Fred Thompson Is Right On The Schiavo Case

While I don’t necessarily support him as a candidate for President, I think Fred Thompson answered a question about the Terry Schiavo case exactly the way it needed to be answered:

THE VILLAGES, Fla. (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson gave no opinion Thursday when asked about efforts by President Bush and Congress to keep Terri Schiavo alive, saying he does not remember details of the right-to-die case that stirred national debate.

Thompson was asked in an interview for Bay News 9’s “Political Connections” program whether he thought Congress’ intervention to save the life of the brain-dead woman two years ago was appropriate.

“I can’t pass judgment on it. I know that good people were doing what they thought was best,” Thompson said. “That’s going back in history. I don’t remember the details of it.”

Congress passed a bill after Schiavo’s feeding tube was removed in March 2005 to allow a federal court to review the case, and Bush returned from his Texas ranch to sign the bill into law. But a federal judge refused to order the tube reinserted, a decision upheld by a federal appeals court and the Supreme Court.

Thompson, a former Tennessee senator who left office in 2003, did say, “Local matters generally speaking should be left to the locals. I think Congress has got an awful lot to keep up with.”

Quite honestly, he’s absolutely right. Congress had no right interfering in this matter. It had no right interfering with the decisions of the judicial system in Florida, or of more than one Federal Court Judge.

The Schaivo case was, quite honestly, one of the most cravenly despicable actions that I’ve seen in American politics in my lifetime. And the fact that it was a bunch of self-righteous Republicans who were involved in it, just makes me wonder what hope there is for the GOP.