Upside?

Tom DeLay has generally tried to stay out of the limelight. The national limelight, that is (he doesn't mind far right crowds). The Schiavo case, whether or not he realizes it, is "smoking him out" and making him visible to a vast number of voters who probably didn't even know who he was until this week. Tom DeLay doesn't come off well. His speaking style is unimpressive. He doesn't look particularly good. And he's out there attacking Michael Schiavo. Any claim by Republicans that they are strictly looking for a fair judicial process is completely betrayed by DeLay's comments:

• "I don’t have a whole lot of respect for a man that’s treated a woman this way."
• "I think his abuse and neglect are outrageous."
• "What kind of a man is he?"
• "She's not being kept alive by artificial means, as the husband's lawyer just told you in an interview. That lawyer is, frankly, the personification of evil."

To speak that way about a complex medical and family matter is going to repel most people.

posted by Quiddity at 3/20/2005 07:34:00 PM