When Reality Outstrips Irony ...

by hilzoy

From the Dallas News:

"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Saturday decried "overheated" political debate that seeks to challenge the character of elected officials.

"It is unfortunate in our electoral system, exacerbated by our adversarial media culture, that political discourse has to get so overheated that it's not just arguments, but motives are questioned," Mr. DeLay told the National Rifle Association."

Wow. Just wow. Not since the Free Republic advised liberal bloggers to pay less attention to conspiracy theories has the unintentional irony meter come so close to exploding. This is, after all. Tom DeLay, whose previous contributions to civil political discourse include the following:

• ""The Democrats' hateful, moronic comments are beyond the pale, and the Democrats know it, but they don't care because they have nothing to offer the public debate but rage, resentment and quackery. Until other Democrats stand up against this hysteria, they're admitting to the country their party has no claim to national leadership." (cite)
• "Howard Dean's comments are an embarrassment to the democratic process and the Democrat Party. If this cruel, loudmouth extremist is the cream of the Democrat crop, next Novembers going to make the 1984 election look like a squeaker." (cite)
• ""The national Democrat Party seems to have lost its marbles," DeLay, R-Texas, said as he announced that Republicans are no more on the defensive, but are launching a counter-attack against Democratic criticism of the war in Iraq.

  DeLay said the criticism was born of pure partisan hate, void of logic or reason.

  "Their single organizing philosophy is an irrational, all-encompassing broiling hatred of George W. Bush," DeLay said. (cite)

• Not DeLay, but his Press Secretary, in an email: "This whole thing about not kicking someone when he is down is BS -- Not only do you kick him -- you kick him until he passes out -- then beat him over the head with a baseball bat -- then roll him up in an old rug -- and throw him off a cliff into the pounding surf below!!!!!" (cite)
• Not a quote but an episode: "The fracas started after Representative George Miller, a California Democrat, referred to an article from two years ago alleging that lobbyists had written legislation in DeLay's office.

  Obey, who had been watching the debate on his office television, raced to the floor with a copy of the article to help Miller.

  "That's chicken sh*t," DeLay, the third-ranking Republican in the House, shouted away from the microphone but in hearing range of reporters. He jabbed a finger into Obey's chest, then shoved him. Several by-standers, including Miller, leaped forward to separate the pair. --Boston Globe" (http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1111/is_n1766_v294/ai_19550352">cite)

These are just the first quotes I found; I didn't have the stomach to revisit the cesspool that was political rhetoric during the Clinton impeachment. And let us also not forget that Tom DeLay comes from the party whose leadership, of which he was a member, sent out a memo urging Republicans to describe their opponents using words like corrupt, destructive, failure, greed, hypocrisy, pathetic, self-serving, shallow, sick, and traitors. I can see describing as argument as pathetic, but only a person can be a traitor.

Comments

[dmbeaster]

So the reptile can also shed crocodile tears. What's his next trick?

Maybe he should give a Swaggart "I have sinned" speech to the faithful.

[cleek]

it's hard to believe that a guy this dumb wields so much power. how in the world can anyone be outfoxed or outsmarted by someone who seems like a pathological* liar.

(* - not a doctor, just like the big word)

[rilkefan]

dmbeaster, that's just what I was thinking about.

It's hard to believe such recklessness and shamelessness could converge in the leadership of the most powerful nation in history - or maybe it's to be expected. As a friend likes to say, "It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye."

[Phil]

Tom Delay would make a good far-right-wing blogger; he apparently suffers under the delusion that nobody's ever going to fact-check him.

Seriously, this guy has long since passed "Jim-Traficant-eccentric" and gone into "Raving Batsh*t Loony." I've voted for some eccentrics before (I lived in Kucinich's district -- and voted for him!) but I am at a loss as to how someone like this gets elected.

[rilkefan]

OT: not a new discovery, but reality bites.