Thursday, March 24, 2005
We Can Do Anything We Need To...
Today Reuters published an article titled "Republican Leader Invokes God in Schiavo Battle," which discusses an address made by Rep. Tom DeLay, House Majority Leader, to a meeting of the Family Research Council on Friday (3/18/05), just before he returned to the Capitol Building to finish working on his efforts to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case.
I've seen commentary on DeLay's comments that God brought Terri Schiavo to the conservatives to shed light on their cause. DeLay has been criticized for exploiting Schiavo for political gain.
Time Magazine online has a transcript of DeLay's address. I find many of his statements distorting of reality and rather disturbing, but the whole thing is summed up best by one of his final statements:
And Tom DeLay says to this group "We can do anything we need to do to pass any bill that we need to pass." I don't find this comforting. Frankly, I do value individual rights, and don't find it appropriate or constitutional that anyone's intepretation of their religious texts should trump those individual rights that are protected by law. Those protections are there for a reason, one of which is to prevent them from being trampled by mob rule. Increasingly, I'm seeing Rep. DeLay as someone whose goal is to get that mob all riled up behind him, and to have that mob focuse on whatever and whoever stands in his way, rather than on anything in his own actions that might not be helpful to his own political ambitions. I have the feeling that Rep. DeLay feels he can do anything he needs to do not only to pass any bill, but to go after any target and promote any goal.
The time is approaching rapidly when he will no longer be able to exploit Terri Schiavo for his goals. What or who will he grab next?
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I've seen commentary on DeLay's comments that God brought Terri Schiavo to the conservatives to shed light on their cause. DeLay has been criticized for exploiting Schiavo for political gain.
Time Magazine online has a transcript of DeLay's address. I find many of his statements distorting of reality and rather disturbing, but the whole thing is summed up best by one of his final statements:
We can do anything we need to do to pass any bill that we need to pass.The House Majority Leader has specifically stated this to members of Focus on the Family, an extremely conservative religious group which lists "Government and Public Policy" as one of their ministries. They describe this ministry as follows:
"Now more than ever, we at Focus recognize the need to make our voices heard in the public square. Judicial tyranny, the homosexual agenda, pornography and gambling are among the front burner issues that threaten the foundation of the family. In a nation where individual "rights" increasingly trump biblical truth, abortions continue to be performed at alarming rates. On a larger scale, a world unschooled in the value of premarital abstinence is fraught with diseases like AIDS."
And Tom DeLay says to this group "We can do anything we need to do to pass any bill that we need to pass." I don't find this comforting. Frankly, I do value individual rights, and don't find it appropriate or constitutional that anyone's intepretation of their religious texts should trump those individual rights that are protected by law. Those protections are there for a reason, one of which is to prevent them from being trampled by mob rule. Increasingly, I'm seeing Rep. DeLay as someone whose goal is to get that mob all riled up behind him, and to have that mob focuse on whatever and whoever stands in his way, rather than on anything in his own actions that might not be helpful to his own political ambitions. I have the feeling that Rep. DeLay feels he can do anything he needs to do not only to pass any bill, but to go after any target and promote any goal.
The time is approaching rapidly when he will no longer be able to exploit Terri Schiavo for his goals. What or who will he grab next?
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Posted by Rogueslayer at 10:13 AM 
