March 24, 2005

JOE SCARBOROUGH, HOST: With me now is former presidential candidate Alan Keyes. He has been fighting with Congress and Terri's parents to help keep her alive. Alan, you just heard the brother of Michael Schiavo. Respond.

ALAN KEYES: Well, I think what we actually have here--I've always thought it kind of strange they would say [don't] get the government involved. The minute the judiciary is involved in something, the government is involved. It's a branch of government.

And in this particular case, it's a branch of government that, in the form of Judge Greer, and now all the other courts, is disregarding a basic right of Terri Schiavo--the right to life that is actually explicitly guaranteed in the Florida Constitution. Article I, Section 2, says that every natural person shall have inalienable rights, among them "the right to enjoy and defend life."

And right now, Jeb Bush is in the spotlight. He is the one who actually has the obligation, by his oath, to support, protect, and defend the Constitution of Florida, and he has to move to protect the integrity of Terri Schaivo's constitutional rights.

SCARBOROUGH: Do you not think he has done enough?

KEYES: Of course not. He hasn't done anything. She is being starved to death!

And the notion that the judge's order keeps him from acting is absurd. Just as the judges have to look at the Constitution, and if a law passed by the legislature is, in their view, not compatible with the Constitution, they don't regard that law and don't apply it.

So, if a judge and the whole judiciary makes a decision that is contrary to the Constitution, in the view of Governor Bush, he has to abide by the Constitution, the higher law, not by the dictate of the judge.

SCARBOROUGH: So, do you think we should have an Elian Gonzalez-type raid, where the governor sends in the National Guard or troops to go in and remove her and put in a feeding tube?

KEYES: I think the governor has to do what is necessary. He has the supreme executive power in the state of Florida. There is no higher executive authority--no executive authority in the state that can challenge him.

And he also is charged, by oath, with supporting, protecting, and defending the Constitution--which is being egregiously violated in this case, because she is being done to death when there is clearly a reasonable doubt as to whether or not this is her will.

That means it's just murder. And murder--whether it is done by the judiciary or somebody else--is still a fundamental contravention of constitutional integrity, and he is sworn to enforce the laws and uphold and defend the Constitution of Florida.

So, he is duty bound to do it, and if he does not, then the responsibility for the outcome rests squarely on his shoulders, because the executive is charged with the power to act. The judiciary can opine. The legislature can legislate. Only Jeb Bush can act to save her life.