Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s own home state paper is describing his “unprecedented lobbying effort” to get Congress involved in the Terri Schiavo case as “a testament to the influence of the governor and religious conservatives.” It continues on to foreshadow that the action “will be remembered as one of the most extraordinary moves in the halls of U.S. Congress ever seen on behalf of a single person who, until recently, was little-known to many in the country.” In the words of newly elected Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, Governor Bush called him up mere hours before Schiavo’s feeding tube was to be removed on Friday and instructed, “I’m not sure we can get it done here in Florida. Do whatever you can federally.”

So when Fox News pointedly asked Sen. Martinez why the federal government is “taking such extraordinary steps to intervene in the Schiavo case,” did the senator mention any of these behind the scenes political machinations by the president’s brother? No.

The refrain from President Bush today is that he intervened in the Terri Schiavo case because “our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life.”

But the bill the president signed did nothing to change the presumptions in the law. Nothing in the bill changes the legal standards that the judge will use for Terri Schiavo. Article 5 of the bill explicitly states, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to create substantive rights not otherwise secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States or of the several States.” All it does is extend the duration of the litigation by having a federal court apply the exact same standards as the Florida courts have applied.

At the gaggle this morning, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan defended a law Bush signed as governor of Texas in 1999:

The legislation he signed is consistent with his views. You know, this is a complex case and I don’t think such uninformed accusations offer any constructive ways to address this matter…[P]rior to the passage of the ’99 legislation that he signed, there were no protections…The legislation was there to help ensure that actions were being taken that were in accordance with the wishes of the patient or the patient’s family.

McClellan’s statement grossly distorts the nature of the law. The law does not ensure that actions are taken “in accordance with the wishes of the patient or the patient’s family.” In fact it codifies and legalizes the ability of doctors to stop treatment even if it goes against the explicit directive of the patient or the patient’s family.

Check out Section 166.046, Subsection (e):

If the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient is requesting life-sustaining treatment that the attending physician has decided and the review process has affirmed is inappropriate treatment, the patient shall be given available life-sustaining treatment pending transfer under Subsection (d). The patient is responsible for any costs incurred in transferring the patient to another facility. The physician and the health care facility are not obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment after the 10th day after the written decision required under Subsection (b) is provided to the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient …

Scandal-plagued House leader Tom DeLay has been a constant fixture of the wall-to-wall Terri Schiavo coverage in recent days, declaring the case a “moral and legal tragedy” while repeatedly demagoging Michael Schiavo. And according to ABC News, “DeLay Says He’s Not Giving Up Schiavo Fight.”

All that grandstanding might give you the impression that DeLay has been on the frontlines of the Schiavo case for months. Not so. In fact, according to Lexis-Nexis, the first story mentioning both Schiavo and DeLay was a St. Petersburg Times report on March 11, 2005 — just ten days ago. The first reference to Schiavo on DeLay’s congressional website appears to be a press release from yesterday. DeLay’s other website, MajorityLeader.gov, includes three stories on Schiavo — all dated either March 19 or March 20, 2005. [UPDATE: Just noticed, one of the three items was posted 3/19 but dated 3/18.]

Not that DeLay wasn’t getting plenty of press before the Schiavo case exploded — it just wasn’t the kind he was looking for. A Google search found a whopping 1,150 stories featuring Tom DeLay and either “scandal,” “controversy,” or “ethics” in the last two weeks alone.

New polling numbers on the Schiavo case have been released by ABC News. Here are some highlights:

- 70% of Americans say it is inappropriate for Congress to involve itself in the Schiavo case.

- 67% of Americans “think the elected officials trying to keep Schiavo alive are doing so more for political advantage than out of concern for her or for the principles involved.” (Just 19% believe the elected officials are acting out of concern for her or their principles.)

- 58% of Republicans, 61% of independents and 63% of Democrats oppose federal government intervention in the case.

- 50% of evangelicals oppose federal government intervention in the case, just 44% approve of the intervention.

- 63% of Catholics and a plurality of evangelicals believe Schiavo’s feeding tube should be removed.

In his statement on the Terri Schiavo case, President George Bush claimed that in cases “where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life.” He then triumphantly ended his statement by asserting that he would “continue to stand on the side of those defending life for all Americans, including those with disabilities.”

Has the president had a change of heart since his days as governor of Texas?

In 1999, he opposed a bill that would have banned execution of the mentally incapacitated in Texas. Then, a year later, he was too busy campaigning to grant a reprieve on the execution of Oliver Cruz, a mentally retarded individual diagnosed with an IQ of 63. Despite the behest of the American Bar Association and “officials from France, Sweden, and the European Union,” Texas carried out the execution under the authority of then Lt. Gov. Rick Perry.

After rising to the position of Texas governor, Perry not only followed in the footsteps of his predecessor, but also echoed his words. Ignoring a growing consensus that the mentally incapacitated should not be executed, Perry vetoed a similar ban and said that “taking death penalty decisions away from jurors in such cases ‘basically tells the citizens of this state, ‘We don’t trust you.””

It might be difficult to ever address these issues with President Bush, since hours before the execution of Cruz, Bush maintained that “Texas doesn’t execute mentally retarded killers.” And despite five other cases of executing the mentally incapacitated and his personal opposition to any legislation that would have stopped the practice, “when told that several states [had] banned the execution of mentally retarded inmates, Bush said, ‘So do we, in Texas.’”

A new study by the Defense Deparment reports the disturbing statistic that one out of every seven female students attending one of the U.S. military academies last year has been sexually assaulted. And more than half of the women at the Naval, Air Force and Army report they’d been sexually harassed at some point during their time on campus.

Asked about this on yesterday’s Meet the Press, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard Myers said: “Well, I guess it’s a problem that’s not all that untypical in other universities as well.”