John's Blog

I had the misfortune of seeing Ron Christie doing the talking head bit on TV yesterday. The discussion was about the troubles of Tom DeLay, and this doofus was putting an unabashed Republican spin on the matter (but that's his job, I know...he was debating with ex-Clinton aide Mickey Ibarra). He put forth the point the point of view (with a straight face, no less) that the problems DeLay faced were as a result of the vast left wing conspiracy, and that the only reason that the house didn't pursue his ethical violations, was that the Democrats were being obstructionists on the issue. Un-f'ing believable.

First of all, look at the facts: Republicans seem to be holding the winning hand as far as controlling the legislative and executive branches. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of "right-wing" friendly newsources, between Fox and the spinelessness of the main stream media. But the neo-cons seem to need villains in their world-view; not that there is any shortage of them but let's identify them correctly. Wikipedia tells us that "the word villain suggests that the villain's schemes stem from their own moral indifference or perversity of character." Umm...you can fill in the blanks here and jump to your own conclusions, but DeLay sounds like a more likely candidate for the villain role than the left wing or the liberal media does.

DeLay is beginning to twist in the wind, with some Republican voices joining those calling for this to come to an end, fearful I'm sure that some of the stench will rub off on them. He's showing no signs of "going gently" into the night, and I'm sure he will go down swinging. Should be an interesting train wreck.

Scott at Poetic Leanings points out how American Airlines is helping out poor 'ol Tom, and has a good idea on how to respond. Sounds like a good idea to me!