July 8, 2006 8:41 AM

He's baaaack...maybe

DeLay suggests he might change mind on retirement

SUGAR LAND, Texas — Tom DeLay suggested Friday that he may not be ready for retirement just yet, a day after a federal judge ruled that his name must remain on the November ballot even after he resigned from Congress. DeLay, who came home to Sugar Land for a previously scheduled tribute, also criticized U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks’ ruling that the former House majority leader’s name had to remain on the ballot for the 22nd congressional district in the Houston suburbs. Sparks is a Democrat appointed by Republican former President George Bush.

You know, I really thought that I was done writing about Tom DeLay. He resigned, he was moving to Virginia…finis…end of story. My God, how could I have been so $^(!@#& naive? You’d think that I would have learned by now that if there is one thing and one thing alone that Texas Republicans respect, it’s political power. Now that they have it, they’re sure as Hell not going to let go of it without a fight…even if it means betraying their complete and total lack of respect for the rule of law.

When DeLay resigned his House seat, the official reason given was that he was moving to Virginia, where he owns a condominium. In reality, the only official residency that changed was on paper. When a reporter from the Houston Chronicle located DeLay and attempted to get his reaction to Thursday’s ruling, he didn’t find DeLay at his condo in Virginia. No, DeLay answered a knock on the door of his Sugar Land home.

It seems pretty clear now that DeLay’s “resignation” was a craven attempt to keep the CD22 seat in Republican hands. He figured that he would resign, change his legal residency, and then CD22 Republicans would be free to select the replacement candidate of their choice. No messy primary for them, nosiree…..

Here’s the problem, though; while DeLay may have changed his residency on paper, there is still no indication that he is anything but a de facto resident of Texas. Under Texas law, this means that the state GOP cannot replace him on the ballot. In this sense, Judge Sparks’ ruling was spot on. If Republicans are allowed to manipulate the ballot to their advantage, what kind of precedent does that set? If Republicans cannot play by the rules, then they should suffer the consequences.

Of course, the down side of this ridiculous scenario is that we may be faced with Tom DeLay on the ballot after all. Imagine this scenario: DeLay changes his mind, runs his usual aggressive, mean-sprited campaign, and manages to win in November. He then resigns, thus allowing Gov. Goodhair to name a faithful “Kill-‘em-all-let-God-sort-‘em-out” Republican as his replacement. Do you think it couldn’t happen? Do you think that DeLay and the Texas GOP are above this sort of craven political manipulation? If you do, you’re even more hopelessly naive than I am. These sorts of shenanigans are EXACTLY the sort of underhanded machinations that DeLay and the Texas Republican Party are capable of- and don’t think that this hasn’t been in the planning stages for some time now.

I can only hope that reasonable people- of which there is a decided lack of in CD22- will recognize these perorations for what they are- a cynical attempt to skirt the law and keep CD22’s seat in Republican hands. It COULD happen, and indeed it may well.

Don’t say you weren’t warned.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 8, 2006 8:41 AM.

Ah, well...it was worth a try was the previous entry in this blog.

If Boo were a Republican, this would make a great propaganda poster is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 5.12