Rivera: "For me, the scariest man in American politics was never the Vice President, however intimidating Dick Cheney’s Darth Vader image may be. Now for the last decade, the real chiller that has been the former House majority leader, Tom DeLay of Texas. He's been the dark lord of Congress. And now he's gone."
The segment, airing at 11:26PM EST, went downhill from there. Rivera proceeded to refer to DeLay as "this little man," a "ruthless opportunist" and "the bruiser." The Fox host, who became infamous in 1986 when he opened Al Capone’s vault and found nothing, then opined the following about self interest:
Rivera: "And I for one will not miss him. Tom DeLay, to me, was the epitome of the ruthless opportunist."
Rivera went on to decry the former majority leader’s actions in the Terri Schiavo case:
Rivera: "And of all his alleged sins, the incident that most clearly exposes DeLay’s political soul was the Terri Schiavo case where he teamed up with senator Bill Frist to push emergency legislation through Congress denouncing Schiavo’s husband and Florida state judges for committing what he called an act of barbarism in removing the vegetative woman from the feeding tube that kept her technically alive. It was only later revealed that in 1988, Congressman DeLay had quietly agreed with his family to let his own elderly father die because doctors had advised them that the critically sick man would be basically a vegetable."
Rivera concluded his rant when he stated, "So to his other sins, proven or alleged, Tom DeLay is also a hypocrite."
It might help, just a little, to know the facts behind the case of DeLay’s father, Charles. Terri Schiavo needed just food and water to survive; she only died when those were taken away. Charles DeLay would have required a ventilator and was facing organ failure. Not exactly the same thing, but would you expect Geraldo to tell you that?
