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 Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, a Republican candidate for governor, seems to have a lot to say now about the Terri Schiavo case.
Where was he last March when he should have performing the duties of his office?
Answer: Hiding because he didn't want any fallout for the case to descend upon his political future until he could be certain which way the winds and polls were blowing in the Schiavo case.
Last week, during an appearance at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Crist said that Gov. Jeb Bush shouldn't have gotten involved in the Schiavo case. Strange position for the Attorney General to take, saying that Gov. Bush shouldn't have made at least the appearance of performing the duties of his office. Bush was statutorily and constitutionally empowered to take the incapacitated woman into protective custody and although he obviously didn't have any real intent to do so because he stupidly called a news conference to announce it, at least be gave the appearance he was trying to do something. That's more than Crist did.
If Crist should unfortunately be elected Governor, when there's a controversial decision to be made, instead of making it, will Crist run and hide in the closet again?
Crist said that government shouldn't be involved in end-of-life decisions. However, Mr. Crist, government---and in particular the attorney general---should be involved in protecting the rights of vulnerable adults and in investigating Medicaid fraud. If you can't perform the duties of as Attorney General, why would the people of Florida ever want you to be their Governor if you only take action if you feel it's politically correct?
As attorney general, Crist is constitutionally charged with protecting the civil rights and liberties of the state's citizens but he did nothing to protect the rights and liberties of Terri Schiavo. He stood idly by and let her be dehydrated to death.
"There are some decisions that ought to be left to God and family", Crist was quoted as saying last week. "Had I been governor, I would not have done the same thing". Good thing you weren't Governor then, and if the voters are smart, you won't be Governor in the future.
Crist consistently stayed out of the Schiavo case although he should have been front and center in the protection of her civil rights. Less than four months after she died a horrific death, Crist had the audacity to call the judges in the Schiavo case "heroes", breaking his silence, saying that he was proud of Pinellas County Court Judge George Greer and U.S. District Court Judge James Whittemore. While he claimed he wasn't endorsing the court rulings against reconnecting Terri's feeding tube which led to her death, others didn't see it that way.
At least Crist's opponent Tom Gallagher had enough courage to take a position, saying that he favored government action to "prevent Terri's starvation". Gallagher said last week that "these kinds of end-of-life matters do not belong in government. But when these kinds of situations come in front of me, I would always err on the side of life. I think that's what you must do when you don't know anything else".
Better than hiding like Crist did while Congress, Gov. Bush, President Bush and the Vatican became involved in the case, pressing to keep Terri Schindler Schiavo alive after Greer and state and federal courts ordered her death because her heavily conflicted husband in name only, Michael Schiavo, said she wouldn't want to be kept alive by a feeding tube. Terri Schiavo sustained incapacitating brain damage in 1990 in still unexplained circumstances. Michael Schiavo said she was in a persistent vegetative state with no chance for recovery, a position her parents disputed. Terri left no living will and her parents said she never would have chosen to die in the matter prescribed for her by the courts and her husband. She died of dehydration on March 31, 2005, 13 days after her feeding tube had been removed.
Crist maintains that he's pro-life.
But you'd never know it. Crist is flip-flopping again.
Last spring Crist said that Gov. Bush wanted to take the lead in the Schiavo case and that the Attorney General's office supported those efforts.
"I don't need to lead where he's (Gov. Bush) is already leading", Crist had said, trying to excuse why he wasn't doing his job.
In 1998, in his failed attempt to be U.S. senator, Crist said he was pro-choice.
But now that he's announced that he wants to be Governor, Crist changed his tune and says he's pro-life.
Crist seems to flip-flop a lot on critical issues.
"You try to encourage a culture that respects life but understand that some decisions are up to God and family", Crist says.
And that would include the decision of Mary and Robert Schindler Sr. that their daughter wants to live that they should be the ones caring for her. Michael wasn't "family". He was a husband in name only and a guardian by false application.
