DeLay Will Not Relent

When the NY Post ran a March 30th front page editorial on Terri Schiavo’s final days with the word “Enough” prominently displayed, I thought that the conservative movement had come to its senses:
“AS TERRI SCHIAVO SLIPS TOWARD DEATH, HER FINAL DAYS HAVE BECOME AN UNSEEMLY CIRCUS: ENOUGH - LET HER DIE IN PEACE AND WITH DIGNITY (POST EDITORIAL); IT'S TIME TO STOP THE CIRCUS AND LET HER DIE QUIETLY”

John Podhoretz, the son of founding neocon Norman Podhoretz, runs the editorial section for the Post and this pragmatic concession could be read as the realization that the hypocrisy, legal crisis and public backlash was harming the movement as a whole. The theocons had to be brought to heel. Recent historical events like Tom DeLay’s participation in the “Do Not Resuscitate” order for his own father in 1988, Texas Gov. George W. Bush’s signing of a right-to-die law in Texas in 1999 and Bush’s oversight of a staggering 152 executions in Texas all undercut any claim to philosophic consistency or coherence on the issue. Despite putting over 200 federal judges on the bench during Bush’s four years in office -- a decisive majority of them conservative -- very few on the judiciary are ideologically self-destructive enough to weaken their own authority for the benefit of Congress. What could Congress possibly gain from butting their heads against an entrenched constitutional barrier? Give boneheaded credit to DeLay then, for his unwillingness to relent despite the many intractable obstacles. DeLay now plans to ask the House Judiciary Committee to review the courts handling of the Schiavo case. This is no longer about a debate on morality, or crafting legislation, but straight up payback for thwarting DeLay’s political will. What DeLay wants the Judicial Committee to do specifically is unclear, for even the Supreme Court has sanctioned the process of the Schiavo case numerous times, all DeLay knows is that someone must be punished:

“DeLay issued a statement asserting that "the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior." He later said in front of television cameras that he wants to "look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president."

Moderating forces within the conservative movement will probably pressure DeLay to cool it for there is little constitutional space for him to push the judiciary around any further.