Home > Tom "two-second" Delay Exposed
Majority Leader Tom DeLay began the month of March besieged by charges of corruption and ethics violations. In the past, the Hammer had weathered such storms by scurrying back into the tool shed ? avoiding press coverage and public appearances, and using surrogates to deflect accusations. Not this time. Instead, DeLay sought out media attention, assuming a highly visible leading role as Congress politicized the tragic case of Terri Schiavo and intervened in the family’s private end-of-life decision. Now, as public attention shifts away from Schiavo, DeLay’s political calculations seem to have backfired. In the past weeks, as many Americans were introduced to DeLay for the first time, the House leader has been exposed as the very picture of political opportunism and hypocrisy. Sign the petition demanding DeLay’s resignation.
CRASS OPPORTUNISM: Tom DeLay leveled some of the most extreme and inappropriate charges regarding the Schiavo case. He described the removal of Schiavo’s feeding tube as an "act of medical terrorism," demagogued Schiavo’s husband Michael on the floor of the House of Representatives, and said to a group of Christian conservatives that "God has brought [Terri Schiavo] to us ? to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America," referring to "attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others." Yet, for all his bombastic rhetoric, it appears DeLay’s involvement in the case was tied to politics, not principle. The Texas native apparently had little to do with the Schiavo controversy prior to the past few weeks. According to a search of LexisNexis, the first article mentioning both DeLay and Schiavo appeared on 3/11/05, while the first documents mentioning Schiavo on DeLay’s website were published March 18. And now, "in the face of the legal setbacks and of polls that show overwhelming disapproval of Congressional intervention, as well as a perception among the public that lawmakers trying it were motivated by politics," DeLay has once again "slipped out of the spotlight."
TRAGIC END-OF-LIFE HYPOCRISY: Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Tom DeLay personally endured an end-of-life crisis similar to the tragic Schiavo case. In 1988, DeLay’s 65-year-old father Charles was seriously injured during a freak tram accident at the family’s home in Canyon Lake, Texas. His injuries left the DeLay patriarch suspended in a coma, with doctors advising "that he would ’basically be a vegetable,’" according to the congressman’s aunt, JoAnne DeLay. After several weeks, as Charles’s organs began to fail, his family "confronted the dreaded choice so many other Americans have faced: to make heroic efforts or to let the end come." And, in a decision that belies his bellicose rhetoric of recent weeks, Tom DeLay "quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die."
TURN-AROUND ON TORT REFORM: As the last straw of hypocrisy, the Times detailed how DeLay’s family later filed suit against two companies responsible for a machine part that the family said had caused the accident. The case was resolved in 1993 with payment of about $250,000, compensation for the dead father’s "physical pain and suffering" and the mother’s grief and loss of companionship, among other things. "Three years later," the Times notes, "DeLay cosponsored a bill specifically designed to override state laws on product liability such as the one cited in his family’s lawsuit." Despite the benefits for his family, DeLay has taken a leading role promoting tort reform. He condemns trial lawyers who "get fat off the pain" of plaintiffs with "frivolous, parasitic lawsuits" that raise insurance premiums and "kill jobs."
Forum posts
30 March 2005, 17:29
My favorite quote from Delay"one thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America."
But what is going on is a problem with our democracy, not a personal problem in Tom Delay’s life. What we need to focus on is what Tom Delay has been doing in congress, and we need to hold him accountable for that. Sure he’s a hypocrite, but let’s analyze what he has been doing to our country, there are plenty of overt cases of corruption to look at, not a very tragic life and death decision. We want to make sure we don’t lower ourselves to the level of the corporate media and the republicans.
Why are all of the alternative news sites on the net focusing on Terri, knowing it is a distraction and yet they cover it incessantly? Why didn’t they cover the recent report by Rep. Slaughter illustrating the abuse of power in the House of Reps which has enabled Bush to thwart the constitution and get away with murder.
Report Documents Republican Abuse of Power: With This Congress, Democracy is Dead
31 March 2005, 13:53
The american mainstream is on a 24hr news cycle. they need fluff to pretend nothing is happening because no one wants to take responsibility. When they wake up and find out that most of their rights have been taken away, new laws make them a suspected terrorist before a citizen, and all public dissent is margianilized and/or criminalized, then we can all agree we live in a totaliterian regime. we won’t have to debate it anymore.