The life and death decision should have been made by her family and loved ones, not the mercenary estranged husband and his Hollywood-eyed attorney, George Felos aided and abetted in the judicial homicide by non-partisan Republican good ole boy George Greer.
Crist was and is more afraid concerned for his political future than he was of doing his job. A leopard doesn't change his spots. He'd do the same thing if he were elected Governor, sway whichever way the political wind blew rather than what was best for the people of the state of Floroida.
Charlie Crist seems to talk out of both sides of his mouth. Floridians need a person of good moral character and integrity to lead their state as governor. That individual is not Charlie Crist.
He abandoned Terri Schiavo, he hasn't done his job and in fact, he has been caught red-handed in actually impeding justice in the case and lying to the public.
He blatantly told the public in a televised statement that there had been no complaints of abuse made to the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) a week after a DCF file in the matter was acknowledged in the Schiavo case. He lied to the public.
He said there have been no complaints when there is an envelope containing information about alleged abuse in the Schiavo case which was personally handed to him and which was later returned to the complainant without action---but with Charlie Crist's fingerprints. He cannot honestly say that he was not personally made aware of the alleged abuse, neglect and exploitation of Terri Schiavo. And yet he did nothing.
Is this being pro-life? Is this being honest?
Is this the person you would want to be your state's next Governor?
In one of his newsletters to the public as attorney general, Crist said that "one of the greatest features of our system of democracy is the role government can play in protecting private citizens. Florida's government has a number of safeguards built into it, many of them designed to protect consumers for exploitation".
Those safeguards weren't employed to protect Terri.
Crist didn't protect one of the state's most vulnerable adults from exploitation nor did he take any steps to protect her civil rights.
Maybe it's because Charlie Crist simply doesn't know the law and isn't capable of holding the office of attorney general and certainly not the office of governor. After all, it took him three tries to pass the Florida Bar exam and he seems to have a problem with ethics too, coming under scrutiny of the Florida Elections Commission for allegedly using his office of education commissioner to campaign for the position of attorney general.
The investigation of alleged Medicaid fraud is also within the scope of his AG duties, policing what has become Florida's $12 billion per year Medicaid program.
Despite receiving nearly $600,000 in an insurance settlement and some $750,000 earmarked by a jury to provide rehabilitative services to Terri Schiavo, Michael Schiavo asked Judge George Greer to have Medicaid pay Terri's medical bills. And Greer agreed. Thing is, in that Michael refused to divorce her, how could he own any assets such as he claims he co-owned a house with his concubine and claims in his book that they owned a deli business. Did he declare those assets to Medicaid? If he had assets and was capable of paying for her care, why did he apply to Medicaid and why did Greer allow him to do so. How about it Charlie Crist?
Thing is, Terri Schiavo was placed in a hospice by Michael Schiavo and his lawyer, Felos who was chairman of the board of the hospice at the time. In order to be placed in a hospice legally and for Medicaid to foot the bill, there must be a diagnosis of terminal illness by two doctors and the maximum stay is six months. She was in the hospice for five years.
Why didn't Crist investigate this potential Medicaid fraud? Medicaid fraud can take many forms and cost Floridians hundreds of millions of dollars each year, Crist's own website states. So why didn't his office investigate the Schiavo situation? Oh wait, we know----he was waiting to assess which way the wind blew in terms of political fallout and he determined it was politically advantageous to stay out of the Schiavo case.
In addition to investigating fraud committed by health care providers, the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of Crist's AG's office also investigates the abuse, neglect and exploitation of the elderly, ill and disabled residents of long term care facilities such as nursing homes, facilities for the mentally and physically disabled and assisted care living facilities.
The investigation of corruption in the administration of the Medicaid program is another important responsibility of the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the AG's website says.
Protecting the rights of Terri Schiavo, of all the disabled, elderly and all residents of the state isn't just Gov. Bush's job, it's that of Charlie Crist.
And he didn't do it..
If he can't do the job of attorney general, why does he think he should be Governor? 4-23-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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