Tim Russert and Tom Delay

Question of the Day: why are Tim Russert and NBC News leading the public rehabilitation of the disgraced ex-Congressman Tom DeLay?

Listening to DeLay insist to former Vice Admiral Joe Sestak, now a Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, that his call to bring the troops home from the failed Iraq adventure amounts to "surrender" is a sickening Sunday morning spectacle that brings the coffee back into the throat - along with the bitter, acid taste of our great moral cowardice.

"Those are not patriots, in my mind, who are talking about impeaching the Commander in Chief...that's aiding and abetting the enemy," DeLay just told Tim Russert with the straight and composed face that only comes with abject stupidity and the absence of light and reason. This a man, after all, who once argued from the well of the House that the Columbine massacre happened "because our school systems teach our children that they are nothing but glorified apes who have evolutionized [sic] out of some primordial soup of mud."

Then Russert holds up DeLay's book No Retreat, No Surrender - My Story of Personal Corruption and Deceit (at least, I think that's the full title) and says "there are some interesting things in this book" about current Republican leaders.

The Russertonian chuckle of appreciation. The tilted head and eye twinkle. We may want to talk further, Mr. DeLay - now that you're dishing.

He smiles goofily and looks over at Tom DeLay as a recruit - an appreciate insider, a proud Washingtonian. DeLay, it is clear, is being formally welcomed to the punditry. He can expect to chit-chat now with Russert and Matthews and Andrea Mitchell over the crudite at one of the gold-leafed salons in those nifty 19th century manses up from the canal.

It's Tom and Tim, now. Gentlemen who may occasionally differ, but can do so with their pinkies in the air - this son of Buffalo VFW halls and this son of Texan extermination.

Climbers both. Insiders now in partnership.

If it's Sunday, it must be Meet the Press.

The venue for lies and American tragedy, and one of the insidious media platforms that assisted in launching a war that has taken more than 3,000 American lives for nothing. Nothing at all.

UPDATE: Jim Wolcott compares DeLay's pundit rehab to Newt Gingrich's triumphant return as master strategist, and adds this about The Hammer's appearance:

The chummy tone that envelops DeLay's appearances on Chris Matthews' Hardball was bad enough, but it is an insult to the moral intelligence of viewers to allow DeLay (resembling a tucked-in orange with each makeover) a seat on the panel of an Iraq-war discussion, an insult compounded by the presence of that poison mushroom Richard Perle dismissing the question of whether invading Iraq was worth it as "academic." But even Perle's greatest detesters (like me) would never consider him stupid. Evil, perhaps, but not stupid. DeLay is not only stupid but mean as dirt, mean-and-stupid being the signature trait of the modern sunbelt conservative.

Comments

[Patrick]

DeLay's excuse for not serving in Vietnam:

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention.

[marcus]

My wife and I watched this and I thought she was going to throw something at the tube.....I mollified her by telling her that it was in our interest to let the moron speak as it can only convince more people that he, and his ilk, have really screwed this country up.
Let's not forget the other twit, Richard Pearl.
I can only say that I give them credit for having the brass balls necessary to get in front of millions and continue to spout the same embarrassing crap.
Let's hope no one really takes them seriously anymore....you think?

[Joey Mars]

I thought to my self when I heard the panel line up..."Tom Delay....isn't he in jail yet?".....WTF????..,,,the bugman is such a puke...."Mr I don't care about the Iraqi's...I just care about Americans...flypaper..flypaper....F-U Bugman......we have created a version of hell on earth over there..... and as usual it seemed none of the guests on that panel answered the questions they were posed...Sestak came closer than the rest I guess.....the only good part was that the Pearle and Bug licker are fairly disgraced creatures even if NBC doesn't think so...or maybe that was part of the message... .. we are in the 'cachiest" of catch 22's now kidz.... can't leave....can't stay.... the grim reaper and the military industrial con-plex is lov'n this block party!....

[Andre]

Timmy and his fellow losers. It hasn't dawned on him yet that he lost last November along with all his pundit friends, enablers all of the Republican slime machine. He's only treating Delay as an equal, which is what he is! I never watch him. I couldn't stomach the disingenuous hypocrisy.

[PerversityinAmerica.com]

Half Empty has a good take on Delay's SMIRK during this. and his fantasy take on 'History as he lived it' i.e. a complete FANTASY.

http://halfempth.blogspot.com/2007/03/delay-on-meet-press-smirk-returns.html

Tim Russert is a pathetic excuse for anything related to being a journalist. He soils the profession and the term.

