You may have read–in the New York Times but also here–that Tom DeLay had suggested that God gave us the Schiavo case to bring our attention to what truly matters, and not to the scandal charges against him.

I’ve gotten a copy of the DeLay speech in question. (A partial version, which includes the excerpts below, is online.) It may be relevant that the person who introduced DeLay had said that liberals were engaged in a co-ordinated attack on him. At the start of this passage, which comes toward the end of the speech, he is talking about the Schiavo case.

“This is critically important. I know you know that. It is more than Terri

Schiavo. This is a critical issue for people in this position. And it is

also a critical issue to fight the fight for life, whether it be euthanasia

or abortion. And I tell you, ladies and gentleman, one thing that God has

brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to elevate the visibility of what’s going on

in America. That Americans would be so barbaric as to pull a feeding tube

out of a person that is lucid and starve them to death for two weeks. I

mean, in America that’s going to happen if we don’t win this fight. And so

it’s bigger than any one of us, and we have to do everything that is in our

power to save Terri Schiavo and anyone else that is in this kind of

position.

“And let me just finish with this. This is exactly the issue that is going on

in America, of attacks against the conservative movement. Against me and

against many others. The point is the other side has figured out how to win

and defeat the conservative movement. And that is to go after people

personally, charge them with frivolous charges, link that up with all these

do-gooder organizations funded by George Soros and then get the national

media on their side.

“That whole syndicate that they have going on right now is for one purpose

and one purpose only and that’s to destroy the conservative movement. It’s

to destroy conservative leaders, not just in elected office but leading, I

mean Ed Feulner today, at the Heritage Foundation, was under attack in the

National Journal. I mean this is a huge nationwide concerted effort to

destroy everything we believe in, and you need to look at this and what’s

going on and participate in fighting back.

“You know one way they stopped churches from getting into politics was Lyndon

Johnson who passed a law that said you couldn’t get into politics or your

gonna loose your tax exempt status because they were all opposed to him when

he was running for president. That law we’re trying to repeal, it’s very

difficult to do that, but the point is that when they can knock out a

leader, then no other leader will step forward for a while, because they

don’t want to go through the same thing.

“If they go after and get a pastor, then other pastors shrink from what they

should be doing. It forces Christians back into the church and that’s

what’s going on in America. The world is too bad, I’m gonna go get inside

this building and I’m not gonna play in the world. That’s not what Christ

asked us to do. And so — they understand that. It is a political maneuver

and they are going to try to destroy the conservative movement and we have

to fight back.

“So, please, this afternoon, each and every one of you, if you know a

senator, give them a call [to get them to vote for the Schiavo bill] . . .”

Whatever else can be said of DeLay’s comments, it seems clear to me that they cannot bear the construction put upon them by his critics.