a religious thug is still a thug

If Tom DeLay could paint his own portrait these days, he’d show himself on a cross – martyring himself for the Republican cause. There are days when it doesn’t just seem that the man thinks he’s absolutely Christ-like in his political zeal, he actually thinks he IS Christ.

But Tom DeLay is a particularly fine example of what a modern, politically charged Christian is these days: someone who holds up his bible as political cover without ever having grasped the meaning of the words contained within.

On a long-ago trip to Mexico, a tour guide explained the mysterious quality of a “Mexican Minute.” It was a concept foreign to most tourists, who kept looking at their wristwatches as the designated start time came and went. And went. “A Mexican Minute is exactly, no more and no less than, how long you need it to be,” he said.

The same concept seems to be the definition of “Devout Christian,” in the political sense.

I say that because this Devout Christian/Republican servant-of-the-people sent his thugs out to disrupt a rally for his rival in the campaign he just pulled out of: Nick Lampson.

Lampson was a colleague in the House of Representatives that suddenly found himself without a district thanks to Tom DeLay’s gerrymandering. This time around, Lampson is leading DeLay in a race for the latter’s Sugar Land seat, prompting “The Hammer” to withdraw.

This morning, Lampson called a press conference in front of the Sugar Land City Hall to urge Texas Governor Rick Perry to call a special election to fulfill DeLay’s unexpired term.

DeLay and a member of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee put out a call for loyal volunteers to crash the meeting and “wreck” it.

They carried signs. They shouted slogans. They did their best to disrupt the event.

And in the process, they assaulted at least one little old lady.

An eyewitness posted this account:

“One elderly Democratic woman was slightly injured when she was assaulted by a DeLay protester. The DeLay supporter first hit her in the face with a sign and then grabbed her hat and tried to pull it down over her eyes. Think about this: Your Congressman asked his supporters to go out and assault old women. Okay, "wreck" them.

“But that's all right. It's all right. They're just helping prove what a stone-cold hypocrite DeLay and his supporters are. One day DeLay laments the "polarization" in the district and how horrible it is. The next day, he calls a hit.”

From the same blog comes this account of the woman these nitwits assaulted, Marsha Rovai:

“I can’t believe my Congressman, Tom DeLay, would organize this type of assault,” Rovai said. “I was assaulted by two different people. One of the men hit me and another shoved his sign into my face, and then when I pushed his sign away he violently pulled my hat down over my eyes and pushed me. I’m considering filing an assault charge. This is just very upsetting and I’m so disappointed in Tom Delay for organizing this attack.”

These are the kinds of tactics you’ve seen before. DeLay called for the same kind of hit in city halls across Florida in 2000, hoping to shutdown the recount of ballots that showed that George W. Bush DID NOT win that state, despite being crowned by Secretary of State Katherine “My Breasts Are Running For Senate” Harris.

For this self-proclaimed “Devout Christian,” the question “What Would Jesus Do?” was long ago replaced with “Just How Much Can I Get Away With?”

Hypocrisy? Yes. Blasphemy? Yes.

Typically Republican? Of course.

More soon.