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 Gov. Bush Is Rebuffed in Schiavo Case
 
 By Manuel Roig-Franzia
 
  PINELLAS PARK, Fla., March 23  --  Florida Gov. Jeb Bush again raised the possibility  of the state's intervention in the frantic battle over Terri Schiavo, asserting Wednesday that the state may have authority to take custody of the brain-damaged woman even though the federal courts have refused to resume her tube-feeding.
 
  But a circuit judge  in Pinellas County issued an order preventing the Adult Protective Team of the Florida Department of Children and Families from taking Schiavo from her hospice and reinserting her feeding tube. The possibility of an appeal or some other move by the state lent a dramatic note to the rapidly moving legal struggle.
 
 Bush's attempt to  again enter the case came the same day that Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, were twice rejected by a federal appeals court and lost a battle in the Florida legislature to keep their daughter alive. Undeterred, the Schindlers pushed their case to the next court level, appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, while still hoping that Bush would come up with a way to use the power of Florida's state government to trump the courts.
 
  "I'm doing everything within my power to make sure that Terri is afforded at least the same rights that criminals convicted of the most heinous crimes take for granted," Bush (R) said at a late-afternoon news conference in Tallahassee.
 
  Schiavo's feeding tube has been out since Friday, and doctors say she could die within two weeks, leaving her supporters increasingly desperate for an eleventh-hour intervention to save her. Early Wednesday, demonstrators camped outside her hospice in this town across the bay from Tampa while another group packed into the rotunda of the state Capitol in Tallahassee. Schiavo supporters have posted "Wanted" signs there in hopes of pressuring nine Republican senators to change their minds and support a law that would force doctors to resume the 41-year-old woman's feeding.
 
  But the intense lobbying effort failed Wednesday afternoon when the state Senate voted 21 to 18 against a bill that would have prevented the removal of feeding tubes from vegetative patients, such as Schiavo, who did not leave written instructions about their wishes.
 
  Before the vote, Sen. Dennis L. Jones (R), who represents Pinellas County, said he had felt pressured by Bush in 2003 and "voted wrong" when he supported a bill backed by the governor intended to save Schiavo that was later declared unconstitutional.
 
  "I certainly wouldn't make that mistake again," said Jones, who on Wednesday voted against the Bush-backed bill. 
 
  Jones and other lawmakers who have declined to support efforts to keep Schiavo alive have been the subject of angry Internet commentaries, e-mail campaigns and protests. On Tuesday, Jones said, 20 demonstrators sat on the floor of his local office in Seminole  --  a town near Schiavo's hospice  --  and refused to leave. Sheriff's deputies  were summoned to remove them, he said.
 
  The Schiavo case has been profoundly divisive in the Capitol, occupying so much time that some Florida newspaper editorials have demanded that lawmakers turn their attention to other pressing state business. Even in Pinellas County, opinions are split. When the state Senate and House voted last week on bills designed to keep Schiavo alive, half the county's delegation voted yes and half voted no.
 
  Rep. Everett S. Rice (R), the former Pinellas County sheriff, was confronted by a lawmaker who pushed for the Schiavo legislation a few days ago. "We're saying a special prayer for you," Rice said his colleague told him.
 
  Bush has been the public face of Florida government efforts to resume Schiavo's tube-feeding. His brother, President Bush, said Wednesday that "this is an extraordinary and sad case" but that he would wait for the courts to decide it.
 
   Jeb Bush has spoken about the case repeatedly and emotionally. But his storied mastery of legislative arm-twisting failed Wednesday.
 
  Bush based his assertion that Schiavo should be kept alive on what he called  "new information" about her condition gleaned by William P. Cheshire, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., whom the state had asked to evaluate her condition. Cheshire has not formally examined Schiavo, but he did observe her at her bedside and review the videotapes of her appearing to react to her family. Bush said Cheshire had determined that Schiavo may be in a "minimally conscious" rather than a "persistent vegetative" state. The distinction is important because recent studies have suggested that patients in minimally conscious states might have some cognitive powers and may have hope of recovery.
 
  "Several times I witnessed Terri, albeit it inconsistently, laugh in response to a humorous comment someone in the room made," Cheshire wrote in an affidavit submitted to the Pinellas County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
 
  Cheshire's observation conflicts with the conclusions of court-appointed neurologists, who have examined her closely and say Schiavo's cerebral cortex has been liquefied and that she cannot feel, sense or think.
 
  Cheshire has been associated with the Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity, an organization formed in the 1990s by leading Christian bioethicists. A poem attributed to him about assisted suicide is posted on the Web site Ethics & Medicine (www.ethicsandmedicine.com):
 
  "The notion of a right to die/ In reason finds approval nil,/ From such a harsh judicial lie/ Would obligate doctors to kill."
 
  Although the conclusions of Cheshire and the attempted intervention by Bush stirred emotions on talk radio and in legal circles, the familiar wrenching scenes of the Schindler family's vigil played out in Pinellas Park. Mary Schindler, whose appearance outside the hospice is now routinely greeted by cheers from supporters, stood with her family again Wednesday and pleaded.
 
  "When I close my eyes at night, all I can see is Terri's face in front of me, dying, starving to death," she said. "Please, someone out there, stop this cruelty. Stop the insanity. Please let my daughter live."
 
  The demonstrators surrounding Schindler have maintained a mostly peaceful demeanor, quietly praying or silently holding signs. A small symbolic act lead to 10 arrests Wednesday morning when a group of protesters  --  including three children  --  tried to get around police and deliver water to Schiavo.
 
  The arrests were sandwiched between appeals court rulings that left the Schindlers with little hope in the federal courts, short of the U.S. Supreme Court taking the case. That seemed unlikely to many legal experts because the high court refused to hear appeals of state court rulings in the case, though new issues may have been raised by the congressional law that shifted jurisdictions to the federal courts. An appeals court panel voted 2 to 1 to reject the Schindlers' appeal, siding with attorneys for Schiavo's husband, Michael Schiavo, who says his wife would have wanted her feeding tube removed. Later the full court refused to hear the case.
 
  "There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo," wrote Judges Ed Carnes and Frank M. Hull of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. "We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children. However, we are called upon to make a collective, objective decision."
 
 In dissent, Judge Charles R. Wilson wrote, "I fail to see any harm in reinserting the feeding tube."
 
  The judges ruling against the Schindlers have been the objects of great derision here in Pinellas Park, where demonstrators have carried signs that say "God's law" should supersede "man's law." As the adults argued about the court rulings, a 16-year-old girl named Katrina Munchmore stood balancing a 14-foot cross she had built Wednesday morning with her dad. A sign attached to the cross was inspired by the words Christians believe Jesus spoke before he died: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
 
 Staff writer Dana Milbank and research editor Lucy Shackelford in Washington contributed to this report.
 
   

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