And in the center ring

Jeb sends out state agents to kidnap Terri Schiavo, only to see their attempts thwarted by local police.

From the original Miami Herald article (painful registration required):

Hours after a judge ordered that Terri Schiavo was not to be removed from her hospice, a team of state 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 Herald has learned.

Agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement told police in Pinellas Park, the small town where Schiavo lies at Hospice Woodside, on Thursday that they were on the way to take her to a hospital to resume her feeding.

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

In the end, the squad from the FDLE and the Department of Children & Families backed down, apparently concerned about confronting local police outside the hospice.

It's amazing to me that it came to this.

"There were two sets of law enforcement officers facing off, waiting for the other to blink," said one official with knowledge of Thursday morning's activities.

In jest, one official said local police discussed "whether we had enough officers to hold off the National Guard."

"It was kind of a showdown on the part of the locals and the state police," the official said. "It 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."

State officials on Friday vigorously denied the notion that any "showdown" occurred.

Sure it didn't... And everyone knows that Jeb would never put everyone there, including all of those kids who keep getting sent to be arrested by their parents, in risk. But maybe there was a loophole and the judge's order was vague, right?

Greer signed an order Wednesday afternoon forbidding DCF from "taking possession of Theresa Marie Schiavo or removing her" from the hospice. He directed "each and every and singular sheriff of the state of Florida" to enforce his order.

Maybe not.