Tom Delay Interviewed by Moonie Times

You want to see a bad sign for Mr. Delay? I mean other than the fact that the hilariously pro-Republican Richmond Times-Dispatch has thrown Delay under the bus (editorial title - "Delay Must Go.")

The Hammer sat down for an interview with the Washington Times, and the interview actually got contentious in places. The Moonies also published the entire transcript for your perusal, and Delay doesn't disappoint, coming up with some real Pantheon quotes. My favorite exchanges:

Mr. Coombs:Where's your public support?

Mr. DeLay: Have you not seen the television in the last few days? Members are out on television, they're talking about it. There's a huge conservative movement out there that's working very hard. There's friends all over the place working hard. Listen, if I didn't have any support, I'd have been gone a long time ago. The members - you need to talk to the members. But my sense is they understand what this is. They're looking at the charges and they're just shaking their heads.

Funny he doesn't name anybody. I wonder if he just blanked out on it or if the people who have said things in support (like Tiaht) have asked him not to go around name-dropping on them.

Mr. DeLay: I blame Congress over the last 50 to 100 years for not standing up and taking its responsibility given to it by the Constitution. The reason the judiciary has been able to impose a separation of church and state that's nowhere in the Constitution is that Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had judicial review is because Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had a right to privacy is because Congress didn't stop them.

That's right. Tom Delay thinks there shouldn't even be judicial review. There shouldn't be a right to privacy. There shouldn't, presumably, be a prohibition on segregation or any of the other dozen or so rights that Americans have won through the courts interpreting the Constitution to strike down unconstitutional legislation. The only function courts have is, well, I don't know. Maybe in Delay World there are no courts, just military tribunals.

I understand there are some far right-wing folks who believe this stuff. It's fine for them to believe it. It's their right. But I don't think most Americans believe we should still be living under segregation. I don't think most Americans want the right to privacy to be voided. And I certainly don't think that most Americans want these or any initiatives to be achieved through back-room horse trading and influence peddling.

Maybe I'm wrong. Let's have a national debate about whether this is the kind of government we want, one where there's no right to privacy, no judicial review, no separation of church and state. I imagine Delay and the Republicans will rush right to that microphone, won't they?

Unless they're cowards, hypocrites, and crooks, of course.