Marilyn Musgrave Won't Look at Michael Schiavo

Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), the incumbent representative from Colorado who was initially expected to win big against her challenger, Angie Paccione, is probably not thrilled about her close association with the Republican party right now. Given the downward spiral of the GOP over the past few months, what used to mean a national spotlight, a bunch of money and some political power in Washington is now becoming an election year liability, with polls showing either a dead heat or Paccione with a slight edge when she was originally expected to lose big.

Musgrave has also become the target of Michael Schiavo, widower of Terry Schiavo, the woman who became the center of a national controversy when Republican Senators decided to pass a bill granting federal courts jurisdiction over a case filed by Schiavo's parents to prevent doctors from allowing her to die. Musgrave featured prominently in the politicization of the Schiavo case, speaking on the house floor about Schiavo's welfare and leading the charge to let the federal government intervene in her case.

This might explain why earlier this week Musgrave attempted to have Michael Schiavo unceremoniously removed from a debate she was having with Paccione, despite Schiavo's not having said or done anything.

About twenty minutes before the debate started and after speaking to several reporters about how Musgrave had voted to transform her values into our laws, I took a seat in the front row. As it turned out, I was seated next to the timekeeper who held up yellow and red cards to signal time to the candidates.

But just minutes after taking my seat, I noticed a flurry of activity around my seat including about four uniformed police officers who were - I would learn later - called in by Musgrave staffers and asked to remove me from the building.

At this point, I had made no speeches, I had no signs, had made no attempt to disrupt or cause any commotion. I only came into the auditorium, spoke to a dozen or so reporters and took a seat.

To their credit, the police refused the Musgrave campaign's appeal to have me removed.
This is taken from Michael Schiavo's blog, so like all first-hand accounts should be taken with a grain of salt. However, even if he was heckling Musgrave (and presumably the police really would have made him go if he had been) she was in the middle of a public debate - and had spoken out in support of the "Denver three" last year, the group of 3 antiwar individuals removed from a Bush "town hall meeting." If their being booted from a public forum was wrong, how was Schiavo's right?

However, Musgrave's hypocrisy aside, what follows in Schiavo's account is just bizarre.

After the police talked with obviously irritated Musgrave staffers and the debate organizer, the Musgrave campaign complained that my seat, next to the timekeeper, was inappropriate because - get this - Marilyn Musgrave would have to look at me. In an effort to appease the Musgrave camp, the debate organizers moved the timekeeper to the other side of the stage - about 15 seats away.

If you need to re-read that again, it's okay. A member of Congress who took to the floor of our Congress to speak about my wife, my family and my values made the debate timekeeper move so she wouldn't have to look at me.
She wanted him to move because she didn't want to have to look at him? This is someone that the voters trust enough to represent their interests best in Washington?

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