Questions on Schiavo Bedevil Giuliani

For a full transcript of Mayor Giuliani's remarks in Florida on March 4 about the Terri Schiavo case, please visit NYSunPolitics.com.

Mayor Giuliani's response to a question about the Terri Schiavo controversy while on the campaign trail in St. Petersburg, Fla., raises serious questions about the competence of his campaign staff and his discipline as a presidential candidate.

The comments last week indicated that Mr. Giuliani supported the congressional intervention in the Schiavo case in 2005. However, they also made it clear that Mr. Giuliani was ill-prepared for the question.

(The Giuliani campaign refused to clarify the former mayor's position on the Schiavo case yesterday, despite repeated requests to do so from The New York Sun.)

"Can I ask you about Terri Schiavo?" a reporter asked at a press availability on April 4. "Did you support the congressional intervention to—"

At this point Mr. Giuliani cut in, according to a transcript provided by his campaign: "I believe I did. I don't, I, it's a while ago and I think I said that I thought every effort should be made to keep her alive. I don't know that I supported the, the whole thing to the very end, but I am not sure now."

Pushed by the reporter for a more specific (and coherent) answer about whether he thought the Schiavo intervention was appropriate, Mr. Giuliani said, "I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive."

Schiavo was in a "persistent vegetative state" in a Florida hospital in 1998 when her husband and guardian, Michael Schiavo, petitioned to remove her feeding tube. Her parents objected. The Florida courts sided with Mr. Schiavo, but the state Legislature and Governor Jeb Bush intervened on behalf of Terri Schiavo's parents. In 2005, Congress and President Bush intervened, passing and signing a bill requesting that the federal courts hear the case. The federal courts also sided with Mr. Schiavo, and Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed and she died in March 2005.

Responding to Mr. Giuliani's comments yesterday, political observers appeared both surprised by his position and confused by his lack of preparation.

"My first thought was, he didn't seem ready for the question," the president of American Values and a former Republican presidential candidate, Gary Bauer, said. "It sounded like he was thinking about his answer as the question was asked.

"I'm happy any time a competitor for the nomination tilts toward the pro-life side," Mr. Bauer said. But he added: "When you put all of it together with his other opinions on life, to be charitable, it seems confused at best."

"That's amateur hour 101," A Republican pollster, Tony Fabrizio, said. "How do you send a guy to the state, and the county, where this took place and expect you're not going to get a question?"

As for the candidate himself, Mr. Fabrizio asked: "How do you, on something like this, on something that was important to the rank and file, not know what your position was? And then how do you try to straddle it?"

Mr. Giuliani was always expected to walk a tough road as a pro-choice candidate in a prolife party. But a comment last week — during the same swing through Florida — that abortion must be funded with taxpayer dollars because it's "a constitutional right" has made the road even tougher.

If Mr. Giuliani expects to win over pro-life voters by siding with them in the Schiavo matter, he's likely to have another thing coming. "He's not going to make anybody happy," Mr. Fabrizio said. "It only probably makes them more angry. … You'll do anything to keep people alive, but you'll abort fetuses?"

rsager@nysun.com