{"id":4306,"date":"2005-05-27T09:59:25","date_gmt":"2005-05-27T13:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/4306.html"},"modified":"2005-05-27T09:59:25","modified_gmt":"2005-05-27T13:59:25","slug":"tom-delay-identifies-his-real-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/tom-delay-identifies-his-real-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom DeLay identifies his real problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

I didn’t see the episode, but it sounds like pretty entertaining dialog. On a recent episode of NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” officers were searching for the fictional killer of two judges. Police believed right-wing extremists were involved. Frustrated by a lack of clues, one officer joked<\/a>, “Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt.”<\/p>\n

DeLay, however, was not amused<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse,” DeLay wrote in a letter to NBC President Jeff Zucker.<\/p>\n

“I can only assume last night’s slur was in response to comments I have made in the past about the need for Congress to closely monitor the federal judiciary, as prescribed in our constitutional system of checks and balances.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can appreciate the fact that DeLay doesn’t enjoy being the butt of jokes, but when the House Majority Leader publicly threatens federal judges<\/a>, he shouldn’t be terribly surprised when it draws ridicule.<\/p>\n

To its credit, NBC isn’t backing down or apologizing.<\/p>\n

Responding to DeLay’s attack on “Law & Order,” Dick Wolf, the show’s executive producer and creator, made no apologies.<\/p>\n

“Every week, approximately 100 million people see an episode of the branded ‘Law & Order’ series. Up until today, it was my impression that all of our viewers understood that these shows are works of fiction as is stated in each episode.<\/p>\n

“But I do congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Touch\u00c3\u00a9.
\n
\nThere are two aspects of this mini-flap — which, if we’re really lucky, could become a real controversy — aside from the fact that NBC is sticking to its guns.<\/p>\n

One, it’s proof that DeLay’s notoriety has grown to the point that it’s infiltrating pop culture. He’s not an obscure politician whose lunacy is going unnoticed; it’s an infamous politician who foibles are being mocked on “Law & Order.”<\/p>\n

Two, DeLay is helping his critics enormously by raising a fuss<\/a> over this. It not only continues to help increase his visibility and name recognition, it also helps remind people of why “Law & Order” made the joke in the first place — DeLay’s veiled threats against the judiciary.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, the ideal scenario would be for DeLay to get so upset about this, he’ll threaten a lawsuit, or maybe introduce some kind of resolution in the House. In fact, we should encourage this as much as possible.<\/p>\n

Note to DeLay: Are you going to take this mockery laying down? From a spin-off<\/i>? NBC doesn’t know who they’re dealing with. Go get ’em.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn’t see the episode, but it sounds like pretty entertaining dialog. On a recent episode of NBC’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” officers were searching for the fictional killer of two judges. Police believed right-wing extremists were involved. Frustrated by a lack of clues, one officer joked, “Maybe we should put out an APB […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4306\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}