Time to face the voters, Hammer

August 3, 2006

Former House Majority Leader [tag]Tom DeLay[/tag] resigned from Congress and withdrew himself from consideration for re-election, after he had already won a GOP primary, claiming he moved to Virginia and was therefore ineligible. A lawsuit challenged the move, arguing a) DeLay couldn’t take his name of the ballot just because he expected to lose; and b) that DeLay, by matter of election law, has to appear on the [tag]ballot[/tag].

Last month, a federal court agreed. Today, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.

A federal appeals court panel on Thursday refused to let Texas Republicans replace Tom DeLay’s name on the November congressional ballot. […]

Thursday’s ruling said that GOP state chairwoman Tina Benkiser acted unconstitutionally when she tried to remove DeLay as the party nominee because he lived in Virginia. Democrats had noted that DeLay’s wife, Christine, still lives in the DeLays’ house in Sugar Land, just outside Houston.

The U.S. Constitution says that anyone who lives in the state on the day of the election is qualified to run for Congress, the 5th Circuit said.

“Proof of DeLay’s present residency may suggest where he will be in the future; however, it does not put the matter beyond dispute or question,” the opinion said.

There’s already talk that DeLay’s lawyers are considering an appeal to the Supreme Court, but given the results so far, it’s probably safe to assume DeLay’s name will appear on the ballot in November.

For the GOP, that’s a problem.

As I noted last month, DeLay will not only have to convince voters to overlook his multiple legal and ethical scandals, he’ll have to ask them to forgive him from resigning and he’ll have to take on a well-funded and well-liked Democrat, former Rep. [tag]Nick Lampson[/tag], who never stopped running for the seat.

There’s some bravado from the GOP — some local Republican officials have warned Dems, “Be careful what you wish for” — but this is misplaced confidence. The district was intentionally carved to have fewer Republican voters, and when the Lampson-DeLay match-up was polled earlier this year, Lampson was already in the lead. And that was before DeLay told voters he didn’t want to represent them anymore.

I still think this is the best of all possible scenarios. I was pleased to see DeLay resign in April, but I was disappointed about one thing: I wanted to see him lose, not quit. Now, it may work out well after all.

Uh Oh, Time to do some emergency redistricting in Texas.
Maybe, Delay and his wife were legally separated and they just didn’t tell anyone? Rasputin Rove will have to get real creative to fix this. HaHa.

  • Good points. After all, wasn’t a big reason DeLay quit the race was because he was afraid he might lose (which shows what a coward he is at heart, unwilling to run unless he’s sure of victory)? Now he has to crawl back home and say, “Oops, sorry, can I have a do-over, folks?”

  • There’s already talk that DeLay’s lawyers are considering an appeal to the Supreme Court

    But it would be early October, at the absolute earliest, before the Court could hear the case, no?

    Even if Delay prevailed at the Supreme Court, there would probably be another round of lawyering over other deadlines in Texas law (I’m assuming the final date to replace a candidate’s name, so that ballots can be printed, is at least a few weeks before election day).

    Poor Tom 😉

  • At first this worried me, but now it seems that the Republcans and Delay are a little less scary. He might campaign though just to keep money coming into his defense fund.

    Debug DeLay

  • Please include the possibility the SC Justice that would hear the emergency appeal might rule, “Hmm, very interesting, I think we should hear this, but I will let the Republicans name somebody in the meantime. Let’s set the case for next term.” Not more farfetched than Florida 2000.

  • So now we get to see him both quit AND lose. What a nice reversal of roles: the hammer getting nailed instead of the other way around.

    And please visit my blog to hear an aide to Senator Tom Coburn explain to me the proper use of a condom. Many of us have been doing it wrong.

  • Sorry, tommy…you can’t unring a (dumb)bell. Go back to spraying for cockroaches…sometimes you have to stick with thejob that suits your talents.

  • Tommy has ONE tough choice

    1) Spend his campaign do-re-mi on the actual campaign
    b) Spend it on his legal defense which is what he wanted to do the whole time

    Such tough choices he has. much like allowing his dad to die while thinking others can’t make that decision for themselves

  • The Dems have been all over this DeLay thing. Gleefully. And relentlessly.
    But we’re talking about Texas.
    And I fear that all this attention, publicity, the legal stuff, etc., will really draw his supporters to the polls and he’ll actually WIN the race.
    Geez, now that would be a slap in the face.
    Don’t let your guard down; the race isn’t won until the Diebold machines have been tampered.. er, until the last vote is counted.

