Holy Hypocrites

Either Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader and Republican darling from Texas, committed an "act of barbarism" on his own father or he has been using the poor Schiavo family as a bit of lighter fluid on the flames of the emotional barbecue called Republicans-Uber-Alles.

He himself coined the impassioned phrase, "an act of barbarism," to describe the removal of the feeding tube that was keeping Terri Schiavo alive. But he, along with his family in 1988, agreed to remove his own father from life-support according to the LA Times today. What, oh what could have made him commit such an evil act on his own father?

Did he love or hate his father? If we say that love was his motiviation in his decision about his father, it implies an opposite motivation in his opposite position about Terri Schiavo. But surely he doesn't hate her. Yet hate is there, as sure as love figured with his dad.

I think hate is a strong word. Yet the viciousness of the Republican assault on one hundred years of growing freedom and equality are being shut down on a single President's watch. The Republican Hate Machine has had such success fanning emotional issues into flashpoint absolutes that they don't know where to stop.

Democratic Senator Bill Nelson is up for reelection and Terri Schiavo looked like a good way to start another blaze. Pour some gasoline on the poor girl's suffering and let the President light the match with a stroke of a pen. I wonder what Mr. DeLay's would have felt if the Congress and President had told him he could not relieve his father's suffering.