Tom DeLay's Father

Conservative hypocrisy? I don't think so.

"Today, as House Majority Leader, DeLay has teamed with his Senate counterpart, Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), to champion political intervention in the Schiavo case. They pushed emergency legislation through Congress to shift the legal case from Florida state courts to the federal judiciary.

And DeLay is among the strongest advocates of keeping the woman, who doctors say has been in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years, connected to her feeding tube. DeLay has denounced Schiavo's husband, as well as judges, for committing what he calls "an act of barbarism" in removing the tube.

In 1988, however, there was no such fiery rhetoric as the congressman quietly joined the sad family consensus to let his father die."
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Considering that the MSM and political opportunists have spent most of last week charging conservatives with the shameless politicization of Terri Schiavo's personal tragedy, it seems odd to me that the Los Angeles Times would go with this unabashedly political attempt to discredit DeLay.

It appears that it's acceptable to use Terri's pain and the Schindlers' agony as a political football when they mistakenly believe that they are in the red zone.

What makes this effort to slam DeLay so feeble is that the specifics of the cases are entirely different.

While straining to draw similarities between the two situations, the striking differences become obvious.

The following reveals exactly how ridiculous it is to compare Terri's plight with the condition of DeLay's father after the accident:

"Doctors conducted a series of tests, including scans of his head, face, neck and abdomen. They checked for lung damage and performed a tracheostomy to assist his breathing. But they could not prevent steady deterioration.

Then, infections complicated the senior DeLay's fight for life. Finally, his organs began to fail. His family and physicians confronted the dreaded choice so many other Americans have faced: to make heroic efforts or to let the end come."

Begging for her daughter’s life, Mary Schindler poignantly pointed out that Terri was alive and death was not imminent until her feeding tube was pulled, a dramatically different scenario compared to the one the DeLay family faced.

As Brother Paul O’Donnell said, “She's dying because of a court order."

DeLay’s father sustained massive injuries in an accident, causing his organs to fail. He was dying.

Terri, on the other hand, did not need dialysis or a ventilator. Her organs were functioning. She was not dependent on any extraordinary measures of medical intervention to live. Unlike, Charles DeLay, she only required a feeding tube.

All Terri needed was food and water, just like all of us.

Unquestionably, this blast at Tom DeLay by the MSM should be called as a flagrant personl foul.