  • How many shit pies does that man have to eat this year ?

    I lived in his district for 5 years and believe me when I say that there are Tom Delay, District 22 Representative signs everywhere.

    So here a big shit pie from me to you Tommy. And when in the fuck are you going to remove the signs ??????

  • Editor, Tom’s district is Sugar Land, which is a suburd of Houston. Houston is farily liberal, we even have a Democratic Mayor. No one is sweating the bug man.

    FYI – Please quit with the Texas streotypes. Before GWB, we did have a female Democratic governor. This state isn’t near as red as everyone seems to think.

    The GOP did to Texas what it did to the whole country.

  • ScottW,

    Sugarland is indeed a suburb of Houston and Houston is indeed more liberal than most Texas towns. As far as it’s innerurban residents (like me) go. But out in the ‘burbs are some very scary hard right people. Many of them believe that Iraq had WMDs and that they were found. Many of them believe there was a connection between Saddam and bin Laden. Almost all of them are die-hard Bush supporters, and most of them are behind the war. They love Tom Delay. And they can’t wait for the Rapture. I know, I have to work with a whole lot of them.

  • Doesn’t this have the appearance of the Republicans trying, ancient mariner-style, to get the rotting albatross of DeLay from around their necks? I think it’s hilarious that DeLay’s reputation is so utterly and completely trashed that the Democrats actually sued to get him put back on the ballot so they wouldn’t have to fight a Republican in TX-22 who actually has a chance of winning.

    Speaking of voting, check out this AP newswire story about Arizona considering bribing voters with one million dollars. Yes, it’s a voting lottery and the lucky voter will win $1,000,000 if their name is drawn. IOW, it’s buying votes on a much grander scale.

    Which is a much better idea than, you know, providing the people with a candidate worth coming to the polls for…

  • If the Texas Republicans were to appeal to SCOTUS on an emergency basis, I think the initial petition from the 5th circuit would go to Scalia. I imagine he’d be more likely than not to try to help out the Republicans (gee – am I being unfair in thinking his judicial reasoning in the case might be less than impartial?).

    I don’t know the exact procedure involved, but don’t be surprised if the Repubs still manage to get some kind of emergency injunction allowing them to place a different candidate on the ballot pending a full appeal to SCOTUS, which wouldn’t be decided until the issue was moot.

  • I’ll admit it: I’m terrified he’s going to win. Texans seem just contrary enough to “stick it to the libs” by returning this consummate slimebag to office, their own representation be damned.

    Now, the spectacle of DeLay in the minority might be kind of fun… but this man has done more damage to our governance traditions than probably any other living public figure. I just want him to disappear in disgrace and fade into history as the repellent symbol of mutant-strain Republicanism.

  • Walt Baby.
    I used to be one, suburbanite, and although their are a lot of wingnuts, their are plenty of lefties too. Plus there are huge suburbs with non-Caucasian populations that I am only guessing, don’t drink the Delay Kool-Aid.

    Plus that doesn’t explain Ann Richards.
    Plus TX22 covers areas of Houston and Galveston.

  • Let’s say, just for a moment, that DeLay gets off the ballot. How would you like to be the Unknown Republican thrown into the race two months before Election Day?

  • Faced with a choice between loser or quitter, DeLay chose quitter. Then, when they wouldn’t let him quit, he chose loser. So the once mighty, bully of a Hammer is now a flip-flopper a loser, a quitter, a whiner and, if there’s any justice left in the system, a guest of the state. And his party still defends him. What a man. What a party.

  • What goes around, comes around! I honestly believe Delay is about to get his. This will dramatically improve my opinion of Texas, but they won’t be totally off the hook in my mind until Bush himself is in court for crimes against humanity, and for trying to destroy utterly and completely our Constitution and our way of life.

  • Hey Jim, who needs God when you’ve got Diebold?

    Seriously, if the machines get to decide who wins and no one gets to look inside the machine before, during and after the election, we might as well let Wally O’Dell vote for us.

    These people are working on this huge problem:

    http://www.voteraction.org/

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