Politix II: A Texas-Style Whuppin'

There is a god, it just happens to not be the one that Tom "The Hammer" DeLay worships.

The former House majority leader, who brought new meaning to the term hardball politics, quit Congress and decamped to suburban Washington rather than face defeat because of his various self-inflicted ethical and legal woes.

But rather than merely going quietly into the night, DeLay thought he'd pull one final gambit. He ran in and won the Republican primary before quitting and hand picking his replacement.

Now a federal appeals court has upheld a federal judge who ruled that DeLay must remain on the November ballot. The Texas Republican Party says that it will bypass the Circuit Court and appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Supremes give a thumb's down, which I predict is likely because the applicable Texas law is so clear, then

DeLay will have to explain to his constituents why he deserves to be re-elected after trying so hard to abandon them.