Don't DeLay, Pull His Plug

The Congressional freak show being staged by Tom DeLay only gets more bizarre with each passing day. Like a wacko standing on a soapbox at Hyde Park Corner, Tommy Boy does all he can to outscream those just down the sidewalk. He will apparently do anything to draw a crowd.

I refer, of course, to his less-than-veiled threat of retribution against the judges involved in the Terri Shaivo Show. (coming soon on DVD!) But wait a minute? Isn't threatening a judge grounds for legal action? Isn't the Majority Leader acting like a Congressional Terrorist? Isn't he just fucking nuts?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

But, as we all know, it goes deeper that that. Read this quote, from todays New York Times,

Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, said: "It is a tragic, unfortunate but avoidable event that should awaken Americans to the problem of the courts. It is no longer theoretical. It is life or death."

The key words there are "the problem of the courts." In the last election cycle the right-wing began using the phrase, "Liberal activist judges," which basically means any judge that doesn't rule the way they want them to rule, whether supported by the rule of law or not. They would, of course, have no problem with "conservative activist judges," because they would tender their decisions based on the rule of God. But that's getting off topic.

The "LAJ" tag clearly resonated with the conservative base, but it was missing something. It was vague, it referred to a diffuse group of judges...not to a single one or a small group, who could be hauled up on the cross and crucified.

That's where the Shaivo Show comes in. The Right now has it's case celebre. It now has specific judges and a "life and death" issue to point to when attempting to trash and ridicule any judge it wants. Because they are so willing to cast aside any sense of moral or ethical behavior to get what they want (which is mostly just power, plain and simple) DeLay, Santorum, Frist, Dobson, the Bush Brothers and a host of others have manipulated the Shaivo Show masterfully.

The bottom line is this; there would not have been a Shaivo Show without these people. They found it, developed it and scripted it. They lit the fire and watched it burn. These "fine Christian men" appealed not to reason and faith, but to the basest, most hurtful human tendencies; anger and fear.

If I were a religious man, I'd pray for their souls. As it it, I can only pray that, this too, will pass.