Tom Can Dish it But He Can't Take it

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has some intelligent discussion of Tom DeLay's great affront at the folks at Law and Order: Criminal Intent whose final episode of the year featured a story line where a judge is killed by a white supremacist only to have one of the detectives quip they should look for someone wearing a Tom DeLay t-shirt.

As a Law and Order fan (more of the original than its various incarnations which are rarely as tight and smart), I happened to catch a little of the episode the other night and choked on my coffee when I heard that line. But I choked more when I saw the Reuters story about Tom's supposed outrage.

For a man so mean-spirited, so ready to get in front of a camera and look down on everyone else, to pronounce them as bad, wrong, and worthy of whatever trouble they receive, Tom is terribly, terribly thin-skinned. In that respect, he's very representative of today's GOP leaders who unleash hatred, intolerance, and threats and then - oh my - are so appalled when anyone from the other side even frowns.

As Josh puts it... such delicate flowers.