Bill Frist, Dancing While Sitting Down

From the Washington Post: washingtonpost.com

Frist Stands by Statements on Schiavo

By CONNIE CASS The Associated PressThursday, June 16, 2005; 12:46 PM

WASHINGTON -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Thursday he doesn't regret using his standing as a doctor to question Terri Schiavo's diagnosis from afar during the intense national debate over whether to remove her feeding tube.
Frist said he accepted the results of Schiavo's autopsy released Wednesday, showing severe, irreversible brain damage. But he stood by his statements on the Senate floor last March, when he argued that on videotape Schiavo appeared to respond to her family and doctors.
"Would I do it over again? Yes, I would do it over again," the senator told reporters. Frist, R-Tenn., said he had only sought to make sure the most up-to-date testing was performed to determine whether Schiavo was truly in a persistent vegetative state, the diagnosis accepted by state courts.
"I never made the diagnosis, I wouldn't even attempt to make a diagnosis from a videotape," said Frist, a heart surgeon.
Frist and other Republicans pushed through unprecedented emergency legislation, signed by President Bush, aimed at prolonging Schiavo's life by allowing the case to be reviewed by federal courts. But federal courts rejected the parents' request to have her feeding tube reinserted.
Debating the emergency legislation, Frist questioned the diagnosis of doctors who said Schiavo's smiles and eye movements were automatic responses and not evidence of consciousness.
"I question it based on a review of the video footage. ... And that footage, to me, depicted something very different than persistent vegetative state," Frist said at the time. He also said that "she certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli."
In fact, Schiavo's brain damage left her blind, according to the autopsy in Pinellas County, Fla., where she lived in a hospice.
The medical examiner said the results were consistent with a persistent vegetative state _ the diagnosis husband Michael Schiavo used to argue Schiavo wouldn't won't to be kept alive in her condition.
Polls have found a majority of Americans opposed federal involvement and the issue contributed to a drop in approval ratings for the Republican-controlled Congress.
Frist said the autopsy should mark the close of a divisive chapter.
"The diagnosis they made is exactly right. It's the pathology, I'll respect that. I think it's time to move on," Frist said earlier Thursday on CBS' "The Early Show."


Yes, I suppose he would think that.