Political Mistake of the Week

So when you are being investigated for ethics complaints and a court requires you to pay a fine to 5 former US Congress Members for redistricting them out of their seat, what do you want to do most? That's right, you want to stay out of the media!

What does Tom Delay do? He gets in the news because of a quote on Law and Order.

Tom DeLay immediately lashed out yesterday because of a one second line on Law and Order. The line was as simple as "Maybe we should put out an APB for somebody in a Tom DeLay T-shirt." This set DeLay off.

"This manipulation of my name and trivialization of the sensitive issue of judicial security represents a reckless disregard for the suffering initiated by recent tragedies and a great disservice to public discourse," he said.

NBC gave in to pressure from the DeLay statement and simply tried to play it off.

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," NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said in a statement.

However Dick Wolf did not go away so easily, and this is where the problem starts. If you are in the middle of a political dog fight you should lay low, be on the attack with those attacking you, or be out doing charity (a lot of charity). Dick Wolf's response to DeLay is the exact reason for this.

"Every week, approximately 100 million people see an episode of the branded Law & Order series. 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," he said. "But I do congratulate Congressman DeLay for switching the spotlight from his own problems to an episode of a TV show."

Wolf was getting in a dig at DeLay's burgeoning ethics problems stemming from his Texas-based political action committee and dealings with questionable lobbying practices.

The day after the announcement from the court, DeLay stays in the news and gets his unethical actions back in the media. The lesson from all this is simple. When you do something wrong and are constantly being attacked, stay out of the media and don't make a big deal over little things. Silly Tom DeLay didn't know that, and that is why he committed the "Political Mistake of the Week".