Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Consistently wrong since 2002

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Speaking of Jeb

Speaking of Jeb

by | 135 Comments

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Someone else has some not so kind words for him:

In his announcement Tuesday that he would explore a 2016 presidential bid, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) promised to focus on “ideas and policies that will expand opportunity and prosperity for all Americans.” But he made no mention of his most controversial act during his two terms in office: his attempts to take custody of Terri Schiavo and overrule her husband Michael’s decision to remove her feeding tube, fifteen years after cardiac arrest had left her in a vegetative state.

ThinkProgress spoke with Michael Schiavo and the attorney who represented him in the matter, George Felos, about Bush’s presidential candidacy. Both expressed concern that Bush’s record was one of government interference and opposing individual liberty.

“If you want a government that’s gonna intrude on your life, enforce their personal views on you, then I guess Jeb Bush is your man,” Schiavo explained, adding, “We really don’t need another Bush in office.”

Felos described Bush’s actions interference in Schiavo case as, “An egregious example of the fat hand of government inserting itself into a family’s medical decision and the obtrusive hand of government trying to override their decision.”

***

Though Bush, then-U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), and social conservative activists protested that Terri Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative state, an autopsy confirmed that she had been.

“It’s one thing to have your own personal beliefs,” Felos said, “It’s quite another to use your official powers and your official office to subvert the court and the lawful process.”

He also recalled that after Schiavo’s death, Jeb Bush went after Michael Schiavo personally, asking the state’s attorney to investigate whether he had called 911 fast enough. “It was very odd, almost like a personal vendetta the governor had towards Michael Schaivo.” The state’s attorney found no evidence against him and closed the case. “The propriety of using your office to hunt and harass people, as the governor did to Mr. Schiavo after his wife’s death, I think raises significant questions about his judgment and his character,” Felos said.

Michael Schiavo, nearly a decade later, said he believes Jeb Bush’s intervention was a purely political move and an act of buffoonery. “If you want a government that’s gonna be intrusive and interfere in your personal life, vote for Bush. If you want to live like that, want people to interfere in your personal lives, then vote for him,” he said.

Longtime readers will remember that this was, for me, on the heels of torture and the lies about the war and the general nastiness and lack of concern for people displayed by Republicans, the last straw. So I guess Jeb Bush has done one good thing. He made me a Democrat.

Reader Interactions

135Comments

  1. 1.

    lamh36

    Is that what did it?

    Well then I’m glad I wasn’t around back then, I’d probably have hated ya, rather just just tolerating you as I do now

    ;-)

  2. 2.

    RaflW

    Republicans want a government so small they can ram it thru a feeding tube.

    Edit: that your grieving family will have to pay for out of pocket, since gubmit health care is kommunizm.

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Longtime readers will remember that this was, for me, on the heels of torture and the lies about the war and the general nastiness and lack of concern for people displayed by Republicans, the last straw.

    Wow. After torture, after obvious lies about Iraq, after Republicans wanting to fuck everyone in the 99% that they could (for decades)…the case of this poor woman finally did it.
    Excelsior!

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    Hey, fellow adults out there. Xbox One. A good console for having some fun? Opinions from other Thought Leaders?

  7. 7.

    beth

    Both my parents wound up on life support and being part of the decision to remove it was the hardest, most gut wrenching thing I’ve ever done. Years later it still haunts the relationship my siblings have. Neither decision was easy. Anyone who inserts themselves into that for political reasons can burn in hell.

  8. 8.

    Corner Stone

    Personally, I can not wait to sign up for a sex tourist trip to Cuba with the Rushbo Reservations travel group.

  9. 9.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodinger’s cat: He’s seriously boring me with his pissant whining about the Sony hacks.
    No, it’s not actual news. It’s not worthy of being discussed in the public sphere. But don’t try and tell me that news outlets are somehow in the wrong for talking about it.
    Whiny little bag.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @beth: Huh, my dad was clear in his wishes and, when it was time, we shut the machine off. It wasn’t easy but it sure as hell was the right thing to do. No regrets here.

  14. 14.

    raven

    @lamh36:

    Senator and physician Bill Frist opposed the removal of her feeding tube and in a speech delivered on the Senate Floor, challenged the diagnosis of Schiavo’s physicians of Schiavo being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS): “I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office”.[60] Frist was criticized by a medical ethicist at Northwestern University for making a diagnosis without personally examining the patient and for questioning the diagnosis when he was not a neurologist.[61]

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    Why do I give a shit what the government of Cuba got out of this? For dog’s sake. There’s no way we can possibly punch up, but we can at least refrain from punching all the fucking way down.

