Dog Trainer Takes a Cheap Shot at Tom DeLay
I am not a fan of Tom DeLay. But this article in the Los Angeles Dog Trainer* disgusts me beyond belief.
The clear premise of the article is that DeLay is a hypocrite, because he fought for federal review of Terri Schiavo’s case, but allowed his own father to die without taking extreme measures to save him.
Read the story. The circumstances of the two cases are as dissimilar as they could be. The elder DeLay was injured in a horrible accident, and was being kept alive on a ventilator. His organs were failing, and he would have required dialysis. The family was unanimous in its view that he would not have wanted to live any longer.
By contrast, before the state ordered her to be starved and dehydrated to death, Terri Schiavo was not terminally ill. Her organs were not failing. She was not on a ventilator or a dialysis machine. Most important, her family was unanimous that she would want to live — save only her husband, whose conflicts on the issue of her wishes have been discussed at length.
There is no parallel here. None. It is shameful for the L.A. Times to devote an inch of newsprint to the story.
Yet you can hear the sardonic chuckles of the reporters and editors as they put together this story. And I bet you a million dollars that they will run reams of letters from the sheep who lap this sort of thing up, decrying the alleged hypocrisy of DeLay on this issue.
I swear, between this paper running Ted Rall cartoons, and this kind of cheap shot, I think it may be time to cancel my subscription. They’re probably going to keep giving me the paper for free anyway. Why should I subsidize thinly veiled derision masquerading as news?
*Despite recent claims to the contrary, I rarely call this paper the “Dog Trainer” any more. But I think it may be time to resurrect the name. With stories like this, the paper does not deserve to be treated with any respect.
UPDATE: I’ve been overruled. Mrs. Patterico wants to keep subscribing.
[…] his is apparent in today’s disgraceful article about Tom DeLay, which I discussed in this post. The article begins: A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas […]
Patterico's Pontifications » A True or False Question for the “Let Terri Schiavo Die” Folks (0c6a63) — 3/27/2005 @ 7:30 pmI respect my dogs too much to expose them to such garbage. Shred it and use for compost, but not around anything you’re going to eat.
Old Coot (72ce38) — 3/27/2005 @ 6:43 amPatrick,
I tried to leave a trackback but received an error message.
Who are the real hypocrites here?
I say John Carroll and Michael Kinsley.
Put commentary in the Op-Ed section and leave the front page for news – eh?
Flap (f32e2f) — 3/27/2005 @ 10:02 amGuess who reprinted this cheap shot. My “friends” at the Minneapolis Star Tribune considered it appropriate fare for an Easter morning. I was going to post about it, but I think I’ll just link to your post instead.
Doug Vaselaar (0330be) — 3/27/2005 @ 12:01 pmMore Holiday Love from the Star Tribune
A Million Monkeys Typing (59ce3a) — 3/27/2005 @ 12:15 pmThe Star Tribune elected to honor the Easter holiday by reprinting a cheap shot from the LA Times that attempts to make Tom DeLay into a hypocrite on the Schiavo affair. Rather than critique the piece myself, here’s a link to Patterico’s takedown of…
While the situation with DeLay’s father was much more dire, the support lent to the Schindler’s was not based on a caveat that it would be OK if everyone agreed, it was based on the all life is sacred and removal of life support is murder argument.
If you want real hypocrisy, look no further than Robert Schindler. He had life support withdrawn from his mother because she started to go into renal failure after a week of treatment for pneumonia. People (even some elderly ones, Schindler’s mother was 79) have survived full blown ARDS with multi-organ failure, why did he not keep her on life support to see if she would succumb or survive (remember quality of life supposedly does not matter and the family thinks withdrawal of life support is murder – just read their depositions on the matter).
Ol Cranky (7214c4) — 3/27/2005 @ 12:19 pmWhile the situation with DeLay’s father was much more dire, the support lent to the Schindler’s was not based on a caveat that it would be OK if everyone agreed, it was based on the all life is sacred and removal of life support is murder argument.
Not here. My support for the Schindlers is entirely based upon the lack of credible evidence that Michael Schiavo accurately related his wife’s wishes.
If you can cite me to quotes from Congressmen saying that Terri Schiavo should be kept alive even if her wishes were to the contrary, I’d love to see them. Somehow, I don’t think you can.
Patterico (756436) — 3/27/2005 @ 12:31 pmSCHIAVO CHEAP SHOTS
Pejmanesque (2ae9b5) — 3/27/2005 @ 12:45 pmI have made my position on l’affaire Schiavo clear, but all of the legalisms in the world don’t obscure two very important facts: We are dealing with the termination of a human life. Whether Terri Schiavo asked to be allowed…
Well said.
Robin Roberts (56a273) — 3/27/2005 @ 1:05 pmfoxnews.com has an article entitled “Delay Had Schiavo-Like Experience” that approvingly links to the shameful Dog Trainer article.
clark smith (fb40b4) — 3/27/2005 @ 1:08 pmClark:
As Spoons says: foxnews.com is as liberal as the rest.
Patterico (756436) — 3/27/2005 @ 1:11 pm“As Spoons says: foxnews.com is as liberal as the rest. ”
whoa.
actus (f9abe0) — 3/27/2005 @ 5:16 pmwhoa.
foxnews.com. Not Fox News.
Patterico (756436) — 3/27/2005 @ 5:25 pmPatterico,
You say that your support for the Schindlers is “entirely based upon the lack of credible evidence that Michael Schiavo accurately related his wife’s wishes.”.
You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. But the courts, unlike you and most everyone else commenting on this, looked at all the available evidence and reached a different conclusion, that in fact there was evidence supporting the idea that Terri would not want to live like this.
