Martyr's Tactics
Before we celebrate Tom DeLay’s indictment too hardily, delighting in his discomfort and embarrassment, we should consider that his discomfort is going to make him an uglier, even dirtier player than before (and remember that he is beyond embarrassing). My assumption is that, like a poker player or a pool shooter or a seasoned major league pitcher, DeLay has limited his ruthless tactics to what has been necessary to get done what he wants to get done; why throw the top fastball if you can get batters out without it? Does anyone doubt, in light of his tactics used in obtaining his power, what tactics he will use to keep his power?
A significant and powerful segment of the Republican Party truly does believe in the politics of the apocalypse, and not merely as a metaphor for tactics in game theory. Controlling the White House, The US Senate and House of Representatives, a majority of state governments and governorships, the state and Federal judiciary, hasn’t diminished the narrative of conservative victimization, a crucial meme in the psyche of the American Right. It is the backbone of their morality.
So meet Tom DeLay, martyr. Sure, the GOP has already dispatched its lawyers to find Democratic congressmen and senators who have done what DeLay (and Frist) have done, and they’ll find them, and soon the MSM will be second paragraphing every article and broadcast with a sentence to the effect that everybody does it (without detailing nuances and degrees). But that’s softball. And DeLay and his enforcers will bully any dissenting GOPers into marchstep support of DeLay. Depending on where the indictment goes, DeLay will choose to whatever tactics are necessary.
But if it looks like DeLay’s problems will become the symbol of a general GOP meltdown in November 2006, and their hold on one or both houses is in jeopardy, we’re going to see the equivalent of a religious war inAmerica
Before we celebrate Tom DeLay’s indictment too hardily, delighting in his discomfort and embarrassment, we should consider that his discomfort is going to make him an uglier, even dirtier player than before (and remember that he is beyond embarrassing). My assumption is that, like a poker player or a pool shooter or a seasoned major league pitcher, DeLay has limited his ruthless tactics to what has been necessary to get done what he wants to get done; why throw the top fastball if you can get batters out without it? Does anyone doubt, in light of his tactics used in obtaining his power, what tactics he will use to keep his power?
A significant and powerful segment of the Republican Party truly does believe in the politics of the apocalypse, and not merely as a metaphor for tactics in game theory. Controlling the White House, The US Senate and House of Representatives, a majority of state governments and governorships, the state and Federal judiciary, hasn’t diminished the narrative of conservative victimization, a crucial meme in the psyche of the American Right. It is the backbone of their morality.
So meet Tom DeLay, martyr. Sure, the GOP has already dispatched its lawyers to find Democratic congressmen and senators who have done what DeLay (and Frist) have done, and they’ll find them, and soon the MSM will be second paragraphing every article and broadcast with a sentence to the effect that everybody does it (without detailing nuances and degrees). But that’s softball. And DeLay and his enforcers will bully any dissenting GOPers into marchstep support of DeLay. Depending on where the indictment goes, DeLay will choose to whatever tactics are necessary.
But if it looks like DeLay’s problems will become the symbol of a general GOP meltdown in November 2006, and their hold on one or both houses is in jeopardy, we’re going to see the equivalent of a religious war in
posted by Blackdogred at 11:06 AM
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