'DeLay'ing the Inevitable

Even after being stripped of his leadership title, and with his approvals rivaling Dubya’s for ‘lowest in the land’, Tom DeLay is still using intimidation to get what he wants.

Four Houston television stations that originally had sold airtime for an Anti-DeLay commercial refused to air it Wednesday after an attorney for DeLay (campaign lawyer Don McGahn) objected. (BTW, the ad was and is accessible on cable channels and the Internet; in fact you can see it here)

What was the station’s excus—, sorry, ‘reasons’ for the decisions? Well, in reality, they didn’t offer up much in any justification for not showing the ads.

They also refused to comment if the letter from McGahn had any influence in their decision making process… (I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say… ‘yes’… but that’s just me… and anyone else with the ability to decide things on their own)

Two Liberal groups (Public Campaign Action Fund and Campaign for America's Future) bought a week's worth of ad time for the commercial that highlighted the surfeit of ethical questions about DeLay and his (extremely) close dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. (Remember him? He’s the über-lobbyist that pleaded guilty to corruption charges last week and is has decided to cooperate with the federal investigation of his contacts with members of congress and their aides)

Now, if DeLay and his bloodsucking lawyers had an ounce of common sense in their collective heads they would have realized that a controversy of this nature plays right into the hands of the groups that financed the ad (which did get airtime on CNN Headline News and CNBC… for free)

Why do I say that? Think about this; DeLay's work to keep it off the air has become the story and produced much more attention than the commercial alone ever could. Meaning the impact of the ad has been exaggerated 10 fold because of this little ‘spat.’(I guess, for his lawyer's actions, we should be grateful then)

Now… in all fairness, and in order to practice tolerance for those that disagree with us, let’s remember that Democrats waged a (for the most part) unsuccessful campaign to prevent the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) ad from airing during the 2004 Presidential campaign. That played into the SBVT’s hands because, originally, the ad was only supposed to run in three battleground states (Ohio, West Virginia and Wisconsin) in a total of seven medium-size markets. But because the Democrats complained, it got national airtime… again, like the DeLay ad, for free. Remember, the classic “Daisy” ad of 1964 aired only once, and 1988's “Revolving Door” ad only ran a couple of times, yet each one mutated into it’s own story and, to whatever extent, affected those races.

What was within the letter that McGahn sent? Well, it “implied” that the stations would be legally responsible for airing falsehoods about DeLay if the ads ran as scheduled.

Never mind that broadcasters can only be liable for damages if they air something that they know to be false, let’s look at this for what it truly is; a preposterous exercise in futility.

What about the title of this post, 'DeLay'ing the Inevitable, what does that mean? Well, besides being a great pun with wordplay, it means that no matter what DeLay does, no matter how many times he tries to manipulate the wheels of justice, the wheel will come around to him, the karma (which, if you couldn't tell, is a concept that is a big part of this site) will catch up to him, and in the end, he will get what he has coming to him. Losing his majority seat was only the beginning...