Repubs talking to morons amongst us. Morons wailing, praying, being doctors-in-abstentia-sans-degree claiming that she is perfectly aware of everything and is in fine health if it just weren't for nasty liberals who keep preventing her from fully recovering. Hey, one of these morons (at least one) was the Republican Numnutz Rep from Arizona.
This case went TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE US OF A. If there was such a pressing issue:
1. Why wasn't the family successful in getting her care into their hands? If they could prove that her husband was out to get her, why couldn't they convince a court of that?
2. Why are Republicans out threatening the judge who nixed their last argument. Why are they out judge-shopping for a ruling they like?
3. If the arguments (medical, legal) are in THEIR FAVOR why are Republican idiots having to take such extraordinarily ridiculous measures at the 11th hour?
In Special Session, Senate Passes Schiavo Bill
DeLay Reports House Set to Reconvene at 9 p.m.
By Charles Babington and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 20, 2005; 7:50 PM
The Senate voted today to give federal courts jurisdiction over the case of a brain-damaged Florida woman, an extraordinary legislative move designed to permit a U.S. judge to order the reinsertion of a feeding tube that a state court allowed to be removed Friday.
House members planned to pass the measure a few minutes after midnight, and then rush it to President Bush for his signature, thus writing another chapter in an emotionally charged saga that has divided the patient's family and many Americans over right-to-die questions. House leaders were scrambling to summon 218 colleagues to the chamber -- the minimum for a quorum -- in order to pass the bill in the earliest moments of Monday. Congress had begun a long-planned two-week recess, and many lawmakers were traveling.
The legislation requires a federal judge to launch a new inquiry into the case of Terri Schiavo, 41, who suffered severe loss of oxygen to her brain when her heart temporarily stopped 15 years ago. Doctors appointed by Florida courts have said Schiavo has since lived in a persistent vegetative state, although other physicians have questioned that diagnosis.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a renowned heart surgeon, said Congress cannot force a U.S. judge to order that Schiavo's feeding tube be reinserted while the new federal case goes forward. However, speaking in a near-empty Senate chamber in a rare Palm Sunday session, he said: "I would expect that a federal judge would grant a stay [of the state court's order removing the tube] under these circumstances, because Terri would need to live in order for the court to consider the case."
Frist called the measure "a unique bill" that "should not serve as a precedent for future legislation." Some Democrats objected to an earlier, broader version that might have applied to many cases of incapacitated patients.
Schiavo's husband and legal guardian, Michael Schiavo, has said she has no hope of recovery and that, based on their conversations before her heart attack, she would not want to continue living as she is now. Florida courts have repeatedly sided with him, and the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear appeals of those rulings.
Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings have fought to keep her alive, drawing many right-to-life activists and other political groups to their side. In his Senate speech today, Frist denounced an unsigned memo circulated to Republican lawmakers over the weekend calling the Schiavo case "a great political issue."
Frist said he had not seen the memo and said, "I condemn the content of the memo and reaffirm that the interest in this case by myself, and the many members of the Senate on both sides of the aisle, is to assure that Mrs. Schiavo has another chance at life."
GOP lawmakers have said Terri Schiavo's failure to draft a living will makes it impossible to know her wishes, and therefore it is essential that the government help her stay alive. Frist, joined by only two other senators in the chamber, said the bill will allow Schiavo's parents to file a federal claim on her behalf "for alleged violations of constitutional rights or federal laws relating to the withholding of food, water or medical treatment necessary to sustain life."
Senate aides acknowledged that the legislation will put a federal court in direct conflict with Florida courts, a move subject to possible legal challenges whose duration and outcome is hard to predict. Members of Congress have urged the Florida legislature to resolve its impasse on the issue and try to override the state court's rulings.
Schiavo's feeding tube twice before has been temporarily removed under various legal maneuvers. Doctors say she probably would die from dehydration in about two weeks if the tube is not reinserted.
Michael and Terri Schiavo won a $700,000 malpractice lawsuit after her heart attack 15 years ago, but his lawyers say most of the money has been spent on healthcare and legal costs. Medicaid pays for Schiavo's medication, and Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park provides her care for free, the lawyers say.
Congress steered largely free of the Schiavo case until last week, when appeals to Florida courts were exhausted and the state's GOP-controlled legislature appeared unlikely to step in. While numerous lawmakers, especially Democrats, expressed unease over interfering with a state court's rulings and a husband's claim to know his brain-damaged wife's desires, they have remained relatively quiet. Conservative colleagues and right-to-life groups, meantime, have been fighting vociferously on Capitol Hill and TV talk shows to keep Schiavo alive.
A single senator could have postponed today's action, but none did so, even though some criticized Congress's actions. "I think it's unwise for Congress to intervene in a very deeply personal matter such as this," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"Congressional leaders have no business substituting their judgment for that of multiple state courts that have extensively considered the issues in this intensely personal family matter," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in a statement. "The actions of the majority in attempting to pass constitutionally-dubious legislation are highly irregular and an improper use of legislative authority."
Congressional GOP leaders were unapologetic, however, for intervening in a way likely to raise constitutional separation-of-powers questions and at odds with traditional Republican calls for a limited role by federal courts. "Every hour is terribly important to Terry Schiavo," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) said on the House floor today.
Terri Schiavo's brother, Bobby Schindler, visited the Capitol today accompanied by an official of the National Right to Life Committee. He told reporters he was there "to help save my sister's life."
In the House Press Gallery, Schindler encountered Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who was one of the most vocal Democratic objectors and had said the bill set "a very dangerous precedent that will come back to haunt us." As Schindler described his sister and produced a disk that he said shows she is functional, Moran nodded sympathetically, accepting the disk, but said he had not changed his mind.
Reflecting on the estrangement of the Schiavo and Schindler families, Schindler said: "It amazes me that Michael Schiavo is trying to portray himself as a loving, caring husband, when he's abandoned my sister. She's been warehoused now over 12 years, and he has been cohabitating with another woman for 10 years and has two children with this woman. That is his family."
Michael Schiavo has acknowledged the relationship and children, but he and his lawyer have sharply rejected other criticism, saying outside groups and elected officials have seized the issue for political purposes, not out of affection for his wife.
Outside Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., where Schiavo's feeding tube was removed Friday, dozens of demonstrators -- some singing hymns, others quietly praying -- maintained the vigil they have kept for days.
House opposition to today's legislation was led by Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), who said he thought the action will set a precedent that eventually will haunt Congress. He said he thought the law was "totally unconstitutional" and that federal courts will strike it down. "Congress is violating the separation of powers that have kept a distinct role for the judicial and legislative branches for over two centuries," he said in an interview.
House GOP leaders had hoped to vote by early afternoon, but they were operating under rules that allowed even one objection to prevent approval of the bill before Monday. Yielding to Democrats' demands, the House scheduled three hours of debate before midnight. Meanwhile, officials described chaotic efforts to get members back to Washington on a weekend of heavy travel, involving standby flights, trains and missed youth baseball games.
As Republicans huddled with DeLay in the afternoon, some Democrats struck a defiant note. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) told reporters the legislative maneuvers were "the manifestation of a constitutional crisis. . . . We have people in power today in both houses and in the White House who simply reject what has always been the fundamental precept of American government -- namely that it's a limited government."
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) told reporters that he is "going to look at my living will that I haven't looked at for about 10 years and be sure it still says exactly what I wanted it to say." |
