The Parade of Buffoons, Disguised as Leaders

Most of the time I shake my head and wonder how these guys have managed to get so far without being laughed out of their jobs. I'm talking about the Tom DeLays of the world. These folks are genetically incapable of understanding how anyone could see things differently than they do. But the worrisome part of their personalities isn't their ignorance. It's their outrage at the possibility anyone could see things unlike they do that should cause us concern.

Surely you've heard what Delay said about the judges who ruled against Terri Schiavo's parents? His veiled threat was irresponsible beyond words. And this guy isn't some two-bit congressman from a backwater district. He's the leader of the Republican party in the house. This is thug-like behavior. The best and brightest should be running things, not two-bit asses like Delay.

There is a slice of people in the right wing, and Delay is their figurehead, who obsess about right-to-life issues. Thing is, their right-to-life logic plays out very strangely. Some of them actually feel as though they have a right to kill in the name of "life." And while Bush isn't that strange, he's not against courting the votes and emotion of those who are. He rarely distances himself from the extreme right wing, because he taps into their passion for his own good.

While claiming he errs on the side of life, Bush managed to oversee the execution of 152 men and women in Texas prisons. And that's to speak nothing of the unnecessary war that Bush waged in Irag, which may have killed as many as 100,000 people.

This erring on the side of life stance is flimsier than a rained-on paper towel.

Bush and DeLay are masters at exploiting the emotions of a public which has a superficial view of the life-n-death issue. They take our outrage at murder and focus it on those convicted of murder. Fine. But what about their alleged respect for the culture of life? Where does Bush's logic go when as governor, he signed away the lives of 152 people?

Regarding Schiavo, he and DeLay embraced the life issue of a woman who's been brain dead for 15 years. What an emotional drain it's been for the family to maintain a shell of a person in a bed for a decade and a half! Terri Schiavo had long ago checked out. But the home video of her made her look as though she were "there." So that emotional button was pushed, and then exploited by the culture of life folks.

And then when it was all over and done with, Tom DeLay issued threats. Can someone tell me why he hasn't been arrested for this?

Their logic is inconsistent, and emotion-based rather than fact based. That's a volatile combination that scares me more than any terrorist.