Posted on 04/12/2005 3:54:11 PM PDT by leepbutler
This is how a recent Associated Press news release started, “The No. 3 Republican in the Senate said Sunday that embattled House Majority Leader Tom Delay needs to answer questions about his ethics and ‘let the people then judge for themselves’.”
There’s just one problem with the assertion made by the Associated Press. Senator Rick Santorum didn't say anything about Congressman Delay answering questions about his ‘ethics’.
“I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it,” Santorum said. “And let the people then judge for themselves.” Where is all this talk about Delay ‘answering questions about his ethics’?
That’s just one example of media elitists interjecting their own bias and attacks on Congressman Delay or any other Conservative for that matter into what they disguise as news. Another problem with this attempted ‘bait and switch’ story is that wasn't all Senator Santorum said.
“But from everything I’ve heard, again, from the comments and responding to those,” Santorum elaborated, “is everything he’s done was according to the law.” If Senator Santorum believes everything Congressman Delay has done ‘was according to the law’, how could the media make the accusation that he was claiming Delay needed ‘to answer questions about his ethics’ and it not be a liberal attack by media elitists?
Even Congressman’s Delay’s spokesman, Dan Allen pointed out this media bias saying that Delay, “looks forward to the opportunity of sitting down with the ethics committee chairman and ranking member to get the facts out and to dispel the fiction and innuendo that’s being launched at him by House Democrats and their allies.”
One of those ‘allies’ is a ‘Republican’ from Connecticut, Christpher Shays who openly attacked Delay saying, “Tom’s conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election.”
No, Representative Shays, what is hurting Republicans are other Republicans who aid in the media feeding frenzy of misinformation surrounding this issue and run scared from weak warnings handed out by Democrats such as Senator Christopher Dodd, also from Connecticut, who said, “Be careful about how closely you embrace Mr. Delay.”
You see, Democrats have an ulterior motive at play in their assault on the character of Senator Delay that the media has been successful keeping quiet for the most part. Democrats have set their sights on winning Delay’s district for the first time since 1984. Since he only won in Novenber by a margin of 55 to 41, Democrats see him as being vulnerable. Especially if they can manipulate a negative image of him with the help of media elitists.
Let’s look at the Terri Schiavo issue. Media elitists have been beside themselves over Delay’s statement that, ‘The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.’ The media itself had a vested interest in Terri’s eventual death, because of their own campaign of misinformation and that statement was taken by the press as a direct attack on them.
After days of endless media bombardment on his character, Senator Delay clarified his comment. “Mischaracterizing a call for the judiciary to publicly explain its reasons for taking an innocent woman’s life as threatening to ‘our fundamental democracy’ reveals either ignorance of or contempt for the framework of checks and balances that makes our constitutional republic possible.”
Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) and several editorialists claim that the actions of Congress and Delay’s comments concerning the attempt to save the life of Terri Schiavo are not constitutional. But that dastardly Delay called them on their mendacity. “The judiciary, like the executive, is independent of Congress, but at the same time subject to congressional oversight. If Congress believes a woman’s constitutional rights were denied, we have not only a right but an obligation to get some answers from the people responsible.”
Bingo! How many hundreds of times lately have we heard from Democrats that we need more ‘Congressional oversight’ of the executive branch? Yet questioning the reasoning of the judiciary is out of bounds?
The media has even tried to bring President Bush into the fray as if he were also attacking Delay by asserting his statement that he endorses ‘an independent judiciary’ and said, “I believe in proper checks and balances,” somehow constitutes a contradictory position to Delay’s.
Delay also believes in an independent judiciary with proper checks and balances, which in the Schiavo case, was exactly the reason Congress had the right to use ‘oversight’ to make sure Terri’s ‘due process’ hadn't been denied by the state judiciary. Whether you agree or disagree with the decision of the courts, Congress had the full right to take action in the case under Article III of the Constitution.
In the Charlotte Observer, the staff wrote an editorial in which they also tried to attack Delay by using an opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 1990, calling Scalia a ‘principled conservative’ (gasp) and Delay a ‘political opportunist’.
Scalia wrote in his opinion, ‘that American law has always accorded the State the power to prevent, by force if necessary, suicide - including suicide by refusing to take appropriate measures necessary to prevent one’s life; that the point at which life becomes ‘worthless’, and the point at which the means necessary to preserve it become ‘extraordinary’ or ‘inappropriate’, are neither set forth in the Constitution nor known to the nine Justices of this court any better than they are known to nine people picked at random from the Kansas City telephone directory; and hence, that even when it is demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that a patient no longer wishes certain measures to be taken to preserve his or her life, it is up to the citizens of Missouri to decide, through their elected representatives, whether that wish will be honored.”
Terri Schiavo never ‘demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence’ that she wanted to be starved to death... that assertion came from her adulterous husband. So as ‘their elected representatives’ Congress passed a decree trying to verify that her ‘due process’ hadn't been violated. The Observer inadvertently substantiated Delay’s position as they were obviously blinded by their own motive of vilification.
As for the ‘ethics’ charges, just as Senator Santorum said, it’s up to the people to decide... those who elected him... once they get a fully reported accounting of his actions, not the media spin that has taken place to date. So far every accusation against him could be leveled at most of the Representatives on Capitol Hill.
