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Some call it doublespeak.
Others call it speaking with a forked tongue.
Charlie Crist is doing both.
  Florida Attorney General Crist (left) and the state's chief financial officer, Tom Gallagher (right), engaged in a debate this past week and have another scheduled for Monday, Aug. 28.
Charlie's swaying like the palm trees again, commenting on issues whichever way he thinks the wind is blowing the strongest, in whatever direction he thinks will get him the most votes.
If he thinks the issue is too volatile, he straddles it.
Crist couldn't quite answer the tough questions for the debate, like just what is his stance on abortion. Although his actions say one thing, his words say another. Crist is trying to claim that he's pro life, incredulously telling the audience that "I also feel it is more important to promote a culture of life. What I mean by that is that I believe what we need to do is not change the law but change hearts".
Not change the law? Isn't that what Judge George Greer did in issuing his Feb. 25, 2005 order to kill Terri Schiavo?
Culture of life? So why did Charlie Crist fail to do his job as attorney general in the Terri Schiavo case?
Why did Charlie Crist run and hide instead of protecting one of the state's most vulnerable and disabled? He just keeps dodging the question.
Prior to the debate, there was an opportunity for people to submit questions for the panel and moderator to ask the candidates.
Although there were several direct questions asked about the candidates' positions on protecting the elderly and vulnerable, the issue was sidestepped.
This one was directed at Crist.
"During the Schiavo matter, the immediate family of Terri Schiavo ---and a number of disability advocates---- contacted you to ask that you ensure there were no instances of abuse or neglect under Florida Statute 744.3215 which defines the retained rights and protections of incapacitated persons. You rebuffed these efforts. How is it that you justify not taking every step imaginable to ensure that Florida's elderly, disabled and ill citizens are not afforded every protection, under our statutes, against neglect or exploitation?
"What would you have done differently had the subject or victim in question been a member of your own family?
"This question does NOT relate to the removal of Terri Schiavo's food and hydration. It relates to charges of neglect by the guardian with regards to denial of dental care, female care and confinement issues".
Answer the question, Crist. Quit dodging the bullet. The public has a right to know how Crist is going to address these types of issues should somehow the voters unwisely decide to elect him Governor or is he going to cower, evade issues as Governor that he doesn't want to address like he has as attorney general?
Another viewer submitted a question to Crist, which of course was unasked and unanswered, that how he can  "honestly" promise on TV or in any campaign ad that IF he is elected governor that he would "protect" the healthcare and well being of Floridian's AND keep the criminals behind bars when he wouldn't even do an "investigation" into the alleged wrongdoing of Michael Schiavo in the Schiavo case, of the neglect, abuse and exploitation of a vulnerable person that Charlie Crist took an oath to protect. Instead, he turned his back on Terri Schiavo. Will he do so to all the disabled and elderly if he's elected Governor?
 He's going to promote a culture of life? Now? He was as much the cause of Terri Schiavo's death as Judge George Greer and Michael Schiavo. Charlie Crist helped protect Michael Schiavo, it's a wonder Schiavo didn't endorse him for Governor.
Crist says he's pro-family and a crime fighter.
Believe that one and he'll tell you another one. After all, he's a consummate politician, he says what he thinks the voters want to hear so he can get their vote.
Charlie Crist says he's pro-life.
Crist stood idly by and watched a disabled woman die by one of the most inhumane methods of death possible. He would have immediately arrested and prosecuted a person who caused an animal to die such a horrific death.
But he allowed it to happen to Terri Schiavo.
Where was Florida's chief law enforcement officer then, the person in state government constitutionally and statutorily charged to protect those rights? He failed Terri Schiavo and it's likely he'll continue to fail the elderly and the disabled in the state.
THAT's not being pro-life; THAT's not promoting a culture of life. THAT's a primary reason to NOT vote for Charlie Crist.
Charlie Crist is a waffler. Floridians can't afford to have a waffler in their Capitol.
In 1998, in his failed attempt to be U.S. senator, Crist said he was pro-choice.
But now that he wants to be Governor, Crist has changed his tune and says he's pro-life.
Of course he also says he's a compassionate conservative.
Where was his compassion in the Schiavo case? Cowards don't belong in public office, certainly not as Governor.
"You try to encourage a culture that respects life but understand that some decisions are up to God and family", Crist says.
Not even Charlie Crist has the right to play God.
 The decisions for Terri should have been made by her family and loved ones, not the mercenary estranged adulterous husband and his Hollywood-eyed attorney, George Felos, aided and abetted in the judicial homicide by non-partisan Republican good ole boy George W. Greer whose own church threw him out.
Charlie Crist seems to talk out of both sides of his mouth. Floridians need a person of good character and integrity to lead their state as governor. That individual is not Charlie Crist.
He abandoned Terri Schiavo, he didn't do his job and in fact, he was 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.
Do voters want a proven liar in Tallahassee to be the state's chief executive officer?
And he compounded the lies. He said there were no complaints about the abuse and neglect of Terri Schiavo 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 stood by and did nothing while an innocent disabled woman was killed by dehydration, contrary to law.
