Lots Of Bad News To Spin

by Steve Young

The best thing for conservative talk radio last week was the death of the Pope. It gave them something to deflect attention from the other deaths -- most notable, the death of Tom DeLay's career and the President Bush's Social Security plan. With the other bad news of the week, the Lords of Loud had their work cut out for them. Consider:

Tom DeLay

More intelligence failure reports

70% of Americans agin' Schiavo intervention by Congress

Tom DeLay

Record gas prices

John Bolton

Tom DeLay

Dr. Bill Frist diagnosing from a video

Consumer confidence g'wan way down

Did I mention Tom DeLay?

Tom Delay ordered the wagons circled, and friends of the thin-lipped House Majority Leader plan to try to preserve his power by launching an aggressive media strategy and calling in favors from prominent conservative leaders, according to Republicans participating in the strategy sessions.

Will the Talk Radio Republican parrots take on the challenge? We can only hope so.

At least now there's an alternative voice set up to respond. Along with the new- found gonads of the Democratic Party, Air America, Jones Syndicate, and local progressive stations are popping up all over the country to rebut and reveal what is in actuality, the squealing of thou- dost- protest- too- much, drowning- rat- defenders of an ethically-challenged, ethics-zealot's, sinking ship.

While Brit Hume, Bill Kristol and all the rest of the Fox non-partisan bloviators continue to say there's really nothing serious yet, House Republicans seem to feel that "yet" is ready to swallow up the GOP.

"Tom's conduct is hurting the Republican Party, is hurting this Republican majority and it is hurting any Republican who is up for re-election," said Rep. Chris Shays (R-Connecticut), calling for DeLay to step down as majority leader.

Hammer-in-waiting, Rick Santorum, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said Sunday that DeLay needs to come clean.

"I think he has to come forward and lay out what he did and why he did it and let the people then judge for themselves," Santorum told ABC's This Week. "But from everything I've heard, again, from the comments and responding to those, is everything he's done was according to the law."

Even the Prez has run as far away from his old pal as he can without making it seem that he's doing a Jim Jeffords. When Bush was asked Friday about DeLay's comments that judges are out of control and should be held accountable, the President replied that he believes in "an independent judiciary." He said nothing about DeLay.

This week should be fun on the old AM dial. I suspect the Lords of Loud will try mightily to repeat their litany of misinformation ad infinitum, attempting to drive a nine iron down the truth's throat and lay all of DeLay's misdeeds at the feet of everyone else. The good news is that the public is finally getting it. Sean Hannity brought on every nutcase within a thousand miles of Terri Schiavo's hospice to label her husband a philandering murderer, and still 70 percent of the American people said that Congress's effort to intimidate Florida and the courts was a misstep...big time. The country, which I believe includes a number of Republicans, may be at long last, comprehending that the Lords of Loud are only about spouting half-truths to support their half-ass arguments. One can only hope the Lords keep up the good work.