I had a hard time tracking down the New Yorker profile of Tom Delay I read back in the late 1990's, although I remember some of it quite vividly; how this exemplar of suburban Texas Republicanism went from killing bugs to destroying reputations in the House of Representatives; how he had a veritable army of lawyers vetting everything he did to ensure it was always just inside the technical boundary of the law; and how he had a religious conversion - or multiple ones, depending upon the time he tells the story - and became a devoted family man and Christian. Indeed, in 2002, something called The D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship awarded Delay the Christian Statesman of the Year award, as you can see here.
How fitting, then, that this Christian Statesman, appearing on Hardball last night, sputtered out lie after talking point after lie when questioned about it by Chris Matthews (Crooks & Liars has the video). While the evidence chain of the total corruption of the Christian Right is long indeed, the fact that an amoral thug like Delay was awarded anything with the word "Christian" shows the utter vacuousness of the right's claims that it is the defender of Christian values. Any morally upright Christian would call Delay to account - as the Rev. Phil Wogaman did for his parishioner, Bill Clinton - for his multiple failings. Instead, this Kennedy joker has a group that gives him an award.
What utter and complete buffoons.
UPDATE: Over at Alternet.org, there is a link to to this story, from the same Matthews interview, in which, confronted with words from a book published under his own name, Delay denies writing anything of the sort (in this case calling Dick Armey "drunk with ambition"; a bit like the sizzling cast iron skillet calling the unplugged but just used waffle-iron hot). How does this man think he has any credibility?
Virtual Tin Cup
