Welcoming the blogosphere’s latest high-profile addition (and Russell Kirk acolyte)

December 11, 2006

Like a villain in a horror movie, [tag]Tom DeLay[/tag] refuses to fade away quietly.

Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) announced the launch of an Internet-based grassroots organization aimed at raising money and uniting Republican activists to take back and hold the GOP majority in Congress, according to a release today.

The new organization, comparable to the left’s [tag]MoveOn.org[/tag], is called [tag]GAIN[/tag] (Grassroots, Action, and Information Network) and will be hosted on www.tomdelay.com, a blog that will feature comments from DeLay and other conservative bloggers and activists.

Of course, GAIN is not yet comparable to MoveOn at all. For one thing, GAIN started today and has no members. For another, MoveOn wasn’t started by criminals.

Nevertheless, DeLay helped kick things off with a big-picture post about the perspective he’ll bring to blogging — by repeatedly quoting Russell Kirk.

Unfortunately, many D.C. insiders are simply incapable of looking outside the capital beltway for fresh opinions and new approaches that might otherwise help our nation.

Yes, that would be Tom DeLay, the 21-year veteran of Congress, who served in multiple leadership roles including House Majority Leader, decrying the limited perceptions of “D.C. insiders.” Classic.

As for Kirk:

Conservatives must act on First Principles. We must organize and act to protect the very principles of: order, justice and freedom that are the touchstones of our founding documents. […]

We are conservatives. We believe that our government is limited and our freedoms are guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. We believe in a society built on three First Principles: Order, Justice and Freedom. These principles are the three legs of the stool upon which our society rests.

You philosophy majors out there may notice that DeLay is quoting Russell Kirk almost literally word for word, which is odd considering that DeLay’s reactionary approach to “revolution” is largely at odds with Kirk’s Edmond Burke-style of conservatism. Not that I expect intellectual consistency with DeLay or anything….

In any event, the right probably doesn’t need one more unhinged ideologue with a blog, but DeLay is offering one anyway. My only question at this point is, will DeLay have to give up the [tag]blog[/tag] if he goes to jail?

Mr. Coffee, meet Ms. Keyboard

GAIN? As in Financial GAIN? Gods could they be a little less subtle?

My sides, they ache.

  • They removed his post, but I read a copy.

    Way too funny, I would say of the 113 posts, 100 were either calling Delay some sort of name or posting as Tom Delay and making a parody of it. They pulled no punches, riddled with vile disgust and just plain out hatred.

    It was fricken hilarious. Anything at tomdelay.com is going to attached lots and lots of haters, so this should be interesting to watch unfold. Let’s just hope old Tom keeps posting.

    I think the link for the copy post was at C&L.

  • DeLay is just like the cockroaches he used to kill for a living, he never really dies, he just goes back into the cracks for awhile until the light goes out. As soon as he thinks it’s safe, out he comes. But that comparison is not fair to cockroaches. Make that televangelists.

  • Actually, I thought it was kind of a pity that people ran the guy offline so quickly. It’s like a mob mentality.

    After all, aren’t we espousing the free exchange of thought online? So, shouldn’t we be applauding the entry of people whom we disagree with? I would much rather have seen people posting entries which engaged him on a professional level, rather than base name-calling.

  • Kind of proves that conservatism (even “Common Sense Conservatism”) is all theory and no practice. They can’t govern conservatively, they don’t know how.

    Of course, being most of them home-schooled and Liberty University graduates, there is a lot they can’t do.

    Think, for instance, more than once on an issue.

  • I was waiting for you to post this. Moron’s link was one of the funniest comments section I’ve read in a long time before Delay finally discovered moderated comments. Pretty much unanimous in their loathing of Defendant, er Delay even the Con commentors.

    As TPM put it, it wasn’t the truth to power that Tommy expected.

    BWAHHHHHH! HAHAHAHAHAHA!

  • #5 – Castor Troy
    How can you interact with the sleaziest and most corrupt politician of our lifetime, without base name calling? The guy is the posterboy for shameless congressional corruption and dirty dealing.
    The irony here is that Bugsy DeLay could not utter a sentence without resorting to base name calling.
    I’m not saying he can’t be rehabilitated. I’m saying his rehabilitation should happen behind bars. Until then, the only thing he deserves is our ridicule.

  • “Everyone already assumes bloggers are unemployed losers… thanks for reinforcing that stereotype…” – Marc

    Best comment so far.

    “And besides, you’re a potential criminal.” – Dookiestix

    Technically, he’s a potential convict. He either is or is not a criminal, his alleged crimes having occured in the past.

    “Take this from a soldier and a veteran: Where is your integrity. You were getting paid while we’re dying in Iraq.” – GI Joe

    Most Poignant.

    “You had the opportunity to be a good public servant, and you used it to gerrymander and slander and line your own pockets.” – Barney

    Most to the point and accurate description of his crimes.

    “Here’s an idea. Go away! You are a divisive, elitist lack of a human being who cares nothing for the little guy. You claim to be a Christian?
    Why are you against the poor and publicly funded education, among so many other subjects? Tom, you need to truly find God instead of molding him to your privileged, white upbring. I pray for your soul because I don’t think you have one. I have never believed I am righteous in my life.” – Paul

    Strangely, the nicest comment so far.

    “We owe [Tom DeLay] a debt of gratitude for helping destroy conservative philosophy and the GOP (Gang of Pedophiles).” – Honest

    The most sincere?

    “burn . burn in hell . die . die you f**ker die” – dead iraqi children

    Speaking for those who can not speak.

    Also, numerous suggestions for getting ready for his new sexual activities in prison, options for a carreer cleaning up BG2’s mess in Iraq, as simple pleas that he go back to killing cockroaches and leave us alone.