  17. 17.

    Tree With Water

    The only vote in my life I regret having cast was for John Kerry in 2004. But if it had been GW Bush instead? That’s one godawful weight you’ll carry to your grave, Cole.

  18. 18.

    gopher2b

    Ah, yes, I remember this well. I was still chained to the wall admiring the flicker of lights and shadows, but it was the first time I sensed the movement behind me.

  22. 22.

    JPL

    @lamh36: Nah.. You would have liked him because he was always sane. It was my go to repub site, at the time. There are no go to repub sites left, btw.

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    OT:

    Anyone happen to notice if Kim’s BFF Dennis Rodman has had anything to add say blather about N. Korea recently?

    Maybe “Dude’s just having a bad day. Happens to all of us.”

    (Not intimating that anyone should pay attention to Rodman regardless.)

  24. 24.

    Corner Stone

    I’m feeling a little hungry about now. Checking out my rectal feeding options. Something sweet, or maybe savory? It’s so hard to decide sometimes.
    Where is Gen Hayden when you need him?

  25. 25.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Ragga-fragga keyboard. Coding fix.

    OT:

    Anyone happen to notice if Kim’s BFF Dennis Rodman has had anything to add say blather about N. Korea recently?

    Maybe “Dude’s just having a bad day. Happens to all of us.”

    (Not intimating that anyone should pay attention to Rodman regardless.)

  31. 31.

    ira-NY

    If Andrew Johnson had a brother, would anyone in their right mind have considered running him for President in 1876? Enough, already!

  34. 34.

    JPL

    John was the last great moderate repub that would discuss the differences between the parties. You might not agree with him, but he was reasonable. Those were the good old days.

    Maybe around 2007 or 2008

  35. 35.

    Corner Stone

    You know, if it’s not a legitimate rectal feeding option the body has a way of shutting that whole thing down.

  37. 37.

    lamh36

    @Baud: I saw a bit of that segment. Melber showed more passion against “SONY” apologists than he did against that police union rep who kept calling Tamir Rice “the male”…bah.

    I turned it off.

  39. 39.

    raven

    @Baud: It must have been early 2010 for me because Hamsher hooked up with Norquist the previous December and it took a while for me to attack her enough to get the boot.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @beth:

    Anyone who inserts themselves into that for political reasons can burn in hell.

    Exactly. I remember driving by the facility where Shiavo was when the whole circus was in full swing and thinking what a bunch of sick, twisted fucks the sign-waving lunatics outside were. That goes for Jeb! too.

  45. 45.

    mai naem

    In a normal democratic country Jeb Bush would not stand a chance in hell of winning the presidency. The fact that people are talking about the possibility of Jebbie winning is making me feel a little ill. I just cannot fathom anybody voting for Jebbie 8 fucking years after his brother almost destroyed this country. Hell, we still haven’t recovered from W. I could kind of understand if it was 30-40 years later where a bunch of the first idiots population have either died or were not born yet but 8 years?????

  47. 47.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @beth: I think the Schiavo case resonated with the public because it was about a decision many people have personally struggled with, unlike a lot of the made up controversies. They recognized how inappropriate it was for politicians to intervene. The Rs thought they had a winner, but they misread the public on that one.

  50. 50.

    khead

    The wingnuts on my FB are rather upset about Cuba. They don’t know why though…. except COMMUNISM! and DEM VOTERS!

  51. 51.

    srv

    I couldn’t find John’s Schiavo conversion moment, but I did find this one that must be nearby. John was upset that Krugman was ranting even harder than he and thought he went over the top:

    John Cole says:
    April 1, 2005 at 1:43 am

    I think comparing our religious extremists to mullahs and other death merchants around the globe could be considered ‘over the top.’

    On many of the other points, though, I tend to agree- but I would bet that I am talking about a much smaller portion ofthe population than Krugman is. When Krugman thinks loony right, he probably thinks everyone to the right of Gore. I think everyone in the Randall Terry, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson nexxus of evil.

    Heh.

    But here’s when he became a card carrying Alinksyite:
    Say Hello to the Newest Member of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy

  52. 52.

    beltane

    I first came here in 2008 during the primaries. Markos used to link to Balloon Juice a lot back then. John had a tag at the time that was something like “I Can No Longer Rationally Discuss the Clinton Campaign.”

  53. 53.

    jacy

    First Green Day gets inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

    Then Cole reminds me of how long ago I started regularly reading Balloon Juice.

    THANKS FOR MAKING ME FEEL OLD.

