As many of you know, I read many sources from the left and the right. I was watching MSNBC show "Hardball" with Chris Matthews the other day, and they were discussing Terri Schiavo for the entire show. Pat Buchanan and Katrina Vanden Heuval were debating the issue. Pat came on and was straight and to the point, and sounded very passionate. I was quite impressed. Here is the exchange (from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7286474/):
MATTHEWS: We’re short of time here. An ABC poll shows two-thirds of the American people think this is all politics.
PAT BUCHANAN: Well, I think they‘re dead wrong with regard to the president of the United States.
What
George Bush ought to do right now is send federal marshals in and pick
up Terri Schiavo and put that breathing tube back into her—excuse me,
the food and hydration tube back into her, as this is taken up to the
United States Supreme Court. He took an oath, Chris, to defend the
Constitution of the United States. He has got an obligation, as well
as these judges do, to defend that Constitution. And that means to
protect this woman‘s life.
MATTHEWS: What happened to the 10th Amendment?
BUCHANAN: Look, the 10th Amendment has been dead as a door nail, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Well, it‘s our Constitution.
BUCHANAN:
The point is, the president of the United States—there‘s a woman dying,
sentenced to death because she‘s brain-damaged. She‘s committed no
crime. She‘s having food and water denied to her. That is a violation
of human rights and the president of the United States has an
opportunity, as does the governor of Florida, to step in as executives
and act.
MATTHEWS: Should the president
of the United States reviews every case in which a family is deciding
when to stop feeding a beleaguered, dying family member and bring in
federal marshals in such cases?
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: If a husband and a judge have conspired to kill a woman who is simply brain-damaged.
MATTHEWS: Conspiring?
BUCHANAN: Exactly. They‘ve worked together on this thing.
MATTHEWS: Pat, I thought you were a strict constructionist. What happened to the 10th Amendment?
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: I‘m in favor of human life, if innocent life is being taken, Chris.
MATTHEWS: What does the 10th Amendment say?
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: The 10th Amendment said the rest of the rights belong to the states and the people.
VANDEN HEUVEL: But this case has been litigated for seven years. It has been heard by 19 judges in six courts.
(CROSSTALK)
VANDEN HEUVEL: It has gone to the Supreme Court three times.
BUCHANAN: It is irrelevant.
VANDEN HEUVEL: But, you know, Pat, what is happening is, you‘re seeing the implosion of your party.
BUCHANAN: I don‘t give a damn about the Republican Party. I care about a woman being put to death.
VANDEN
HEUVEL: You are seeing the violation—but you‘re seeing the
violation—these—these people can never be called conservatives again.
BUCHANAN: Well, let them call them what they want.
VANDEN
HEUVEL: They have violated every conservative principle of limited
government, of the sanctity of marriage, of states’ rights.
BUCHANAN: We appreciate your defining conservatism for us.
VANDEN HEUVEL: No, but it is—but—you should be concerned about…this is a personal tragedy. It has—but—but—but the other…
BUCHANAN: Oh, it is a personal tragedy all right.
VANDEN HEUVEL: But the other factor—two factors, Pat.
One is that George Bush, when he was governor, signed a right-to-die law. He—maybe you believe he violated his oath then.
BUCHANAN: Look…
VANDEN
HEUVEL: And, secondly, if you believe in morality, Pat, what about
those Congress people who sat idly by while 40 million go without
health insurance in this country or they cut the Medicaid that has
helped Terri Schiavo stay alive?
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: For heaven‘s sake, Katrina, a judge has sentenced a woman to death.
VANDEN HEUVEL: It’s a tragedy. It’s a personal…
BUCHANAN: She is dying tonight. She is dying tonight. It can be stopped.
VANDEN HEUVEL: It’s a personal tragedy.
BUCHANAN: And the president ought to send…
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: I want Pat to back up what you suggested.
BUCHANAN: Sure.
MATTHEWS: If the president of the United States sends federal marshals into that town down there in Florida.
BUCHANAN: Takes her.
MATTHEWS: Grabs her, put her—takes control of her body, I guess, takes control of her, under what authority?
BUCHANAN: He does it. He’s a—look, a woman is…
MATTHEWS: Under what authority of the law?
BUCHANAN:
I’m president of the United States. I have got to upheld the
Constitution. An American citizen is being put to death by a judge in
a wrongful decision. I think it‘s wrong.
Jefferson
threw out—he put every—let everybody out of prison. Jefferson said,
I‘m not prosecuting anybody under the Alien and Sedition Act. Action,
Chris, creates consensus. What do you think Congress would do? They
would accept it. The president then should send a law to Congress
saying, look, when you have a case where parents, husband and a woman
who is simply brain-damaged, we do not put them to death in the United
States.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: And, in other words, the president can do what he wants to do.
(CROSSTALK)
VANDEN
HEUVEL: There are millions of people sitting around their kitchens.
There are millions of people sitting around their kitchens in this
country today deciding how they want to end their lives, drawing up
living wills, because they don’t want Tom DeLay on their lawn. And
they don‘t want a circus that this tragedy has become.
MATTHEWS:
It—it just sounds to me like Richard Nixon says, go blow up the
Brookings Institution. It‘s outrageous use of the office.
BUCHANAN: If he said, go save a life, you would have a different opinion…
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: OK. OK. Thank you very much, Pat Buchanan, Katrina Vanden Heuvel.
