America is looking for a statesman

While we endure the presidential campaign frenzy, the voices of constant and reliable moral government leaders rise to the top.

Here’s one of them. Saturday on ‘America’s Lifeline’, Sen. Daniel Webster is the featured guest, and he is inspiring.

Three times he has earned the recognition as ‘Statesman of the Year’ in the Florida Senate. Talk about reforming government and encouraging bi-partisanship….Sen. Webster has long had a reputation for both.

Summarized in a Florida House resolution adopted unanimously April 28 naming the body’s largest committee room, “Speaker Daniel Webster Hall,” Webster “radically reformed” the Florida House “permanently changing the culture of the Florida Legislature,” according to House Resolution 9183.

The first Republican Speaker in 122 years emphasized the importance of family by requiring all House business be concluded no later than 6 p.m. He empowered members of the minority party by allowing their bills to be considered on their merits, rather than on partisanship. Webster revised the rules of the House and eliminated 72 committees.

Webster’s reforms “garnered him the widespread admiration and respect of those who served under him for his benevolence, the universal accolades of members and observers for his justice and fairness,” HR 9183 states…

“He is always the same. It does not matter if he is hanging out with the governor or if he is at church socials pitching softballs. He walks with integrity,” [Pastor Clayton] Cloer said.

Webster was an outstanding defender of Terri Schiavo’s rights during the ordeal that marked a turning point in America’s social consciousness on end-of-life issues and patients’ rights. He says her death by judicial fiat, with legislators unable to enact fundamental protections for such vulnerable Americans, was a dark day in the nation’s politics and culture.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama, a new senator in Washington at the time, now says his vote in Congress to recognize her due process rights and require her basic nutrition and hydration to continue…..was the vote he most regrets as a senator.

What is the role of government in establishing or protecting health care rights like Terri’s? Tune in to ‘America’s Lifeline’ and hear a true statesman answer that question, and how we ‘take care of the least of these’.