Adding insult to injury: Jeb Bushkeeps playing politics in Schiavo case

Cartoon by Ann Telnius via cagle.com

I said after the autopsy report that we should let Terri Schaivo rest in peace. But Jeb Bush has changed the rules. Here are two reactions:

Leonard Pitts: Jeb Bush's shameful vendetta

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

WASHINGTON - Malcolm X used to speak of the need to get freedom "by any means necessary." Apparently, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush feels the same about the need to get Michael Schiavo.

Mr. Bush directed the state's attorney to open an investigation into whether Mr. Schiavo delayed in calling paramedics when he found his wife, Terri, passed out in their bathroom before sunrise on Feb. 25, 1990. The pretext for this is that over the years, Mr. Schiavo has given conflicting estimates of the time he found his wife. He's said 4:30 a.m., he's said 5 a.m.

So let's see. It's the sleepy hours before dawn. You find your wife passed out. And you check the clock?

No. You panic, you try to revive her, you call 911. That Mr. Schiavo did so in a timely manner has never been at issue before and, in any event, seems established to a medical certainty.

When paramedics arrived at the Schiavo home at 5:52 that morning, they found Mrs. Schiavo in a state of ventricular fibrillation - an irregular heartbeat. You can't live in a state of "v-fib" longer than 15 or 20 minutes.

Nor can it be coincidental that Mr. Bush acted the day after an autopsy report knocked down many of the theories most cherished by those who questioned Mr. Schiavo's stewardship of his wife's medical care.

Had she been abused? No.

Did she react when she "saw" her parents? No. She was blind.

Was there hope of recovery? Dr. Jon Thogmartin, the medical examiner who led the autopsy team, was unequivocal. "No amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons," he said.

But Mr. Bush would have us believe Mr. Schiavo, for some Machiavellian motive yet to be revealed, stood over his stricken wife for an hour before calling help.

What is it with Mr. Bush? Doesn't he have a government to run? Ribbons to cut, backs to slap? Does he need a hobby? Maybe a night job?

You'd think presiding over a state of 17 million citizens would be more than enough to keep a fellow out of the pool halls. But apparently, Mr. Bush has time on his hands.

I can understand the pain of Terri Schiavo's parents and siblings, their inability to believe their daughter irretrievably gone, even their hostility toward the husband who made a decision they would not - likely, could not - make. But Mr. Bush's behavior has been simply inexcusable.

Not that he hasn't had accomplices. He's had plenty. From the Florida Legislature to Congress to the White House, arrogant and opportunistic lawmakers missed not a trick in the effort to substitute their judgment for that of Mrs. Schiavo's doctors and husband. Never mind that they undermined the U.S. Constitution, the judiciary and the whole concept of spousal rights in the process.

Pity Michael Schiavo. He's had his motives and character questioned at every step along the way, had to put up with calumnies flung by religious zealots and wild-eyed conspiracy theorists unable to believe that all he wanted to do was keep a promise to his wife.

But in some ways, the transparent emptiness, the self-evident pettiness, the very personal nature of this latest assault, especially coming when it does and from such a lofty office, makes it the lowest blow of all. It's a punch in the groin after the bell has rung.

Is Florida really such a paradise that the governor has time to indulge a vendetta against a single citizen? Did they clean up the Everglades without telling me? Fix the schools without issuing a memo?

Mr. Bush, if he has a shred of decency, should be ashamed of himself. He should apologize to Mr. Schiavo. And he should leave the poor man alone.

Pitts is a Miami Herald columnist. This column was published in Sunday's Baltimore Sun.

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An editorial from the Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon:

Never mind what he says. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush apparently believes, contrary to every shred of physical evidence, that Michael Schiavo is guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Terri.

Not wanting to fall into the trap of long-distance diagnosis based only on watching a video of Governor Bush's news conference, we won't suggest that he's taken leave of his senses. But he has clearly succumbed to the Dark Side of the Political Force, and the result is hideous to behold.
Moments after the Pinellas County medical examiner finished delivering an exhaustive autopsy report last week definitively concluding that Terri Schiavo suffered severe brain damage with no evidence of other injuries, Bush called for a new investigation of her death. The governor understands full well that his every utterance in the Schiavo case gives him priceless national exposure. He now wants a prosecutor to look into the 15-year-old circumstances surrounding Schiavo's initial collapse.

Inspector Bush wants to know why Terri's husband, Michael, seems fuzzy about when he called 911 upon discovering his unconscious wife on the floor outside their bedroom Feb. 25, 1990. Michael Schiavo insists he summoned paramedics immediately, at about 4:30 or 5 a.m. Records indicate the 911 call was placed at about 5:40 a.m.

This discrepancy might be worth revisiting if Bush had a scintilla of new information to suggest that previous analyses of the timeline were inadequate. But he doesn't have diddly.

Michael Schiavo has never claimed to be certain of the exact time he called 911. He wasn't wearing a watch. He was understandably frazzled and under enormous stress.

More important, if Michael Schiavo really had waited between 40 and 70 minutes before seeking help, medical experts have consistently testified that there is little chance Terri would have survived. Last week's autopsy results only strengthen that assessment.

Finally, and Governor Bush knows this better than most, these circumstances have been examined repeatedly during extensive litigation, including a medical malpractice suit. No evidence has ever surfaced suggesting that Michael Schiavo delayed seeking medical help for his wife.

In fact, the actual evidence in this case has exonerated Michael Schiavo of the vicious accusations leveled by Terri's parents and Bush's supporters. Those baseless allegations include charges that Michael strangled, beat or otherwise abused Terri. If anyone is guilty of abuse in this case, it's Governor Bush, whose relentless persecution of Michael Schiavo has been nothing short of indecent.

The only potential crime under Florida law for which the statute of limitations hasn't already expired in the Schiavo case is intentional homicide - first-degree murder. But Bush disingenuously says he isn't accusing Michael Schiavo of any wrongdoing, just seeking answers to lingering questions.

Yeah, right. Here's another lingering question: Will this shameful political grandstanding hurt Jeb Bush's aspirations to higher office? If life were fair, it should.

Via MyDD.com