Digby wants the Dems to go on the attack against Delay, but not necessarily for the reason you might think.

Tommy Boy is a gutter fighter with a 24 karat Halo, courtesy of the Religious Fright Wing. They may be disappointed in Bush and Cheney's waffling on the whole Smear the Queers thing, but Tombo's a true believer like them. As Morton Blackwell's made clear, they'll fight for him, and they expect everyone who owes them (which, face it, is just about everybody in Fright Wing politics and the Wurlitzer Media Marching Kazoo Band) to do so as well. Vigorously.

Think about that for a second. Tom Delay is the Republicans' litmus test.

Good, sez Digby. Make 'em defend him. They won't even realize their $500 suits have disappeared into thin air, but the watchers will:

We especially want to see those guys on Fox News. A lot. And here's why. Something happened during the Schiavo circus, I think, and it was
something significant. But it wasn't that the nation saw that politicians were all a bunch of craven opportunists. They already knew that. It was that the Republican professional class, the libertarians and some common sense types saw FOX News and talk radio as being full of shit for the first time. I have nothing but a handful of anecdotes to back that up, but I think Schiavo may turn out to be the first big tear in the right wing matrix.

For instance, a conservative doctor of my acquaintance was stunned by the Schiavo matter. This man watches nothing but Fox news and could not believe the anti-intellectual religiosity of their coverage. This is a matter that he knows intimately and he could see clearly that the coverage wasn't "fair and balanced." Indeed, it wasn't true. It's as if a veil fell from his eyes.

My conservative Rush loving neighbor was heard complaining the his hero didn't know what he was talking about on the Schiavo case. That is a first. This guy is a true believer --- who also has a very sick wife.

My nurse sister-in-law (also a born again Christian and avid FOX watcher) insisted that all the news be turned off in the house because she couldn't stand the exploitation of the patient or the sideshow outside that hospice. She's very depressed about all this.

See, the right isn't like us. They think that the so called liberal media is irretrievably biased but believe what they see, read and hear on their own media. We on the left, on the other hand, have no faith in any mainstream media, really, or any alternative media either for that matter. We have developed the habit of culling from various sources and analyzing the information ourselves as best we can. Even then we are very skeptical. Nothing that the media could do would particularly shock or disappoint us. No so with the other side. A fair number of them are actually hurt and bewildered by what they saw in the Schiavo matter.

In other words, that feeling you remember in the pit of your stomach when you read that the Supremes had crowned Jr. in 2000? That's what they're feeling right now.

Let 'em wallow in it for a while, until they get a good understanding of how they've been rooked by the Right. Then, be ready with a supply of antacids and welcoming ear.

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