God is speaking to Tom Delay again. That's the word from the New Yorker, which details the Hammer's self-described divine inspiration in shedding his sinful ways and motivating his born-again determination to lead a new conservative grassroots movement. As Perrspectives has detailed before, it's hardly the first time Delay compared himself to Christ.

In the New Yorker piece, Delay enlists Jesus in his crusade to tackle his own past demons, his growing disdain for Newt Gingrich and ever-intensifying hatred for liberalism. Apparently, the man who once said "let people see Christ through me" and "people hate the messenger - that's why they killed Christ" continues to rely heavily on Jesus to do his dirty work.

The Lord, for example, helped transform Hot Tub Tom, the acolyte of sin and debauchery in his earlier days, to the upstanding moral paragon the indicted former House Majority Leader is today:

"I had put my needs first. I was on the throne, not God. I had pushed God from His throne."

Which is why Tom Delay's record of womanizing and adultery supposedly differs in kind and degree from that of his erstwhile ally Newt Gingrich:

"Yes, I don't think that Newt could set a high moral standard, a high moral tone, during that moment," DeLay said. "You can't do that if you're keeping secrets about your own adulterous affairs." He added that the impeachment trial was another of his "proudest moments." The difference between his own adultery and Gingrich's, he said, "is that I was no longer committing adultery by that time, the impeachment trial. There's a big difference." He added, "Also, I had returned to Christ and repented my sins by that time."

Delay had returned to Christ and now The Carpenter is returning the favor by revealing His mission for the Hammer:

"God has spoken to me," he said. "I listen to God, and what I've heard is that I'm supposed to devote myself to rebuilding the conservative base of the Republican Party, and I think we shouldn't be underestimated."

All of which means Tom Delay won't be resigning his membership in the American Taliban any time soon. He'll continue to do the Lord's work, like keeping the Terri Schiavos of the world on life support against their will despite pulling the plug on his own father, like threatening judges, and trying to fire Jeff Trandahl, the openly gay clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Yes, God is speaking to Tom Delay again. And that's never good for the rest of mankind.