Does Harry Reid really want the American electorate to know how many of his family members and how much money they were paid and where the money came from to do jobs that were garnered based on his position in the Senate? If you live in a glass house...
Right now, liberals will say and do anything to try and destroy the Speaker of the House because if they bring him down they think it will tarnish and slow the rapid growth of the conservative movement that has gotten stronger in America and the media are willing accomplices in that endeavor because they are being called out too.
They can only reach that objective if Republicans stand back and do nothing more than watch as it transpires. Republicans were in the minority and effectively silenced for too many decades for our positive message and aggressive momentum to be undermined at such a crucial moment in history.
lee@leepbutler.com http://www.leepbutler.com
"Aspen Institute, the top provider of these trips is a favorite of Democrats. They spent a total of 2.7 million on 490 trips with 69.2% of the money spend on Democrats, 30% spent on Republicans, 0.8% spent on independents. The Aspen Institute forums are held in places like Rome, Barcelona, Honolulu, Porto Vallarta, and the Bahamas. From 2000 to 2004, despite being the minority party, Democrat members of Congress took 54.3% of the trips which is 2,730, at an expense of $7,809,837. Republicans took 45.3% of the trips, grand total 2,095 totaling $6-1/2 million. Bottom line: Democrats took over 600 more trips than Republicans between 2000 and 2004, and the top five trip makers in the order of most spent on the trips from 2000 to 2004 were all Democrats. John Breaux [retired: news ] was the top trip taker in Congress. He took trips totaling $158,311.92. Bob Wexler, Florida, number two. Wexler's only domestic trip was to Greenbrier up in West Virginia. Gene Green, Democrat, Texas, third top trip maker. Maurice Hinchey, New York, the fourth. Cal Cooley, Democrat, California, was the fifth." The Democrats are taking all these trips and they're focusing on DeLay and our guys don't stand up and defend him.
That's a really creative pun in the headline ... "delayed" ... I wonder how hard they had to come up with that.
Send the doilies right now ... to each and every GOP member of the US Congress and US Senate ... !!!
This is a bad time to attack Delay. With a year and a half to go before the next election, they will never keep this issue going until then. It will be forgotten by everyone except Tom Delay.
Democrats have not yet learned how to be a minority. But they will learn.
Click here for the 'tator take on whats happening in the house and senate.
Momentum?
The momentum died in the late nineties...........
But now that it's become clear the Democrats won't be regaining control of the House through their ideas, mainly because they have none, they're going back to what almost worked to get them back control of the House in the 90s, having someone in the House GOP leadership to demonize namely Newt Gingrich. By pasting Gingrich's picture next to every vulnerable GOP House incumbent in the 90s, the Dems. came quite close to re-gaining control.
The Democrats therefore have found a new whipping boy to demonize, Tom Delay. Their media allies are helping in the effort to make Delay radioactive. This will allow the Dems. to attach vulnerable candidates to Tom Delay and possibly give them back control of the Congress. Sen. Dodd's remarks about "don't get too close to Delay" are instructive. Clearly this demonization of Delay is an effort to give the Dems. an unpopular lightening rod figure to run against in 06 just like they did with Gingrich.
One of those ‘allies’ is a ‘Republican’ from Connecticut, Christpher Shays who openly attacked Delay saying, “Tom’s conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election.”
No, who is hurting the Republican Party is "men" like Christopher Shays who have no spine. If we lose any seats at all in 2006, the weak Republican leaders will be to blame. We are only as strong as the weakest link, Mr. Shays. Stand up and be a real man and a true leader.
TS
The AP sure fooled a ton of FReepers. Most of them were calling for Santorum's head.
They hate Tom Delay and want to ruin his reputation. That is all they can accomplish and the media will help them accomplish it.
But you can't seriously think the Democrats have any hopes of winning the house.
Dick Gephardt spent his entire political career trying to become the Speaker of the House. Dick did not run for the house again in 2004 because he knew there was not going to be a Democrat Speaker of the House in his lifetime.
Do you think that if Gephardt thought there was a snow balls chance in Hell that he could be speaker in 2006 or 2008 he would have retired?
The democrats have no hopes. They just want to hurt Delay.
The Republicans got enouhh state houses and state legislatures in 2000 that they were able to Gerrymander a majority of districts for Republicans. They expected to take the house in 2002, but Ross Perot but a bump in that road. But there was no way the Republicans were not going to win the house in 2004 and hold it at least until 2002. The Republicans Gerrymandered even more districts after they won most state houses in the 2000 election.
2012 or 2014 are the earliest years the Democrasts could hope to win the house. But it looks like from the 2004 returns that the Republicans may have 30 states to Gerrymander in 2011. Plus Democrats in some states don't want to loose their 70 to 30 Democrat districts to make more 53 to 47 Democratic districts. That is what is happened in California.
The Democrats can't win the house and they know it. Everyone knows it.
Even Rush got suckered by that one.
bookmark bump
Yes they did. And they will continue to attack as conservatives continue to win.
"But you can't seriously think the Democrats have any hopes of winning the house."
I think it would be an extremely tough row for them to hoe to get enough pick-ups to win the House. Very difficult? Yes. Impossible? No. The point of my post wasn't so much in terms of what I think but about what the Democrats think they can do by demonizing Delay. With the hatchet job the media is helping them do, it's not a terrible assumption.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.