March 28, 2005

JERRY DOYLE, HOST: Here's the latest headlines: "U.S. moving to aid tsunami victims." Not with my money. Not with my tax dollars. Not while a girl is dying down in Florida. Unfortunately, you have made me--my elected officials, my elected idiots--you have made me not care about the new tsunami victims taking place down there in the Indian Ocean. If you will let someone die here in the country, don't feign concern for people elsewhere.

Has the government done enough? They say they have. They've washed their hands, and it's time to move on. Not so, says our guest Alan Keyes. Joining us on the program to discuss the latest on the Terri Schiavo situation, Mr. Keyes, welcome.

ALAN KEYES: Thank you. Glad to be with you.

DOYLE: They all seem to be just anointing themselves with the oils of anonymity at this point. They've said, "We've done enough. It's time to move on. That's it. It's over."

KEYES: Well, that's not true, of course. And it's particularly not true of Governor Jeb Bush, because he has a direct responsibility under the Florida state constitution to protect, support, and defend the constitution of Florida.

Now, the constitution of Florida says that every natural person--that would be Terri Schiavo--has an inalienable right to life, and to defend life, and that that right cannot be given away or transferred to another by law. This means that Michael Schiavo can't exercise it, no matter what the judge says, because the constitution has declared it to be inalienable.

And if Governor Bush says, "My judgment is that this is an injustice," then he is not obliged to obey the judge's order, because he is the supreme executive authority in Florida, and if he judges that an assault is being made on the Florida state constitution, he can't plead the excuse that somebody else told him to tolerate that, any more than he could if he failed to deal with disorder in the state, or if he didn't stop a lynching, or anything else. He is the only one empowered to act, under the Florida state constitution, in the sense that the executive has the exclusive control of executive power, and there's no executive higher than he is. The county sheriffs, and all of that, they are all lower authorities than he.

Nobody can stand in his way when he is acting according to his oath, in order to fulfill his obligation to the Florida state constitution.

And he is also following, just incidentally, the view of the situation that is shared by the legislature, since the last word the legislature spoke as such was Terri's Law, which empowered him to do this. The judiciary is standing there saying, "No. This [law] is unconstitutional," but he has the right to say, "No. I have a separate executive responsibility, and I can't allow the constitution to be destroyed."

If he lets a judge use a county sheriff to stop him, then he has actually undermined the authority of the governor's office in Florida--which is another derogation of his duties, since, as governor, he is supposed to be protecting the responsibility and authority given to him by the state constitution.

DOYLE: I guess we've rewritten it from separate but equal, to separate but unequal branches of government.

KEYES: Exactly. In other words, what the argument implies that some people are trying to make is that the judiciary has supreme authority, that it can order about the legislature and the executive. But that would mean that they were subordinate branches, and that the judiciary was the supreme branch.

None of the constitutions anywhere in our states or at the federal level gives the judiciary that power. And Florida is explicitly clear. In Article 2, Section 3, I think it is, it states explicitly that no branch can exercise the power granted to another branch. So, the judge can have his opinion, but he can take no steps to enforce it. And if he tries to get a sheriff to support him, he is actually inciting insurrection against the government in Florida.

DOYLE: Our guest is Alan Keyes, former presidential candidate, author, lecturer. And they've got a very good website, www.RenewAmerica.us.

Mr. Keyes, there is an article from the Empire Journal on your website saying that the [Michael] Schiavo attorney, George Felos, is no stranger to Medicare fraud. It says here that an attending physician has to sign an order to have someone put into hospice care. In the case of Terri Schiavo, it says, "Not only is the medical evidence lacking, but the attending physician did not sign the certificate as required. Under federal law, in order to qualify for hospice care and Medicare benefits, there must be a proper certification of terminal illness, which is lacking in this case."

To me, there just seems every opportunity to find a way to get involved in this. I have to get a quick answer from you. Why won't Governor Bush do something?

KEYES: I really don't know. I've heard many speculations. I don't want to speculate as to his motives. I think there are people trying to tell him that he'd somehow be breaking the law if he disobeys this judicial order, but that's simply absurd.

To suggest that the judges have the ultimate say over executive power would mean that they are the supreme executive in Florida--but the Constitution says he is.

So that simply isn't true. And if he's being misled by that kind of bad advice into doing something, that would then be . . . I mean, not doing his duty is an impeachable offense. It would not be remiss in the legislature to look at him and say, "You're letting this constitution be destroyed, including the power of your own office--not to mention the constitutional rights of the individual, Terri Schiavo--and we are going to call you on the carpet for it. We are going to impeach you." That would be logical, and it would be in accordance with the Constitution.

DOYLE: Mr. Keyes, I'm coming up on a hard break. I gotta let you go. I appreciate you joining us on the program. Check out that website, www.RenewAmerica.us. Alan Keyes is our guest. And check out that article from the Empire Journal. There's too many red flags being raised here, folks.