Do the Brownwood R's know that they've been "played" by Delay and his cohorts ?

Dallas Morning News Editorial

Breaking the Faith: Whom is DeLay calling 'enemies of virtue' ?

07:14 AM CST on Thursday, March 30, 2006
In an astoundingly cynical performance at a "War on Christians" conference in Washington this week, Rep. Tom DeLay urged religious conservatives to stay on the attack against hostile forces out to get Christians like, well, Tom DeLay.
"We have been chosen to live as Christians at a time when our culture is being poisoned and our world is being threatened," Mr. DeLay told the crowd. "The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won." The Texas evangelist who organized the conference likened Mr. DeLay's legal and ethical woes to – wait for it – the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
But lest the faithful prematurely canonize Mr. DeLay as a martyr for the faith, they should consider how Team DeLay, with its paladins of public piety, has specifically manipulated sincere Christians for personal gain.
Take Edwin Buckham, a Washington lobbyist who once served as Mr. DeLay's chief of staff and personal pastor. The Washington Post reported this week that Mr. Buckham received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization he set up as a DeLay staffer. Mr. DeLay promoted the organization as a national grass-roots group engaged in pro-family activism on Capitol Hill. In fact, records indicate that USFN was a front that took in millions, mostly from clients of felonious lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and lavished the largesse heavily on Mr. Buckham and his wife.
Or take former top DeLay aide Michael Scanlon, who pleaded guilty to corruption charges in the Abramoff scandal. In an e-mail released by a Senate committee, Mr. Scanlon discusses how his clients can use the gullibility of Christians to their own advantage: "The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the Internet and telephone trees. ... Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."
St. Paul writes about the wisdom of becoming a fool for Christ. It's one thing to be a fool for Christ, but it's quite another to be a patsy.
source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-delay_30edi.ART.State.Edition1.2591e5e.html