Greer's original death order of Feb. 11, 2000 stated that the "Petitioner/Guardian is hereby authorized to proceed with the discontinuance of said artificial life support for Theresa Marie Schiavo" which in essence orders the withdrawal of her feeding tube.
But, when Greer wrote his order of Feb. 25, 2005, it stated that "absent a stay from the appellate courts, the guardian, Michael Schiavo, shall cause the removal of nutrition and hydration, from the ward, Theresa Schiavo,at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, March 18, 2005".
Greer, that judge who consummately follows the rule of law, has violated the law with this order because under Florida Statutes, it is a felony to refuse someone food and water. This order doesn't contain the words "artificial life support". This order is not in compliance with state law on a lot of fronts. It is not in accordance with Terri's wish as claimed by Michael Schiavo. He claimed, as did Scott Schiavo and Joan Schiavo, that Terri's wish was not to be kept alive by artificial means. There was no testimony and nothing to support Greer's unlawful order to deny the disabled woman food and water, nor did the order address the ability of Terri Schiavo to swallow and receive food and hydration orally.
Greer's final order was intended to cause Terri Schiavo's death by the denial of food and water by any means.
And that's illegal.
A judge can only rule on questions of fact and law relating to existing provisions of law. He can't make new law from the bench. George Greer lacked jurisdiction and authority to forbid anyone and everyone from attempting to give Terri water or nourishment by mouth. Giving water and liquid nourishment orally is not artificial. It is natural and allowing swallowing assistance for liquids for sustenance and hydration to an otherwise healthy but handicapped woman is not artificial means.
Judge Greer's order was wholly unlawful and Charlie Crist had a legal and moral obligation to protect Terri Schiavo.
But instead he did nothing.
If Charlie Crist had done his job, the execution of Terri Schiavo should have been halted and George Greer prosecuted for using his official power and position to violate Florida Statutes to allow and order Michael Schiavo to kill Terri Schiavo.
Any law enforcement officer could have protected Terri Schiavo from starvation and dehydration.
It was the statutory and constitutional job of Charlie Crist.
Charlie Crist is as culpable in the murder of Terri Schiavo as George Greer and Michael Schiavo. Charlie Crist engaged in an obstruction of justice and acted as an accessory to murder, allowing a felony to occur in the withholding of food and water to a human being.
Is this being pro-life? Is this promoting the culture of life?
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. What would he do as Governor to protect the elderly and disabled, the exploited and vulnerable?
Charlie Crist is taking pot shots of Tom Gallagher's failed attempts to seek the office of Governor. That's like the pot calling the kettle black. It took Crist three tries to pass the Florida bar exam.
Now he's banging on Gallagher for the finding of probable cause in an alleged ethics violation involving Gallagher. Let's not forget that Crist himself has come under the scrutiny of the Florida Elections Commission for allegedly using his office of education commissioner to campaign for the position of attorney general.
Ah, yes. The investigation of alleged Medicaid fraud is also within the scope of Crist's AG duties, policing what has become Florida's $12 billion per year Medicaid program.
Just Friday, Aug. 25, Crist announced that a Pinellas County nurse had been arrested for allegedly defrauding Medicaid of more than $150,000.
So how come Crist hasn't investigated the Schiavo Medicaid claim?
Despite receiving some $300,000 for loss of consortium in one malpractice claim, settling for $250,000 in another malpractice claim and controlling the $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.
Michael Schiavo has stated publicly in his book how he hid real estate assets by putting them in his girlfriend's name so that he wouldn't have to declare them as a marital asset for Medicaid purposes. Isn't that an intent to defraud the government and the taxpayers?
And now, as of late July, Schiavo has mortgaged that property, getting $110,000 in his sticky fingers. That money should go directly to the coffers of Pinellas County to pay back the taxpayers for the Medicaid expenses of Terri Schiavo. Has Charlie Crist opened an investigation into that, to attempt to recover some of the money that's due the taxpayers?
Michael Schiavo, who was still legally married to Terri at the time of her death, was receiving a paycheck from Pinellas County taxpayers of nearly $50,000 annually from October, 2004 until Terri's death on March 31, 2005.
With Michael Schiavo still claiming Terri as his wife, how then did Schiavo recertify every six months under Medicaid that the martial assets qualified Terri to receive Medicaid? How many people do you know that are receiving Medicaid if their spouse is earning $50,000 a year, has real estate with a market value of $288,000 (that's not including his parent's house that he was listed as an owner of in 2002 which sold in March 2003 for $210,000) and is driving a Mercedes?
"Medicaid fraud must be shut down," Crist has said. "This is stealing from the needy and Florida taxpayers. This will not be tolerated."
So didn't and why isn't Crist investigating this potential Medicaid fraud of Michael Schiavo? Medicaid fraud can take many forms and cost Floridians hundreds of millions of dollars each year, Crist's own website states. So why isn't his office investigating the Schiavo situation? Selective prosecution by Crist as AG?
Is that how it will be when and if Crist is elected to the office of Governor? Special people will be protected from warranted prosecution, different strokes for different folks?
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 is job of Charlie Crist as Attorney General.
And he's not doing it.
If he can't do the job of attorney general, then he definitely can't do the job of Governor. 8-26-06
© 2006 North
Country Gazette
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