# Ding Dong the witch is dead! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 4, 2006, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203 "2006-04-04T05:05:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Unregistered\_Bull](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3da27b/32.png) [@Unregistered\_Bull](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unregistered_Bull)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/21 "2006-04-04T14:53:25Z")
The ‘witch’ ain’t dead until there is a guilty verdict or a plea. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/22 "2006-04-04T14:56:33Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > I certainly believe we should withold judgement until a trial. I just think that until then, he should be held in Guantanamo as an enemy combatant. Nah, keep him close to home. I’ve seen the prison in El Paso, TX and it’s just perfect. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/23 "2006-04-04T14:57:31Z")
Good riddance to Tom DeLay. The crooked bastard has skated around, over, and pastr various laws for years. He is going to be charged and indicted eventually. He may even go to jail. But, no matter what else, at least he is no longer a senator and whatever else he was. Good riddance. Send him to Abu or GITMO, and have his trial in four or five or twenty years. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/24 "2006-04-04T15:01:18Z")
> [@Unregistered Bull](#): > > The ‘witch’ ain’t dead until there is a guilty verdict or a plea. A resignation is a pretty fucking good start, though! ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/25 "2006-04-04T15:04:54Z")
Did anybody besides me read the thread title and mouseover preview and think that Fred Phelps died? ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/26 "2006-04-04T15:13:06Z")
We can always hope. Do ancient curses still work? (Doing the two finger thingy while chanting Mal Occhio over and over). ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/27 "2006-04-04T15:17:36Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > As a registered Republican, I don’t like what Mr. DeLay has done, no more than I appreciate any other lawbreaking by an elected official. If I ever offered defense of the man, which I may have, it was to suggest that we await the determination of a Judge, or a jury of Mr. DeLay’s peers against charges brought in a court of law, no less than you or I are to be afforded under the Constitution. I keep reading assertions by certain members of the current power structure that I, or at least certain unspecified American cictizens, do **not** , in fact, actually deserve the full Constitutional protections formerly enjoyed in this country. Are you arguing that we should regard him under the old, outdated standards, or this new understanding? Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/28 "2006-04-04T16:24:47Z")
His reason for quitting is priceless > [@](#): > > “I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative personal campaign” I’m sure Mr. DeLay was never inolved in seat stealing or induldging in negative personal campaigning. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/29 "2006-04-04T16:31:04Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > Do you suppose a deal was made? Get out and we won’t pursue the charges, and/or reveal certain information. No way. If the DA dropped the charges now, it would look like they were politically motivated in the first place. > [@](#): > > Will his friends in congress still praise him if he is convicted of anything? It’s freakin disgusting and disheartening to see someone this dishonest continue to be praised. Not likely. They may not trash him, but they’ll probably try to pretend he never existed. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/30 "2006-04-04T16:41:23Z")
> [@Apos](#): > > . . . he’s gone done litterally claiming to be a persecuted saint. Really? I ask this not to be overly contentious, but that’s a pretty extraordinary statement. Can you point me somewhere I read DeLay’s claims of sainthood? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/31 "2006-04-04T17:14:32Z")
[Not quite a claim of sainthood](http://tomdelay.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=41855) , but DeLay lays it on pretty thick in his address to constituents: > [@](#): > > Because I care so deeply about this district and the people in it, I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative, personal campaign. I am literally holding my breath in anticipation of Tom’s announcement that he will donate his campaign warchest to the replacement republican, rather than spend supporter’s funds on his own legal defence. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/32 "2006-04-04T18:56:59Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > Hey, where’s **elucidator**? I’ve got a jeroboam of champagne on ice just waiting for him to pop the cork… YEEEEE-haw! Haven’t laughed so hard since they shot Old Yeller! 😃 [sup]2[/sup] ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/33 "2006-04-04T19:05:32Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > [Not quite a claim of sainthood](http://tomdelay.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=41855) , but DeLay lays it on pretty thick in his address to constituents: I am literally holding my breath in anticipation of Tom’s announcement that he will donate his campaign warchest to the replacement republican, rather than spend supporter’s funds on his own legal defence. If that’s “close,” then every member of Congress who’s there by dint of election, is has “literally claimed sainthood.” I’m looking for something overtly religious from which a logical inference can be made that DeLay’s religious convictions are the basis for his moral and ethical beliefs **and** that he’s being persecuted because of them. Or a “literal” quote from the bastich himself. Apos invoked “literal;” I’d like to see that. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/34 "2006-04-04T19:06:13Z")