Why don’t the republicans just put the democrats on the suspected terrorist group lists. That’s what the nazis did and they were able to take over. what’s taking so long this time?
life will be easier for us citizens when the neo-cons are calling all the shots and we get rid of this silly voting thing. government is goooood, free thought is baaaaad.
31 March 2005, 14:48
US foreign policy has been responsible for between 10 million and 17 million deaths world wide since 1945.
Now the media is getting people to forget the ongoing slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan by blinkering and funelling perspective to what ? A woman that has been brain dead for 15 years , and a Michael Jackson showbiz/circus freakshow.
1 April 2005, 23:33
If this Schiavo case and the involvement of the dispicable Tom Delay prove anything to the American citizen it is that the conservative right wing, the group that pulls the strings in the White House, feel that they have a mandate to change your life. They will determine your values.
Like never before, the right wing is trying to "lock step" the American public into their way.
Preaching "Right to Life" and less government interference, this group of fanatics endorse the execution of 131 people in Texas institutions during the governor’s eight years, their fired up followers bomb legal abortion clinics and murder doctors for their cause. Now threats against judges and Mr. Schiavo or anyone who defends Terri Schiavo’s right to pass on, inflamed by DeLays comments both on the house floor as well as comments he’s made in interviews.
They stomp on your right to choose. Regardless if it’s same sex marrage or a women’s right to choose.
The most dangerous backlash from 9/11 is that the religous right feel that the Muslims have attacked their beliefs. Their response is the over the top drive to bring everyone to their knees.
I feel that as bad as the radical Muslim factions are, the conservative, right wing, morale "majority", Christian Right "fanatics" are just as bad and have the potential to do great harm.
It’s time for the level headed people of this country to take it back. We can not give quarter to such mean spirited people as Tom DeLay and the republican right wing.
Wake up America!
2 April 2005, 16:51
"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy." U.S. Representative Christopher Shays, R-CT, (New York Times, March 23, 2005)
For those new on the scene-
The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party
Theocracy is derived from the two Greek words Qeo/j(Theos) meaning "God" and kra/tein (cratein) meaning "to rule." Theocracy is the civil rule of God, or the belief in government by divine guidance.
The powerful Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Tom DeLay (R-TX) embodies government by divine guidance:
"He [God] is using me, all the time, everywhere, to stand up for a biblical worldview in everything that I do and everywhere I am. He is training me."
Tom DeLay represents an ultraconservative religious movement seeking to impose a narrow theological agenda on secular society. Chip Berlet and Margaret Quigley, senior analysts at Political Research Associates, have named this movement the theocratic right:
The predominantly Christian leadership envisions a religiously-based authoritarian society; therefore we prefer to describe this movement as the "theocratic right."
Do you know these people?
They are the seven highest ranking Republican Senators
in the U.S. Senate.
Every one of them received a scorecard of 100% from
Christian Coalition.
That means they voted with Christian Coalition 100%
of the time. They all received scores of 0 to 8% from the League of Conservation Voters — a consortium of environmental groups.
How were people representing such an extreme ideological
point of view elected to the top positions in the Republican
Party? The leaders of the Republican Party were chosen by
their colleagues who share their values.
Lots more information on dominionism, it’s worse then you think: FREE VIDEO
http://www.theocracywatch.org/audio-video.htm
4 April 2005, 07:43
The sanctimonious assholes make me sick, who could look at these hypocritical bastards and not feel like retching? Just their evil smiles and their histories of selfrightious crap is revolting especially when you take time to find out how they really live their own lives, all of them are depraved crooks, all of them. Tom DeLay is a perfect example, he is known for his womanizing while married and his money grubbing instead of doing his job, he has accepted (and been caught) taking bribes and expensive "gifts" in exchange for legislation favorable to his crook friends, and what a bullshit artist, he pulled the breathing tube from his own father after 2 weeks, and then he brought a big lawsuit against the medical profession. When he was confronted by this he blamed it all on other family members and tried to pretend he wasn’t involved. Yet he sponsored the laws that would keep you or me from doing either of those things, now that he has his, and has pulled the plug on his dying family member, he wants to tell you and me how we should live our lives....do as I say not as I do...Tom DeLay.
5 April 2005, 02:43
Nah man, you got Tom all wrong.. the guy is really, really swell,.. he just does lots and lots of bad stuff all the time because he knows that in order to do good, one must do lots of lots of bad stuff.. you know, its like alchemy, turning lead into gold, where lead is the bad stuff he does every freakin’ day .. and then .. somehow, its all in an effort to make gold... GO TOM DELAY!!! YAYE!!