DeLay and Schiavo: Who's saving whom?

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DeLay and Schiavo: Who's saving whom?

In our most cynical moments over the last few days, we began to wonder
whether Washington's obsession with the Terry Schiavo case weren't some
sort of wag-the-dog distraction from what would otherwise have been a
weekend marked with second-anniversary assessments of the Bush
administration's adventures in Iraq.

It may have been worse than that. As the New York Times reports

this morning, Tom DeLay told a conference organized by the
ultra-conservative Family Research Council Friday that God himself
handed Republicans the Terry Schiavo issue in order to help further
their conservative political agenda -- and to save DeLay from
accusations about his own ethical lapses.

"One thing that God has brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help
elevate the visibility of what is going on in America," DeLay says on a
tape provided to the Times by Americans United for Separation of Church
and State. "This is exactly the issue that is going on in America, of
attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many
others."

According to the Times, DeLay said that the "other side" has finally
learned how to "defeat the conservative movement" by engaging in
personal attacks and persuading the media to report on them. DeLay said
the "whole syndicate" -- and by that, we assume he means the
reality-based community
-- is
involved in a "huge nationwide effort to destroy everything we believe
in."

With Terri Schiavo, the man once known as "Hot Tub Tom" believes that
the religious right finally has a way to turn the fight around. In the
morality play that is Washington, we thought that Schiavo was the
victim and DeLay was playing her savior. It turns out that we had it
exactly wrong.