> [@danceswithcats](#): > > As a registered Republican, I don’t like what Mr. DeLay has done, no more than I appreciate any other lawbreaking by an elected official. If I ever offered defense of the man, which I may have, it was to suggest that we await the determination of a Judge, or a jury of Mr. DeLay’s peers against charges brought in a court of law, no less than you or I are to be afforded under the Constitution. That’s how we determine punishment, certianly. But more than enough has already come to light on what Delay has done to demonstrate that he is a corrupt, sickening worm who helped turn Congress into a pay-to-play orgy. And regardless of whether the statute of limitations allows prosecution for everything he did, regardless of whether technicalities prevent him from charged with everything, there’ s no reason I have to reserve judgement on him. ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/35 "2006-04-04T19:40:06Z")
Ah Delay, crime and Christ. Let’s start a continuing series of his goofy vision of himself as a persecuted saint. Let’s examine his famous mug shot. > **[Decoding Tom DeLay's exit interview.](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2006/04/decoding-tom-delay-s-exit-interview.html)** > > Tom DeLay's resignation from Congress may have been a surprise, but how he's going out isn't. In his interview with Time magazine, the former House... But DeLay explains that his smile wasn’t motivated by politics at all. He was wrapped in Christ. “I said a little prayer before I actually did the fingerprint thing, and the picture. And my prayer was basically: ‘Let people see Christ through me. And let me smile.’ Now, when they took the shot, from my side, I thought it was the fakiest smile I’d ever given. But through the camera, it was glowing. I mean, it had the right impact.” Of course, he at other times, says that the reason was to “stick it to the left” that wanted to use the mugshot. I’m not sure how one squares that with trying to channel a pure Jesus-light, with no thought to politics. But maybe he said these things to different audiences. Rev. Scarborough on Delay: “I believe the most damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ,” Scarborough said, introducing DeLay on Tuesday. When DeLay finished, the host reminded the politician: “God always does his best work right after a crucifixion.” A crucifixtion no less? But what of Delay’s message? When asked about those that disagree with his message: “When faced with the truth, the truth hurts. It is human nature not to face that . . . People hate the messenger. That’s why they killed Christ.” And now they are persecuting poor Tom Delay too. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/36 "2006-04-04T19:52:27Z")
> [@UncleBeer](#): > > If that’s “close,” then every member of Congress who’s there by dint of election, is has “literally claimed sainthood.” > > I’m looking for something overtly religious from which a logical inference can be made that DeLay’s religious convictions are the basis for his moral and ethical beliefs **and** that he’s being persecuted because of them. Or a “literal” quote from the bastich himself. Apos invoked “literal;” I’d like to see that. Nothing to contribute, then. Just a quick little nitpick about something mind-meltingly minor. I’m “literally” shocked. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/37 "2006-04-04T20:32:13Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Nothing to contribute, then. Just a quick little nitpick about something mind-meltingly minor. > > I’m “literally” shocked. > > -Joe Much like your own post, eh? Well, not quite. The way I see it, if something is claimed to be “literal,” then it’s a verifiable fact; a piece of truth. If it ain’t, well, then there’s an equally descriptive word that can be used: _figuratively_. In any case, ya must have missed post #30, you annoying little gnat. I thought I was pretty clear all I wanted was some information. What the fuck is wrong with asking for that? I wasn’t making any kind of qualitative judgment or argument for or against anything, **and** stated explicitly that I wasn’t challenging Apos. Anyway, thanks for info and links, Apos. That is indeed interesting - and disturbing. If not quite literal, it **is** extraordinarily close. Shades of Dubya himself. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/38 "2006-04-04T21:03:39Z")
> [@Apos](#): > > And now they are persecuting poor Tom Delay too. Too bad he turned tail and ran. I would’ve preferred to see him persecuted right out of congress by vote, rather than by default. I suppose if you don’t have to face the public’s opinion, you don’t have to admit it exists. ---
**Author:** ![Malodorous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47774/32.png) [@Malodorous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malodorous)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/39 "2006-04-04T22:46:28Z")
> [@Left Hand of Dorkness](#): > > Yeah, I gotta say: as good as this is for Congress, from a partisan perspective it bodes ill for Democrats. I’m sure Texas Democrats could almost **taste** that seat (not that anyone wants to taste DeLay’s seat, but you know what I mean) Might make it harder to win Delay’s seat, but having Delay resign in a cloud will no doubt make winning other seats around the country easier for the Dems, as having the former leader of senate Repubs resign in a cloud makes the party as a whole look corrupt. Also I would imagine that Delay’s reason for resigning is that he knows something damaging is likely to come out of either the Texas indictment or the Abermoff scandal. Doubtless this will also make headlines and hurt the Repubs, even if Delay isn’t a senator anymore. On the plus side for Mr. Delay, I bet he’s out of jail in a year or two and quickly becomes the richiest Lobbiest in the United States. ---
**Author:** ![singersargent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/edb3f5/32.png) [@singersargent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singersargent)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203/40 "2006-04-05T01:13:11Z")
[http://www.slate.com/id/2139334/fr/rss/](http://www.slate.com/id/2139334/fr/rss/) > [@](#): > > At Brains and Eggs, Perry Dorrell, who’s “[s]tuck in a red state with a blue state of mind,” writes, “La Cucaracha Grande is nothing if not a master manipulator. He will no doubt transition seamlessly into a lucrative career lobbying Congress on behalf of various corporate and Christian causes, losing none of his influence while quintupling his income.” And where ethical violations will no longer be a problem for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ding-dong-the-witch-is-dead/351203.md?page=3)