GT (18d9c2) — 3/28/2005 @ 2:18 amYup. And I have already shown that one of the critical credibility decisions was based upon a factual error by the probate judge. So you’ll excuse me if I lack confidence in the vaunted Judge Greer. Yet another reason why life-and-death issues should not be decided by a single probate judge.
Patterico (756436) — 3/28/2005 @ 6:23 amPatterico,
It’s OK if you don’t have confidence but the matter has been reviewed by many courts. You don’t have to like the results but then again you have not been a part of the proceedings.
As for the comparison between the two cases it’s pretty clear. Both cases involve brain-damaged patients that the attending doctors said had no possibility of recovery. In both cases the law allowed the patient’s guardian to reject artificial methods to continue living. Note that whether other family members agreed or not is not relevant unless you want to change the guardianship laws and make the whole family co-guardians and take that away from the spouse. Is that what you are proposing?
GT (18d9c2) — 3/28/2005 @ 9:51 amGT, I’m sure Terry is please with your efforts in her defense.
antimedia (a1acdf) — 3/28/2005 @ 8:59 pmOoooh Child….the right wing is all between a snit’n’ a tizzy because thanks to the Schiavo affair, Republican Hypocrisy is being open to fresh air and America can see in. And the examples of the hypocrisy they’re seeing?:
— Bush pulling the plug on terminally ill patients in 1999 in Texas
— Bush not acceding to Christian ministers and preachers who pleaded with him to stay the execution of Karla Fay Tucker.
— DeLay whom you ALL know now is going to go down in flame and shame bigger than Jim Wright (wasnt he ALSO from Texas? ) is the laughing stock of DC, which is pretty hard
— The people who espouse the “culture of life” are pro-death penalty and were ‘for’ sending 1,600 Young soldiers to lose their lives in Iraq
— DeLay recently voted to cut Medicaid that will be needed to keep people like Schiavo alive.
— Republicans are NOT for small government when they don’t get their way. They want to snoop into our bedrooms and doctor/patient relationships.
— Republicans are REALLY NOT for the sanctity of marriage becuase if they WERE , they would have been consistent and said that Terri’s husband should make the decisions.
No doubt you’re dumping into your skivvies as it becomes more apparent we are witnessing the Big Watershed—– the beginning of the split-up of the Republican party. The libertarians who were hoodwinked into joining the theocrats are now realizing that the theocrats are jihadists—the American Taliban. And the libertartions want no part of the Taliban’s Big Government Republicanism. So, sit back and enjoy the show as your smelly smarmy right-wing hypocrisy is hung out for ALL to see. Com’on … I know I’M enjoying it. And you can too. All you need is some rationale and reasoning…
Michael D'Amico (0c7a16) — 3/29/2005 @ 11:27 am“Yup. And I have already shown that one of the critical credibility decisions was based upon a factual error by the probate judge. So you’ll excuse me if I lack confidence in the vaunted Judge Greer. Yet another reason why life-and-death issues should not be decided by a single probate judge.”
Whats the standard for overturning that finding? clear error?
actus (f9abe0) — 3/30/2005 @ 5:27 pmhttp://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r104:1:./temp/~r1042yD4X4:e147755:
“The time has come that the American people know exactly what their Representatives are doing here in Washington. Are they feeding at the public trough, taking lobbyist-paid vacations, getting wined and dined by special interest groups? Or are they working hard to represent their constituents? The people, the American people, have a right to know…I say the best disinfectant is full disclosure, not isolation.” – U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, addressing the House of Representatives on the Gift Reform Act, 11/16/95
a (f414f5) — 4/25/2005 @ 10:08 am[…] I wanted to cancel the L.A. Times last year, after the paper ran an utterly disgraceful story dragging Tom DeLay’s dead father into the Terri Schiavo controversy. But Mrs. P. vetoed the idea. She likes to read the paper at the breakfast table in the morning. […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » Will Patterico Finally Cancel the L.A. Times? (421107) — 2/23/2006 @ 7:21 am[…] Patterico states that he wanted to cancel his subscritpion to the Los Angeles Times because of of something it published last year regarding Tom DeLay’s deceased father and the late Terry Schindler Schiavo. But his wife liked to read it at breakfast at 6a. […]
Rathergate.com » Cancel Your Subscription? (e203ab) — 2/23/2006 @ 10:05 ammaybe it is payback for all the cheap shots Delay has taken at others..
Charlie (8ea405) — 2/23/2006 @ 4:09 pmDisgusting??? What about the rampage of the Delay and gang went on causing all the uproar about letting a brain dead woman pass, and going against even Terry Schiavo’s wishes to let it happen when he himself did the exact same thing to his father, which was respectfully letting him pass when all else was gone?
What is disgusting is that it was just a political sporting event the Delay gang was playing. Dozens of doctors already said she was brain dead. All that was left were the same kind of impulses person having just died has in a convulsive response. Nothing more.
Disgusting is the hypocrisy Delay showed, and the chameleon way the rest of the party played it in an attempt to be the “party of life”. It was all theatrical and stomach turning. FOX(FAUX)outright lied, big surprise, as to the condition of Terry Schiavo as well.
Not to mention Terry Schiavo parents prolonging their delusion of their daughter still being mentally responsive, despite all the neurologists having told them otherwise.
Her poor husband having gone through all the grief of having lost his wife and to see her withering, and finally after exhausting all hope made the decision, only to be demonized by a bunch of right wing virtual gangsters. Tom Delay has proven time and time again he has no soul.
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dc (fb605c) — 6/29/2007 @ 12:14 am[…] I wanted to cancel the L.A. Times last year, after the paper ran an utterly disgraceful story dragging Tom DeLay’s dead father into the Terri Schiavo controversy. But Mrs. P. vetoed the idea. She likes to read the paper at the breakfast table in the morning. […]
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