagnosed by doctors as "in a persistent vegetative state" for the past 15 years. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says that his wife would not want to have her life extended - a view her parents reject. She left no written directive.

For many conservative activists, the Schiavo case is a proxy for expanding a pro-life agenda on everything from abortion rights to judicial nominations. "It's a real showdown with the courts," says Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who has been in continuous contact with congressional leaders and "our grass-roots across the country" on the case. "This case is important to family members of Terri Schiavo and to our country as a whole - that we not move down this path where people are forced to die," he says.

Last week, as both houses of Congress were rushing to pass resolutions on the president's FY2006 budget, GOP leaders began discussing the case. Physician lawmakers in both the House and Senate disputed the attending physicians' claims that Mrs. Schiavo was in a "persistent vegetative state."

Senate leader Bill Frist, a surgeon, said that "From a medical standpoint, I wanted to know a little bit more about the case itself," so he reviewed the 2001 tapes on which the case was based. "Scores of neurologists have come forward and said that it doesn't look like she is in a persistent vegetative state," he said last week.

GOP leaders in both houses describe this case as having to do with the "culture of life" theme expected to be central in the 2006 congressional races. "Their gamble is that the general public will be divided on the issue and will not vote on the subject come 2006, but that the Republican-base ... group of conservative Christians will remember this vote forever," says Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Meanwhile, while individual Democrats have spoken out strongly against congressional intervention in this case, their leadership, which Republicans describe as "very cooperative," has stayed out of the debate. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has supported "pro-life" positions, including votes against abortion rights. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi spoke with Speaker Dennis Hastert from her travels in Egypt.

Still, some Democrats tried to rally their party to defeat the measure. "The tragic and complicated matter is only made more difficult with congressional intervention," said Rep. Henry Waxman, ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee.

Congress's move to elevate this case to federal courts comes as Republicans and Democrats are ramping up for a battle over the process for confirming judicial nominations. It also follows a bipartisan vote to move many class-action cases out of state courts, dubbed by some Republican lawmakers as "judicial hellholes," into federal courts.

The Schiavo case is already one of most extensively litigated right-to-die cases in history. Mr. Schiavo began court action to remove his wife's feeding tube in May 1998, eight year after she fell ill. Pinellas County Circuit Judge George Greer has ordered the feeding tube removed three times. In 2003, the Florida legislature passed a bill to reinsert it, a move later ruled unconstitutional, setting in motion the current legislative battle.

Should a bill on Schiavo pass the Congress and be signed by the president, as expected, the case still faces judicial review - and a ticking clock. Last week, the Supreme Court rejected without comment a House committee's emergency request to order the feeding tube reinserted while appeals were pending.

"It would appear to be the kind of legislative grandstanding that Chief Justice Rehnquist, if he were up to speed and in good health, would swat away in an instant," says Patrick Gudridge, a law professor at the University of Miami.

Where it was is left out on purpose, what do you think?

I'll tell you where in a little while.

ACK!

[Mrs. Tuberski]

nm

[Imran Siddiqui]

I'm guessing FOX News...

It would appear to be the kind of legislative grandstanding that Chief Justice Rehnquist, if he were up to speed and in good health, would swat away in an instant

Rehnquist

[Drake Tungsten]

And where do you think it all went?

Legal fees. No wonder you like the guy.

[Drake Tungsten]

BTW, Mickey Kaus is the man...

This 2003 item summarizes what I think about the Schiavo case. ... Opposition to the Florida court's ruling seems like a legitimate protest against what appears to be a disingenuous machinery of euthanasia lawyers are busy establishing under the guise of a "right to die" (a right Terry Schiavo can only be said to be exercising by an extremely suspect chain of reasoning). ... Our society is going to have to have this out at some point--why not now? And why isn't it a perfectly reasonable issue for the national legislature to address?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2115112/

[Uncle Sparky]

Since I'm too lazy to read the last 8 pages, could one of the Christians here explain why the Christian right wants to keep her from going to heaven ?

I thought most conservative Christians were against keeping basically dead people alive with machines. What ever happened to "They are in God's hands?"

As a lapsed athiest, this stance seems a tad silly.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

And where do you think it all went?

Legal fees. No wonder you like the guy.

Nice, you buy the family's propaganda hook, line, and sinker. So where is Mike Schiavo getting to money to keep her hooked up? It's already cost her over $1.5 million to keep her hooked up. He's paying, not the family.

At the same token, he won the fees in 1992. He petitioned the court to remove the feeding tube in 1998, 6 years later. Are you really expecting me to believe that her hospital care was so cheap that he still had a majority of the money 6 years after he was awarded malpractrice money?

[Drake Tungsten]

Here you go, Diss. The most balanced round-up of links I've found.

http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/

Hopefully Imran will stop by as well, so he'll actually know what has happened (as much as possible) and not have to speculate on it...

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
Here you go, Diss. The most balanced round-up of links I've found.

http://sisu.typepad.com/sisu/

Hopefully Imran will stop by as well, so he'll actually know what has happened (as much as possible) and not have to speculate on it...

What does "Real men Sleep with Kittens", have to do with anything?



ACK!

[Drake Tungsten]

It has everything to do with this case, my friend. Everything...

Actually, just keep scrolling down. Several good posts full of links representing both sides of the argument.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Here is a balanced timeline and roundup about the situation. I find it easier to follow and a better source of info (it tries to be balanced instead of presenting bias on both sides):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3141058.stm

[Drake Tungsten]

It may be easier to follow, but it's not very detailed.