    “hehehehehe, silly criminal” – michael

  • Hey, don’t DELAY folks. Sign up for (Financial) GAIN(TM) today! $52 bucks will get you such goodies as:

    “When you receive weekly GAIN notifications of insider political information on the 110th Congress, updates on the ways of combating the plans of the radical left and their associates in the left wing media elite”

    Arseholes on the ground abound. Illiterate ones at that.

  • Castor Troy.
    Maybe you can set up a site for OJ and “engage him on a professional level”, maybe chat about football.

    There are certain people that threw away any respect they once deserved. Tom Delay should just pack it up and go home/prison, he is longer wanted or needed. Even if he walks, we all know he did it and much worse. So pardon me if I don’t want to engage the man with anything but contempt.

    Plus it’s funny to make fun of a man that once stood so strong and is reduced to posting to a blog for GAIN.

    Did I mention I used to live in Sugar Land, good old District 22, so I get dibbs on the Delay name calling.

  • The tomdelay.com comments are totally hilarious. A must read for all true DeLay-haters everywhere!

  • okay, there are some really funny parody comments (thanks Moron for the link to the “archive” site).

    among my favorites:

    I like to smother myself in tapioca pudding and play the bongos in front of the fireplace. Looking for S/W/M who shares same

    interests.

    December 10, 2006 | Unregistered Commenter Tom Delay

    and

    Great blog Tom, you really have some big fans and I hope to start a blog and get the same praise as you are receiving today. Gotta go shoot a pal in the face so have a great day Tom, great blog.

    December 10, 2006 | Unregistered Commenter Dick Cheney

    and so good you have to wonder if its really a parody:

    hi, tom!!!!

    so glad you joined the blogosphere! now you can link to my articles and to michelle’s too 🙂

    speaking of michelle, she just received a new batch of iraqi baby blood from general pace…if you would like to come up to nyc, drop in and you can suck on some of it too!

    and, to you liberals on here….HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY HOW MUCH I HATE YOU!!!!

    December 10, 2006 | Unregistered Commenter ann coulter

  • Some of my favorites:

    “Go back to killing bugs, Tom…You deserve jail time, not public discourse.”

    “When you’re locked up, will you smuggle blog posts out in your visitors’ rectums?”

    “I pray for your soul because I don’t think you have one.”

    “Justice would have you spending a lifetime making clothes in a sweatshop at pennies a day.”

    “Do I make you horny?”

  • Guys, it’s not like I don’t agree with everyone that Tom Delay is despicable. However, can’t we take him down on a professional level?

    Think about it like sports. There’s fair play, and there’s unfair play (hitting below the belt, for example). If we play a clean, fair game, then the Right has nothing to take us on with.

    If, however, people go and make a big page of ‘fuck you’s’ on a right-winger’s page, we just give ammunition (linkable ammunition, too) to people who would like nothing better than to belittle the burgeoning online political space.

    Think about it like Spam. Nobody likes spam in your inbox, right? Well, try having a couple hundred spam messages like that on your blog. That shit ain’t productive!

    Calling him names doesn’t make us any better than him, but it sure as hell makes us sound a hell of a lot worse than him. If I was a random reader coming online, not knowing the history behind things, I would be thinking, ‘what a bunch of jerks’. Is that really the reaction that we want from people?

  • But Castor, there is some really great stuff over there. I can do without the homosexual longings expressed and the more graphic obscenities (though I think the “dead iraqi children” deserve their dig). But lots of it, especially the stuff in the writer’s own voice, is pithy and poignant and just too good to lose in the ether.

  • No worries Racerx. I was consciously selecting for those without profanity. Had I not done that, the one you choose clearly would have made the list.

  • Fifty-two bucks for “goodies” from Tommy the Roach? Don’t these contributers ever run out of money? Perhaps after Dobson, Falwell, etc. the base will finally be tapped out by all of the lunatics yammering for cash. So little for so much. Maybe an enterprising crook could simply setup a site such as “fortheright.com” and have ‘em send money. Contact those crafty devils in Nigeria!

  • Delay just can’t take his mouth away from the public teat. There are still a lot of people out there who want to send him money, probably a lot of the same people who send money to disgraced evangelists.

    Actually name-calling is free speech. I think he would delete thoughtful posts as quickly as name-calling ones if they didn’t fit his agenda.

  • Greedy. Arrogant. Ignorant. Neocons.

    And by the way—isn’t it still legal to shoot large rodents in Texas?

  • Castor Troy, I admire your sentiments… but DeLay’s the sort of guy that, if you see him bleeding to death across the street, you risk getting hit by a car to go kick him in the balls.

    I mean, the dude is evil. Nobody did more damage to Congress–both debasing the discourse and elevating pay-for-play corruption to a virtue–than the Bug Man.

    Needless to say, I loved reading the comments–not just for their humor value, but because they highlighted the wonderfully democratic/anarchic nature of Internet discourse. For all his talk about “ideas,” this bastard never really had any besides hyper-partisan sliming and advancing the interests of his benefactors. He merely got back, in more concentrated but unfortunately less consequential form, some of the poison he pumped out into public life for so long.

    There are many conservatives worthy of both that name, and our intellectual respect; that pseudo-conservative thug is not one of them.

  • ah well, just saq the headline here, remembered reading it this morning in the TPN daily update e-mail, and here I am, several days late and many dollars short. 🙂

  • Thanks for the summary, Lance!

    MoveOn wasn’t started by criminals

    …but rather, by the flying toasters people. (Too weird a fact to let go unmentioned.)

    I can’t believe I never heard the name Bugsy Delay before. Very nice.

  • “Thanks for the summary, Lance!” – Allen K.

    You’re welcome. I thought it well worth the time.

    • Comments are closed.