Originally Posted - September 26, 2006

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Where'd Lord Voldemort go?

You know, Michael Schiavo (right), the Lord Voldemort of politics.

Prior to the Sept. 5 primary in Florida, Schiavo was traveling all over the country, campaigning for candidates, as if anyone really cared who Michael Schiavo endorsed.

But suddenly Michael Schiavo has disappeared from public view, last seen on BayNews9, making a specific point of insisting that he has no political ambitions.

Huh?

In July, he was telling anybody and everybody who would listen that he was "determined to develop a political career."

There he goes again, saying one thing today and something else tomorrow.

Following the court-ordered death of his disabled wife, Schiavo changed his party affiliation from Republican from Democrat and formed a political action committee, TerriPac, mad at the Republicans because he said they interfered in his personal life for voting to send the Schiavo case to the federal courts for a de novo review, voting to reinsert Terri Schindler Schiavo's feeding tube in the meantime.

Schiavo forgot to consider that not one Democratic Senator voted against giving her case a new look.

The alleged purpose of TerriPAC is to "raise and spend funds to educate voters on where their elected officials stood when they had a choice between individual freedom and personal privacy and overreaching government action" or in order words, Michael Schiavo's personal vendetta against legislators who voted to err on the side of life and to try and save the life of his disabled wife.

Michael Schiavo tried to take his new found fame down the yellow brick road of politics. This is the man who falsified his academic credentials, who can't tell the same story twice, who has what some might call a convenient memory, who is exploiting the name and memory of his disabled wife to further himself and his own agenda.

The New York Times aptly portrayed Michael Schiavo as a man with a vendetta, fueled by anger, hate and bitterness, a need for revenge and still focused on money, not the proceeds of the malpractice trial anymore but now pandering to the public to fund his campaign for revenge.

So where'd he go?

After he made a specific point in the Midwest about his political aspirations, now in his last appearance on Florida's primary day he makes a specific remark on BayNews9 about his "new mission", emphasizing that he's not using his new issue to launch a political career.
Bay 9 News - Michael Schiavo's New Mission

His sudden turnabout wouldn't have anything to do with a Hatch Act investigation, would it?

On April 25, Schiavo announced his endorsement for Jim Davis, Democratic candidate for Florida governor and on Friday, June 23, he conducted a fundraiser for Davis.

By July 12, Schiavo was appearing in Colorado to raise money for former state legislator Peggy Lamm, a former member of the Hemlock society and now failed Democratic candidate for the 7th Congressional District in Colorado.


He and Angie Paccione (left) stormed the federal office of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (right) whose Congressional seat Paccione is eying, in a publicity stunt to deliver a letter to Musgrave, chastising her for voting in favor of emergency legislation designed to save Terri's life and saying during the House debate last March that "When we talk about a permanent vegetative state, I'm offended that Terri smiles and acknowledges the people that love her when they come to see her….How heartless are we to call somebody like Terri Schiavo a vegetable."

"What we do in this chamber tonight is as important as anything we have done in defending our nation, in doing the things that we do as members of Congress," Musgrave said during the March 2005 floor speech.

The Republicans didn't exploit Terri Schiavo as he like to crow. Michael Schiavo did and does and seems to forget that the Senate vote to save the life of the brain damaged woman was unanimous. Democrats as well as Republicans voted for the case to have a de novo review in federal court.

In one interview during his political posturing in Colorado at the expense of Terri, Michael told one interviewer he was determined to have a political future but told another that he wasn't a political person. He says that he's forcing himself before the public "because I am angry. Those people drug my name through the mud."

Schiavo continued his campaigning in Connecticut on July 28 when he appeared to endorse Ned Lamont (left), Democratic candidate opposing incumbent Sen. Joe Lieberman (right).

On Aug. 9, Schiavo issued a statement in support of Lamont after he beat Lieberman in the Primary. On Aug. 19 and 20, he was campaigning in Florida for an obscure candidate in southern Florida and on Aug. 21, appeared before the Collier County Democratic Club in Southwest Florida, capping off the week with a radio interview with Michael Smerconish when it was noted that no one in his home state of Pennsylvania had asked him to get involved there, probably because he's been labeled "radioactive" and smart politicians are staying their distance from him.