  56. 56.

    satby

    @JPL: I was here pretty often back then, and really enjoyed the increasing anger of John’s posts on the Schiavo cluster. This blog became my daily read about then.
    Good times.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    OT, but thank goodness for Maddow. She leads with the Cuba news NOT the more “entertainy” SONY news.

  58. 58.

    srv

    Ah, found his self-banishment. Quite eloquent:

    One Last Thing

    …
    I am sorry if you are deeply religious and I offended you- that was not my intent. I want you to look at what these radicals we have elected are doing- systematically dismantling our democracy in the pursuit of cash and power.

    I am sorry if you think I am all soapbox and no soap. There are plenty of other blogs out there for you that can and will give you the party line. I may be wrong about a lot of things, but my beliefs are genuine.

    And I am sorry if I sound ‘shrill’ or ‘extreme’ or ‘unhinged.’ I confess- right now I am all of the above, but for good reason. I have taken a good look around, including in my own archives with their damning accuracy, and I just don’t like what I see. Let me just say that there is no monster as scary as the one staring at you in the mirror.

    If that means I am no longer a member of the good Republican club, then I will just have to live with it. I most certainly am not going to throw everything I believe out the window to become a Democrat, so I am going to remain shrill and extreme and unhinged and a member of the GOP until things start to change and we regain our focus, because right now I feel a lot like Dr. Frankenstein. Quitting the party would be the easy way out. I helped break this, I need to help fix it.

    And with that, let me leave you with one more quote:

    “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.”

    Read the whole thing

  60. 60.

    jacy

    @beltane:

    I have those inline bifocals — but, screw it, too weird, so I just take my glasses off if I have to read anything closer than a foot away. (Course I used to put my glasses on top of my head, but now that I have no hair, they just fall off and the dog runs off with them……) And the kids mock me because when I type text messages, I use the one finger method…. Geez, this is getting no better…..

  61. 61.

    Culture of Truth

    I’m hearing Kerry only took the job of Sec. of State unless Obama was ok with liberating Americans with regard to Cuba, and Obama was all like ,dude I was down with this in 2007′. And here we are.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @jacy: I drove a couple of hundred miles to the VA Hospital in Augusta to get an eye test and glasses. I’ve been wearing progressives for a while and I figured it would be worth it to get the base glasses free and pay and xtra $100 for the works. We’ll see.

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @beltane: I have made a point of throwing in random typos for years to disguise the point at which I begin to make old people typos. Sort of along the lines of the quote Reed attributed to Warhol, “If you dress older when you’re not, As you really age you look the same.”

  65. 65.

    Culture of Truth

    I don’t remember when I first came here, but I campaigned for a Dem who lost 49 fucking states, so I bow to no one….

  66. 66.

    Patrick

    @Betty Cracker:

    I remember driving by the facility where Shiavo was when the whole circus was in full swing and thinking what a bunch of sick, twisted fucks the sign-waving lunatics outside were.

    It’s not much different than when one passes an abortion facility. There’s the same circus there with the hypocritical holier-than-thou so called Christians harassing poor women.

    I will never forget the role Jeb Bush played in the Schiavo case. At the end, he and the state’s AG tried to get the state to see if they could charge Mr Schiavo with something, anything. The harassment from the state was appalling.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Patrick: Nixon could go to China due to his staunch anti-Communism, if you buy into that conceit. Are you suggesting that Obama can go to Cuba because he is a staunch Islamofascist?

  72. 72.

    Betty Cracker

    @lamh36: I wish he would. That would be so awesome. Also, I didn’t realize (or else had forgotten) that Obama actually won the Cuban-American vote. So let the dinosaurs huff and puff. It’s pointless noise.

  76. 76.

    skerry

    OT: Ebola??

    Mitt RomneyVerified account
    ‏@MittRomney
    [email protected] don’t cave, fight: release @TheInterview free online globally. Ask viewers for voluntary $5 contribution to fight #Ebola.

  77. 77.

    Betty Cracker

    @raven: My two beast are going apeshit daily with the UPS package arrivals. I’ve started scheduling phone calls around their outbursts! Tomorrow and Friday, the new roof goes on. I have marrow bones at the ready, but I’m pretty sure the dogs will be in a state of constant hysteria from sunup to sundown. Le sigh.

  83. 83.

    Patrick

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I could just as easily say that Obama can go to Cuba due to his staunch anti-communism (unless of course you buy into the RWNJ description of Obama). BTW, foreign policy wise there are a lot of similarities between Obama and Nixon.

