Very impressed with Michael Schiavo....his interview at MyDD.

[madfloridian]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2005/12/13/194157/36

MyDD Interview with Michael Schiavo
by Matt Stoller

Michael Schiavo just started a PAC called TerriPAC to hold politicians accountable for putting "their own political agenda ahead of our basic rights." Michael is a former lifelong Republican.

Matt Stoller: Michael, a lot of us were horrified watching the intrusion of the government into the private life of your family. At what point in your 15 year journey did politicians begin to see political advantage in intervening in your family's private and painful lives?

Michael Schiavo: The political circus officially began in 2003 when Governor Bush got together with some legislators and decided their political needs should overrule my private family decisions and the decisions of Florida courts.

The politics became national when their efforts in Florida didn't work

.

He further points out that the whole thing appeared to be planned by the Republicans, and he blasts them. He was a life-long Republican previous to this.

Matt Stoller: I see from your website that you were a life-long Republican before this episode. There are many Republicans who were horrified by what happened to you and your family. Many of them believe that this episode was a mistake, or an outlier, in other words, that it is not representative of what the Republican Party really stands for. Do you agree? Has the Republican Party been taken over by extremists? What message do you have for moderates who still think they have a home in the Republican Party?

Michael Schiavo: No, I don't agree that what happened to me and my family was either a mistake or an "outlier."

The politicians, most of whom were Republicans, knew exactly what they were doing. There was even a printed memo from a U.S. Senator's office spelling out how to take political advantage of me and Terri.

Even just a few days ago, Republican Congressman Chris Shays said what the Republicans did to my family was an "embarrassment" and said it was "designed to give Tom Delay a platform." So, I believe it was a plan - a design.

Interfering with families' rights to make private, personal decisions shouldn't be any politician's platform.

I am so concerned with all my religious extremist congressmen and legislators here that I think I will join his PAC.

[Warpy]

1. I'm impressed with anyone with the brains and guts

to make it through nursing school, which most of us remember with the same sort of nostalgia experienced by survivors of the Bataan Death March. That he maintained grace and dignity in the center of a fundy circus adds greatly to my admiration for this man.

He's right about his party, though. They left him the way my party left me.