Oh, blah. Look: Tom DeLay is a douchebag, fine. But he has never advocated violence against federal judges. I don’t care how big a douchebag he is; to use his name specifically in connection with a character who commits violence against federal judges is a shitty and low idea for a joke.
Yeah, Tom DeLay is low, and scummy, and douchey, and all that. But turnabout is not fairplay, and the writers of the show are just as big douchebags for putting the line in the show.
Fuck blind, brain-dead, party line motherfuckers on both sides. I’m sick of all of them, but sometimes I’m sicker of the ones on my side, because they make us look just as bad as the neo-cons.
I wouldn’t call it good fortune. A state judge doesn’t give a shit about national politics and doesn’t have to fear Congressional reprisal. And he was probably elected, so he doesn’t have to fear state lege reprisal, either. (The state judicial review board, maybe, but I can’t see that happening, either.)
If the feds can’t or won’t help DeLay see the error of his ways, the state courts will be happy to help. The man is no better than the roaches he used to kill.
Actually, writers don’t always endorse the opinions of every line they write for every character. The joke seems perfectly plausible for the character and situation, and that’s all that matters.
Daniel
So the character in question is a party line-toeing liberal douchebag, who is known for working disingenuous and painfully contrived political humor into his work?
Don’t get me wrong, I know people like that exist. Is he usually written as on of them?
It’s just a throwaway, exaggerated, borderline tasteless, topical reference. I would fully expect the same character who made it to have made a dirty cigar joke during the Lewinksi scandal.
Only Clinton wouldn’t have made public statements condemning the show.
No one called “DeLay” a judge killer. If he had killed a judge, the joke probably wouldn’t even have been made.
How many? According to the Texas Secretary of State Election Results(select “2004 General Election” and “Statewide Race Summary” and then scroll down to District 22)
Congressional districts that year represented communities of about 660,000. 150,386 / 660,000 = 22.8% Total turnout was well under 50%. And Mr. DeLay had one of the slimmer margins of victory in the 2004 Congressional elections.
Get a clue. The joke wasn’t directly about the Tom DeLays of the world, it was about the kind of fringe people that take his words and twist. The actual intent of Mr. DeLay’s words are unknowable. Maybe it was a veiled threat, although it’s highly doubtful that was the case. But at the time he issued those words as a press release there were already people who’d been arrested for putting a bounty on the ruling judge’s head. It was nothing if not an incredibly injudicious use of the English language.
Mtgman, thanks for the information. It is frightening to learn how few people need to vote for some of the very powerful and influential in our country. (Not that that’s a complaint against the system. It’s better than the many countries where no one can vote for those in power.)
I was attempting to apply the lesson I’ve learned on this Board – Don’t paint with a broad brush – and allow the many Texan Dopers to distance themselves from DeLay if desired.
I thought it was a sucessful channeling of both characters, Emily w/her misunderstanding a word and going off about it, then being corrected and saying “oh, that’s very different. Nevermind”, and Roseann Rosannadana w/her obsessive gross talk.
Well, the actual intent of Mr. DeLay’s comments on the judiciary may be unknowable, but the actual intent of his comments yesterday are quite clear: “Geez! My boys just got busted in that trial where we actually got the retired Republican judge we wanted! What can I do to distract the electorate and the media?”
I think you did well. In all fairness I don’t know how many Texans outside DeLay’s district would support him. Probably more than enough to be sad about. I just felt it was worth showing exactly what you noticed. The choices of few dictate the fate of many. According to the US Census the estimated number of potential voters in 2004 was 217.8 million. 150,386 / 217,800,000 = 0.07 % He wields a wildly disproportionate amount of power in comparison to the number of people who actively voted for him. This would be true even if you looked only at the people in his district. He won with the express will of less than a quarter of his own constituents. The biggest failure in the US system IMO is the apathy of the electorate.
You seem to be missing the point. What DeLay said after Schiavo kicked it could easily be construed by area armed right wing nut jobs as a call to violence.