And then he quietly slithered away.

Michael Schiavo is engaged in his campaigning at a time when he is being paid by Florida taxpayers in his position as a supervisor in the inmate division of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department.

Schiavo, who earns over $68,000 annually, works the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift and according to payroll records, works three 12-hour shifts weekly and occasional overtime.

His duties as a registered nurse-clinical supervisor include reporting directly to and meeting with the nursing director, prepares reports as requested, provides 24-hour on-call services as assigned. He allegedly maintains communication between correctional and nursing staff, contracted providers, outside agencies, Medical Director, nursing director and the program administrator, "maintaining a professional attitude at all times." He establishes work schedules and assigned duties, monitors and/or provides in-service programs, attends staff meetings, monitors compliance with national and state standards, established policies, procedures, programs and clinical protocols, communicates necessary inmate health information to correctional staff on need to know basis, "uses sound independent judgment in meeting the responsibilities and performing the duties of the position," and "acts as a role model for the nursing staff."

Until a complaint was filed against him with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Schiavo was stating publicly that he was intent on having a political career and it appeared that he was posturing for that career.

While he was hooting and tooting for Ned Lamont, issuing a statement on Aug. 9 against Joe Lieberman and Tom Delay, payroll records indicate that he was paid $396 for that day, in his position with the county, raising the question of if he was engaging in partisan politics while being paid by the taxpayers of Pinellas County.
http://www.terripac.com/news.html

Although the payroll records indicate that he wasn't paid for July 12 and 13 while he was in Colorado, the records indicate that he was on July 14, presumably a travel day to return from Colorado, receiving $33 an hour for 12 hours of "comp time," receiving $396 of tax dollars.

In interviews while he was in Colorado, he told reporters that he was planning a political career, thus his political activity with Lamm and Paccione and the stunt at Musgrave's office appeared to have been a preliminary in establishing his name and soliciting support for future candidacy.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13844509/

He told reporters that he had a "new political identity."
RockyMountain News - Schiavo Blasts Musgrave

He told another reporter that he was "determined to develop his political career."
http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=8717

Michael Schiavo was openly talking about his political ambitions to anyone and everyone that would listen prior to Aug. 1, but by Sept. 5 and the filing of a complaint against him for alleged violations of the Hatch Act, Schiavo was suddenly backtracking about any potential candidacy and then suddenly withdrew from the public eye and all political activity altogether.

The Hatch Act applies to executive branch state and local employees who are principally employed in connection with programs financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or a federal agency. The political subdivision of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department definitely receives both federal and state funding.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel enforces the Hatch Act and if a covered individual knowingly seeks partisan office in violation of the Hatch Act, he is subject to criminal penalties and the municipality or political subdivision which employs him must either remove the employee or forfeit a portion of the federal assistance equal to two years salary of the employee.

OSC clearly states that the Hatch Act (5 U.S.C. §§ 1501 - 1508) restricts the political activity of individuals principally employed by state, county, or municipal executive agencies in connection with programs financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or a federal agency. An employee covered by the Act may not be a candidate for public office in a partisan election, i.e., an election in which any candidate represents, for example, the Republican or Democratic party.
http://www.osc.gov/hatchact.htm

The prohibition against political activity extends not merely to the formal announcement of candidacy but also to the preliminaries leading to such announcement and to canvassing or soliciting support or doing or permitting to be done any act in furtherance of candidacy, such as Schiavo's activity with Lamm, Paccione, Lamont and Davis has done.

Because the statute has been interpreted to prohibit preliminary activities regarding candidacy, any action which can reasonably be construed as evidence that the individual is seeking support for or undertaking an initial "campaign" to secure nomination or election to office would he viewed as candidacy for purposes of 5 U.S.C. § 1502(a)(3).

It would certainly appear that Michael Schiavo has a choice - his political aspirations or his job funded by the Pinellas County taxpayers - one or the other. They're not compatible and his political mouth could end up costing Pinellas County taxpayers their federal funds. How appropriate.

He attacks Congress for their efforts to save the life of Terri Schiavo.

The Empire strikes back at Lord Voldemort and takes back their federal funds. 9-26-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette