Tom DeLay: Hero to White Supremacists?

Did anyone happen to catch the season finale of NBC’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent this past Wednesday evening? According to the Media Research Center, the episode tied House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to white supremacist gun nuts, of course can be no other kind at least from the perspective of liberal extremists like Michael Moore, who were suspected of murdering two judges. At one point after the ballistic results come in from the shooting of a black judge, this prompts the character of Detective Alexandra Eames to exclaim, “Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." Once evidence is presented that shooter came from the West, this causes Detective Eames to point out that it is “home of a lot of white supremacist groups." Cheap swipes at leading conservative politicians and pretentious comments such as this are not a new expedience for producer Dick Wolf and his Law & Order franchise. I can recall one episode not too long ago in a lawyer is forced to prosecute a man believed to be behind a murder case and chooses to use the claim that homosexuals choose to be gay, thus making gay marriage morally unethical. This prompts a detective, once again a woman (can Wolf never have a man make these controversial statements), to exclaim, “Don’t tell me you’ve been brainwashed by the religious right”. Another episode attempted to defend a Muslim woman who murdered an off-duty military woman who had some connection to the Abu Gharib ‘scandal’ of which her brother was apparently a part of.

NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly responded to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s complaint about the episode, citing, “The script line involved an exasperated detective, bedeviled by a lack of clues, making a sarcastic comment about the futility of looking for a suspect when no specific description existed. This isolated piece of gritty cop talk was neither a political comment, nor an accusation.” How can this be described as anything but a political swipe from producer Dick Wolf and the writers of Law & Order: Criminal Intent?

Chiming in with his own cavalier retort, producer Dick Wolf commented, "Up until today, it was my impression that all of our viewers understood that these shows are works of fiction, as is stated in each episode. But I do congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show." This of course coming from the man behind one of the most successful crime programs in television history who was left injured in December 2003 from a collision with an SUV after he jaywalked! There can be no excuse which would exempt him from scrutiny when he intermingles historical political figures in a fictionalized world, particularly when the situation involves white supremacists.