Schiavo’s Widower Starts PAC

Michael Schiavo, who fought for years to remove his wife, Terri, from a feeding tube that kept her alive, has turned his anger over Congress’ intervention into political action.

Schiavo announced Wednesday that he had opened TerriPAC to strike back at politicians who tried to keep his brain-damaged wife alive through legislation that he termed a “sickening exercise in raw political power.”

Throughout the years, Schiavo maintained that his wife would not have wanted to be kept alive artificially after being robbed of her brain function. Her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had sought to keep the feeding tube in and had rallied antiabortion forces to their side.

The case became a media spectacle and then a congressional slugfest when GOP leaders brought lawmakers back from Easter recess for an emergency vote on behalf of the Schindlers.

“It is not so simple to forget those politicians who shamelessly sought to squeeze political leverage out of my family’s most emotional hour,” said Schiavo, a Florida nurse who pointed out that he was a Republican before the congressional action.

Terri Schiavo, 41, suffered irreversible brain damage during a cardiac arrest in 1990 and died on March 31 after a prolonged court battle.

Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), who proposed the House legislation to intervene in the case, said Schiavo’s political action committee struck him as a “political stunt” because it focused on Republicans but not Democrats who voted for the bill. But he said he welcomed public attention to the issue.

“It might be good to have some debate on this issue: the right to access to food and water versus the so-called right to die,” Weldon said.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-Fla.), who led opposition to the measure, said she shared Schiavo’s outrage.

“The members that inserted themselves into the Schiavo family matter should have to answer for it,” she said.

Miami Democratic consultant Derek Newton, who is working with Schiavo to set up the PAC (www.TerriPAC.org), said the organization was nonpartisan. They hope to use most of the money raised for advertising in about 10 to 12 races nationally and 10 to 12 in Florida, he said.