Court: DeLay's name remains on ballot

I think it is time for another exciting episode of The Tom DeLay Comedy Hour! This is from Yahoo News:

AUSTIN, Texas - A federal appeals court panel on Thursday refused to let Texas Republicans replace Tom DeLay's name on the November congressional ballot.

The finding upheld a July ruling by a federal judge that the ballot must list DeLay, who won a March primary before resigning from Congress on June 9. He now lives in Virginia but is awaiting trial in Texas state court on money laundering and conspiracy charges alleging that illegal corporate cash helped pay for legislative campaigns in 2002.

The Republicans' lawyer said he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Republicans want to pick another nominee to face Democrat Nick Lampson in November. Democrats sued to keep DeLay on the ballot. Keeping him on the ballot presumably gives them an easier race and bolsters their attempts to make the indicted former House majority leader their symbol for claims of Republican corruption.

Thursday's ruling said that GOP state chairwoman Tina Benkiser acted unconstitutionally when she tried to remove DeLay as the party nominee because he had moved.

Democrats had noted that DeLay's wife, Christine, still lives in the DeLays' house in Sugar Land, just outside Houston.

While the U.S. Constitution requires a candidate to live in-state, the question is where he is residing on Election Day, not now, said the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"DeLay could be a current resident of Virginia ... and nonetheless move back to Texas before November," the opinion said.

The Republicans are in a real pickle here. Obviously they wanted to pull DeLay's name off the ballot--after he won the March primary--and replace it with someone not connected with the scandals that are wreaking the Republican Party. So they tried to use this little trick in saying DeLay's moved out of Texas (even though his wife still resides there), and that he is ineligible to run. Of course, there is no telling whether DeLay stays in Virginia, or if he moves back to Texas before Election Day. The Democrats obviously want to keep DeLay on the ballot as a "poster child" for Republican Party corruption and scandals. And the federal court ruled that DeLay's name must stay on the ballot.

This is getting interesting.