  87. 87.

    lamh36

    I’ll tell ya what though, seems to me that the Obama administration ain’t buying into this whole “lame duck” Presidency thing.

    I know, I know, we’ll see what happens next year with GOP takes control, but it’s sure funny that the same people who said that the midterm shellacking was the end of Obama’s ability to get anything done, are now amazed at how much shit Obama has done since the midterms, and that was what a lil over 1 month ago?

    I’m liking much of the post-midterm Obama, we’ll see how it goes in the new year.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Patrick: No. Nixon and McCarthy were commie-hunting buddies. Obama didn’t build a big chunk of his career on baiting liberals over “who lost China?”; Nixon did. The phrase was “Only Nixon could go to China;” and it meant that only a person with as strong a reputation of viciously attacking anything that might seem Communist could re-establish diplomatic relations with China. It has no parallels with Obama and Cuba.

    @lamh36: I would not be surprised if he does every liberal thing that is within established presidential powers to do. Why the fuck not? It does good and trolls the Republicans as a bonus.

  92. 92.

    KG

    @skerry: he’s getting better. During the campaign he was work on the 1980s, he’s at least in the right year now… Just a few months behind

  93. 93.

    Hal

    @Betty Cracker: My dog goes absolutely nuts over the UPS delivery person. Sure, he hates the mail carrier too, but he actually recognizes the UPS delivery truck, and if it drives by while he’s in the yard, he goes crazy, even if it’s just driving buy. If we get a package delivered in a brown box, he will attack it and rip it to shreds. I have to put stuff away or he’ll try to tear it apart.

  98. 98.

    Tenar Darell

    @beth: I was on my mother’s healthcare proxy, and had to stop treatment. I knew it was what she wanted, and it still was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I don’t have words to describe how much I despise him for his behavior.

  106. 106.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: There will be hell to pay if the tree knocks it down! The skelatonized redfish skull is on the mantle in the shadowbox and she put up a montage of my fishing pics through the years, The girl gots class.

  107. 107.

    jacy

    @raven:

    I hope they work out for you. Most people I’ve talked to love them. I think I’m just untrainable — they either made me nauseous or violently annoyed. I’m sure you’ll do much better!

  109. 109.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jacy: When it comes time for me, I will add a pair of reading glasses. I spend most of my time without my glasses anyway. I wear them to watch TV and movies and to drive at night. I would only wear reading glasses to read. So, two pairs it will be.

  111. 111.

    jacy

    @Violet:

    Eh, things are going. Some days are okay and a lot of days have been NOT okay. I suffered anaphylactic shock during second round of chemo (Taxol), but they wanted me to do at least one more, so I had that last week, but the side effects have been so awful that we’re done at 3. Neuropathy, agonizing nerve pain, and massive, nearly suicidal depression. I awoke on Saturday afternoon to find I’d made some phone calls I don’t remember and had half as many tranquilizers in the bottle as I should have had — so no more of that. (Doctors can’t agree what is causing what — so we’re just stopping a lot of it). The benefits versus damage scale seems to have been tipped. Good news is there won’t be any chemo, and there’s no sign of cancer, and I”m taking off on Saturday to take the kids to Colorado for two weeks vacation. (The downside being it’s five of us and a french bulldog riding in a Volvo sedan for 20 hours straight…. The older kids (26 and 23) will trade off driving while I try and keep the younger kids and the dog amused. I’m sure eventually it will make a funny story…… )

    And another positive, I haven’t even thought of politics or world events for weeks!

    ETA (And the faithless husband is having a third of his colon removed tomorrow at 8 AM sharp — so there’s that….. Funny what guilt will do to your intestines…..)

  115. 115.

    Violet

    @jacy: Oh, my goodness! You’ve really been in the wars. Glad things are improving and I hope the trip to Colorado helps boost your spirits and your health. Gotta be good to get out of La.

  116. 116.

    GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)

    @Tenar Darell:

    I wasn’t my mother’s health care proxy. Her medically lilliterate sister and brother were. I had to convince the doctor caring for my mom at the end of her life that we wouldn’t sue if he let her die.

    Rough times. She was pretty damn sick at the end, and her sister was convinced she would make it out of the hospital when she was never going to.

  117. 117.

    Geeno

    The thing I remember from that time frame was “I’m done apologizing for religious whack jobs”. That was the genuine explosion when Cole was dislodged from the right wing. The archive doesn’t link to it, but I distinctly remember that line from a Cole post during the whole Schiavo nonsense era.
    As I recall events, John had tried to bravely soldier on while a bunch of Elmer Gantrys spouted off about Schiavo – then he snapped.

