Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Just Go Away: I never thought I'd see the day when liberals were celebrating that Tom DeLay will remain on an election ballot.

It's a shame really. He doesn't want to run. Nobody wants to vote for him. Yet the kind folks in Sugarland are denied a true choice for their Congressional representative come November. Conservatives can try to run a write-in candidate. But that provides an unnecessary complication in what should be a simple matter.

I understand the need for election law to prevent bait and switches that political parties would like to play. But in this instance, when something occurred after the primary election that changes the dynamics of a race, a party should be able to replace that person on the ballot.

I would criticize the Democrats for gaming the system by suing to keep DeLay on the ballot, but Republicans would have done the exact same thing were the situation reversed. And the 5th Circuit, which is the most conservative federal appeals court, and Justice Scalia, one of the most conservative on the High Court, upheld the Democrats' claim.

This is simply bad law.