Thank you, Tom DeLay, for more pearls of idiocy (via Huffington Post):

Tom Delay on Meet the Press, 3/18/07, on the redeployment of troops:
“It is surrender. This is hard so I want to surrender. That’s exactly what it is.”

Later, he questioned the patriotism of those who would protest the war in Iraq:

DELAY: “It is my opinion that when you go to war we ought to all come together. You can debate going to war, that is a legitimate debate, but once you have our soldiers and our young people dying on the battlefield, we should all come together. And we shouldn’t have what we had yesterday on the mall in Washington D.C., those are not in my opinion patriots, that are talking about impeaching the Commander in Chief.”
RUSSERT: Is setting a date for withdrawal…
DELAY: I think it’s aiding and abetting the enemy. When you tell the enemy what your strategy is, that is aiding and abetting the enemy, because they can use that strategy to come back and harm your soldiers.

Tom Delay, in 1999:

“Clinton’s bombing campaign has caused all of these problems to explode.” He “only has two choices, occupy Yugoslavia and take Milosevic out” or “to negotiate some sort of diplomatic end, diplomatic agreement in order to end this failed policy.”
[I support legislation] “directing the president … to remove U.S. Armed Forces from their positions in connection with the present operations against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.”

Tom Delay, in 1998, on calling for the impeachment of a Commander-in-Chief:

“Shall we follow the rule of law and do our constitutional duty no matter unpleasant, or shall we follow the path of least resistance, close our eyes to the potential lawbreaking, forgive and forget, move on and tear an unfixable hole in our legal system? No man is above the law, and no man is below the law. That’s the principle that we all hold very dear in this country.”

Also, thank you Michael Seitzman, for saving me the trouble of tracking down those quotes. This has been bothering me for some time.

If being a “patriot” means unquestioning fealty to a Commander in Chief who has done little to earn my trust, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means supporting a puported effort to defend my “freedoms” by politely declining to use those very freedoms and sitting idly by as they are eroded by the very people claiming to protect them, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means supporting those who ignore the advice of experienced military leaders when it does not conform to the pre-conceived notions of a group of people who have never served a millisecond in combat (and huntin’ don’t count, Dick), then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means supporting leaders who lie through their teeth, again and again, then try to tell me they never said the things they are on record saying again and again, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means accepting the maxim that “9/11 changed everything” at face value without asking what, exactly, changed and why it necessitates the actions they have taken, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means unquestioning support for a war launched when the Commander in Chief did not know the difference between Sunni and Shiite, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means absolute fealty to the sovereign, something you seem to expect, even though our ancestors once fought a war about it, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means accepting without question the cognitive dissonance that arises from the oft repeated claims that terrorists will strike us again, and only Bush can keep us safe, but they will strike again, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means allowing political figures to claim that a Democratic victory is a victory for the terrorists, then ask with a straight face that we stop all the partisan bickering, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means ignoring the fact that the only reason Bush has not yet committed impeachable perjury a la Bill Clinton is because he has refused to testify under oath, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.

If being a “patriot” means that I would stop typing a litany of complaints about the way that you are destroying American society for any reason other than that I have other things to do and my hands are tired, then no, Tom, I am not a patriot.