  119. 119.

    PurpleGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: I tried several times to use bifocals but I just can’t get used to them and looking up or down to see things. So, it’s two pairs of glasses for me. Makes life easier for me.

  121. 121.

    ...now I try to be amused

    Jeb Bush, Bill Frist, and Co. didn’t just butt in on a difficult and personal decision. They tried to use the power of the state to side with the in-laws from hell. That’s close to home for almost all of us.

  123. 123.

    JGabriel

    @Baud:

    Or the rectum, as we recently learned.

    For a group that claims to be religiously against anal sex, they sure do have an obsession with shoving things up people’s asses.

  125. 125.

    Fred

    Let’s not forget that it was Guvner Jeb Bush’s administration that scrubbed voter rolls of likely democratic (read: racial minorities) voters, shaving enough votes for Brother Little George to steal the state’s and thereby the national presidential election.
    Jeb is as much a piece of work as the rest of the dirty clan but unlike Pop and Bro he seems to be able to keep his foot out of his mouth and can construct a coherent sentence.
    “Read my lips: No more Texans.”

  126. 126.

    raven

    @PurpleGirl: No, they were all capped when the previous owner put a new roof on. We do think that the four mantles really sold us on the place when we bought it 15 years ago.

  127. 127.

    Lurking Canadian

    I can certainly understand losing one’s patience over the Schiavo thing, but I’ve never been able to understand how Terry Schiavo had anything to do with the allegedly existential threat of al Qaeda, the invasion of Iraq, the torture of prisoners, or even the utter subservience to the rich. Schiavo explains becoming a cafeteria republican, not the full-throated conversion of John Cole. There’s got to be more to the story.

  129. 129.

    satby

    @Lurking Canadian: ultimately it was a bit of all the above wearing Cole down like water on a rock, if you watched in real time as some of us did. He always stood out as a decent guy, that’s why Atrios and Kos linked to him often enough for me to have ended up here.

  130. 130.

    RSR

    Late to this thread, but there’s a whole group of conservatives who believe the Common Core education reform–a big Jeb Bush agenda–intrudes on their personal liberties.

  131. 131.

    mere mortal

    Longtime readers will remember that this was, for me, on the heels of torture and the lies about the war and the general nastiness and lack of concern for people displayed by Republicans, the last straw.

    Yup, I remember when the only time I’d stop by was when Atrios or Kevin Drum linked you, figuring if they were willing to engage you seriously then you probably weren’t the kind of nut that inhabits most of the right side of the web. So maybe it was worth coming by and poking you with a stick once in a while.

    Then realizing that you were actually able to think about issues without complete ideological rigidity, and even change your mind. Plus that you often waded into your own comments section. These attributes were unheard of in a right-wing environment that was most often delete-ban (hello Red State). So less stick-poking and more prodding.

    And yeah, Schiavo, though I’ll never understand why it wasn’t the Iraq war, the torture, Katrina, or any number of jaw-dropping indicators of Bush and Republican incompetence / evil. Either way, somewhere along that timeline I became a daily reader (putting this site on a list that only includes Atrios and Krugman, even Drum is only a twice-a-week stop now).

    Lord, what have I been doing with my time?

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Lurking Canadian: I suppose it’s the flip side of the phenomenon Michael Berubé joked about: “I used to be a liberal, but ever since 9/11, I’ve been outraged about Chappaquiddick.”

    He thought most of those used-to-be-liberals were just lying about having been liberals, and a lot of them probably were, but I also think that motivated reasoning associated with group identification counts for a lot, even among ourselves and the people we think of as reasonable. You can cast off the motivated reasoning you used to have, and/or adopt new motivated reasoning.

  133. 133.

    brantl

    So I guess Jeb Bush has done one good thing. He made me a Democrat

    . Do he F’ed up his perfect record.

  134. 134.

    brantl

    @Patrick: Because Nixon would keep alert for those DAMN COMMIE TRICKS and Obama will sell them to country for some beads, or some such shit.

  135. 135.

    mainmati

    I like the wide variety of backgrounds and voices on BJ; I think the country needs more of these kinds of forums. I suspect I am probably an outlier even on BJ since I was a college SDS organizer and a Democratic Socialist from the 1970s (what Sen. Sanders is) and then a Peace Corps Volunteer then working most of my career in developing countries on the environment. I now work on climate change research but my heart has always been on public policy, which is one of the reasons I follow this blog.

    And also because I have always been a Pittsburgher even if I don’t live there anymore..

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