Batshit Insane

Via Kevin Drum, we see that Governor Bush has jumped off the deep end:

Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo wasn't to be removed from her hospice, a team of Florida law enforcement agents were en route to seize her and have her feeding tube reinserted — but they stopped short when local police told them they would enforce the judge's order, The Miami Herald has learned.

....For a brief period, local police, who have officers around the hospice to keep protesters out, prepared for what sources called a showdown.

...."It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police," the official said. "It was not too long after that Jeb Bush was on TV saying that, evidently, he doesn't have as much authority as people think."

Several things jump out at me here... first, there were rumors about this possible scenerio winding their way around the blogosphere over the past couple of days, but I thought it was just melodramatic crap. In the period of time immediately surrounding his inauguration, we heard a lot of insiders who mused about the fickle nature of fate since Dubya was supposed to be the black sheep and Jeb was the considerate and smooth politician who was destined to follow his daddy's footsteps to the presidency. That's not a commentary on his politics per se, but more just a nice way of saying "Wow... Dubya's the dumb one and Jeb is the bright one... what happened here?"

Jeb certainly has politics that I abhor, but that doesn't necessarily make him stupid and rash, so when I read this bit this morning my jaw hit the keyboard. And then it dawned on me that this might have some severe long term consequences for Jeb... yes, the Schiavo case has thrown a lot of mud on the Republicans, but the fact that he was going to intervene in this way might cast some serious doubts on his judgment and ability to serve as the President. It might not be getting much press right now (SCLM anyone?) but that will probably change if he decides to run in 2008.