...are they taking their medicine in Brownwood and Brown County ?

July 21 In our opinion
Judge right to reject GOP election ploy

July 21, 2006
Tom DeLay and the Texas Republican Party tried to game the system, and they got caught. Now they should just take their medicine.

Not that the medicine would taste especially bad - in this case, a wise bet is that it would mean DeLay returning to the U.S. House of Representatives.
DeLay won his primary race in March and then, with input from state GOP Chairman Tina Benkiser and others, announced at the end of May he had moved to Virginia and thus was ineligible to run in the November general election. Benkiser, to no one's surprise, agreed that he couldn't run and set in motion the process for selecting DeLay's replacement.
Democrats cried foul and sued to keep DeLay on the ballot, and U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks ruled in their favor. Sparks, appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, essentially called the effort a ruse to allow party leaders to handpick the person they wanted on the ballot instead of letting voters choose.
Sparks, noting that while DeLay claims to now be a resident of Virginia his wife still lives in the couple's Houston area home, said allowing the ploy to stand could set an unhealthy precedent.
''Were the court to adopt defendant's position,'' the judge said, ''either political party could and would be able to change candidates after the primary election and before the general election simply by an administrative declaration of ineligibility by the party chair based on a candidate's 'move' to another state. This would be a serious abuse of the election system and a fraud on the voters . . .''
DeLay and Benkiser have appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court, claiming Sparks' decision ''serves to thwart the public's interest in voter choice and competitive elections.'' That's laughable, because it is the GOP ploy that was formulated specifically to keep voters from selecting the party's nominee.
DeLay could have declined to run in the primary. He could have stepped aside soon after the March vote so another primary election could occur. He didn't, and it doesn't take an overly suspicious mind to reason that everything was timed to put the decision about the GOP nominee into party officials' hands.
It's understandable that DeLay, who is under indictment and unpopular, didn't want to allow himself to be the whipping boy as Democrats try to win back control of the House. It is not understandable, though, that he would plot to cut voters out of the process.
No one should be surprised if DeLay wins in November. After all, it's a Republican district and many voters will consider even a disgraced Republican preferable to a Democrat. If he is re-elected, then DeLay can resign and let the voters, not party bigwigs, decide who will actually represent their interests in Washington.

source: http://www.sanangelostandardtimes.com/sast/news_opinion_ouropinion/article/0,1897,SAST_10317_4859317,00.html