(no subject)

[mcroft]

I don't generally blog politics here, but a Republican-appointed federal judge in Texas just ruled that the Republicans can't remove Tom Delay from the ballot.

Expect an appeal so fast it will make your head spin.

Comments

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's both wrong and stupid.
Idiots all around.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

While I'd like the people of Sugarland to have a choice amongst the best candidates, TD did this to them by competing in the primary. Texas law locks you in once the primary is done, so that parties can't run the best primary winner and then pick a better general election candidate.

This is a win for the dems, certainly, either they can run against Tom, who they think they can beat, or they can keep anyone else from being in the race while this is judged.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I think it's a solid decision given the law. They would certainly use it against Democrats, so they can suck on it now... ;-)

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

I just read the opinion, and I don't see any obvious error (not that I know the precedents, but the opinion is pretty clear).

Tom can:
1: suck it up and run. He might win, who knows?
2: die and/or fake his own death (the Ken Lay trick)
3: rebel against the US, thus putting himself against the 14th amendment.
4: renounce his citizenship and offshore himself to Bermuda

What I'm not clear about is what if he's convicted of a felony. Can he use that, perhaps by pleading guilty, to get himself ineligible? What if he's in jail?

I also wouldn't put it past the Texas house to use the redistricting mess to try to change CD 22 enough to let them call it "different enough to let Tom Out" while fixing the unconstitutional CD 23/25 issues, even though it's about 200 miles away...

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't put any gerrymandering past them, no matter how blatant. I'd hate to be a Texas liberal (or even moderate) right now, even after the Supreme Court decision.

No idea on the felony question. I haven't read the law, or the precedent. If DeLay gets convicted, I'll go look it up. I promise. ;-)

[goldfired.livejournal.com]

I must admit - I've been reading mail so fast that my first thought was ... "Hmmm? But he's dead."

Then I realised that was Ken Lay.

[mcroft.livejournal.com]

Tom "The Hammer" DeLay is only politically dead. He may be about to become politically undead. We'll see...