Court rules GOP can't replace DeLay on ballot

From the Houston Chronicle:

The three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals found in the Democrats' favor and upheld an injunction preventing the Republicans from replacing DeLay. The panel said the U.S. Constitution's only requirement for office is that DeLay be a resident of Texas on election day.

"When Benkiser reviewed the public records sent by DeLay and concluded that his residency in Virginia made him ineligible, she unconstitutionally created a pre-election inhabitancy requirement," said the opinion written by Judge Pete Benavides for himself and Judges James L. Dennis and Edith Clement.

Click here for the rest.

Ha! This really cracks me up, especially because of this little bit from a July 6th Chronicle story about the lower court's decision:

DeLay, dressed in shorts and a baseball cap, answered the door at his Sugar Land house this afternoon, but declined to talk with a Chronicle reporter.

"I don't do this (interviews). Not at my house," he said as he closed the door. "Goodbye."

DeLay hasn't even taken the trouble to actually move to Virginia. He still lives in Sugarland. Apparently, his change of residence exists only on paper, if even that. Maybe it's all supposed to be in our minds--you know, like Saddam's WMD. I think, given the fact that DeLay's de facto residence is still in his district, it's going to be pretty hard for the Supreme Court to reverse the decision, but one can never tell with those guys. Still, this makes two courts ruling against his tacky election law maneuverings, which builds up a nice bit of stare decisis with which the Court must wrangle if it wants to help out our little Lizard King. It's looking good for the heavily tainted former House Majority Leader having to run against Democratic challenger Nick Lampson on a record of greed, corruption, lies, and arrogance. That'll be the most amusing election in the country, even better than Ned Lamont taking on Lieberman in Connecticut. DeLay, if he does decide to run, has no choice but to go negative, which will totally make him look like a fool.

It's really nice to entertain the notion that his humiliation is far from complete.

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