And your and Wolcott's posts on this bull-pucky by Russert & MTP and their cozy relationships (along with spitball Matthews) with the right wing and their corporate greedmasters -- you know GE, like Halliburton, is making gazillions of dollars in profits off this unjust illegal war -- your posts are must-reading.

Thank you for the analysis. Russert Matthews combined manage to equal one half-assed JOKE which truly does insult the intelligence and moral compass of any decent thinking person.

[myers]

Question of the Day: why are Tim Russert and NBC News leading the public rehabilitation of the disgraced ex-Congressman Tom DeLay?

IMO: because it is in the interest of the corporate elite who run the country, to flaunt their power by having their millionaire lackeys interviewing, their millionaire political lackeys on their networks. The unspoken message : "our servants will never be held accountable for any of the actions done on our behalf ,except maybe the courts but we are working on that one too". See, fired attorneys, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, Gonzales etc.
Russert is a pompous weasel who will never do anything that will jeopardize his celebrity status and fat paycheck, just like the rest of the pundit court jesters. Perle and his associates at the AEI , can go on any show, as if it is just a cosmic coincidence that our presence in the M.E. coincides with their publicly stated fantasies about global hegemony.
All this is based on the calculation that the sheeple won't challenge them directly because, the sheeple are either too domesticated or they believe the institutions of government are still capable of delivering justice.

[Jennifer Janisch]

Tom,

Thanks for calling attention to the obscenity that was Meet The Press yesterday. How dare Tim Russert give a disgraced and corrupt former congressman the pedestal to hawk such nonsensical blather?

I can only hope that the American people are able to see through the same old song and dance from the neo-cons who, like cornered rats, can only knash their teeth and resort to calling those who knew this war was a mistake from the beginning, "unpatriotic."

Delay, being a corrupt congressman, is unpatriotic. Richard Perle, a breathless supporter of a clearly failed policy, is unpatriotic.

[jay B.]

marcus,

Gotta partially disagree. It doesn't do ANYONE any good to see how "ignorant" people like Delay are, especially when there's no one there to rebut him. Russert, anxious to get back in the good graces of GOP company after his Libby betrayal, will give these assholes ample amplification.

Putting Tom Delay on air sickens an almost fatally weak body politic. I can only hope Ronnie Earle gets his man.

[prozacula]

I just want to know if Perle combs his eyebrows in such a way as to accentuate his evil - those pointy probuscii scare me to the depths of my soul.

[Ralph]

Come on! He had a book to plug! Look, once you're in the club, you gotta watch each other's back. Think. Even Nixon was eventually welcomed back to the elder statesmen pundit status in the late 80s/early 90s. So, Delay's corrupt and insane, who cares? He raised more money than you can ship to Iraq for the GOP -- he's earned his seat at the partisan hack table of Meet The Press. If you don't like it, you must be with the terrorists.

[Lynne Moor]

Couldn't agree more on the amazament I felt upon seeing Tim Russert have Delay and Pearle on the Meet the Press I give up. Russert should be replaced with what used to be Meet the Press in the old days..usually 3 journalists.
Go figure, what a pathetic program.

[Frank Martinez]

Tom Delay on TV trying to sell his book and telling everyone what it is not to be patriotic to this Country. I am just very disappointed with Tim Russert, I thought he had a lot more class.
Delay is like every prisoner in Folsom who says I'm innocent Judge. I have been framed by my political enemies. I am a true Patriot.
Regards, Frank

[Mike]

Delay said that those Americans carrying signs calling for the impeachment of the President during time of 'war' are traitors.

What was it Delay did to President Clinton during the war in Bosnia?

I have met the traitor and it is Tom Delay.

BTW, after 2 week of promotion, his book is number 86 on Amazon, behind 'GRE Flash Cards' :)

[Tom Essex]

I am related to the English Essex noted for their class.
My family seeks out classy news venders, One of thse venders was Tim Russert. How stupid can we get ! Since the Democratic debate that Russert made a complete ass of himself - --his slimy face will never show again in the wide Essex houshold. He, as the moderator entered his dumb opinions when it was out of order for the event.
Russert and Delay, 2 slime balls showed their faces.

[Tom Essex]

Tim Russert was our favorite newscaster. Now with his bosem buddy, Tom Delay makes 2 second rate unprincapled
horses asses.
I have friends in NBC and I will annoy them on a daily basis until the get rid of the 2 weaklings.