You'll probably never hear this one in the MSM, what with Bill trying hard not to spit every time he says Barack's name, but....
It appears there is a legal case to be made that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama should be on the ballot in Texas come November 4.
Apparently, Texas changed its law a couple years back to require names to be submitted to the Secretary of State not 60 days before the election, but 70 days.
And there is some uncertainty as to whether the GOPers and Dems even submitted placeholder petitions, with the intent to substitute actual names after their conventions. [They could easily have submitted Obama and McCain as the main candidates, but the law requires VPs as well.]
I suspect that either (a) we will discover retroactively that they filed something; or (b) a carefully purchased Texas judge will simply set aside the law ala Frank Lautenberg's illegal replacement of Bob Toricelli a few years ago in New Jersey; or (c) at the very worst they'll find a way to call the legislature back into session to amend the law.
Because, quite simply, even if the Republicans and Democrats actually did screw up and fail to obey the law, there is no way in hell they are going to let Bob Barr walk off with 34 Electoral votes.
Which raises a really interesting point about our nation of laws, not of men.
Why is it that States are allowed to jerk around third parties--Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionalists, Independents--on all sorts of ballot access technicalities, and to use every trick in the book to keep them locked out of the process, but can't wait to bend over and grab their ankles if the Demopublicans (God forbid) miss a filing deadline, a replacement deadline, or mess up some other technicality?
George Orwell had the answer in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others."
It appears there is a legal case to be made that neither John McCain nor Barack Obama should be on the ballot in Texas come November 4.
Apparently, Texas changed its law a couple years back to require names to be submitted to the Secretary of State not 60 days before the election, but 70 days.
And there is some uncertainty as to whether the GOPers and Dems even submitted placeholder petitions, with the intent to substitute actual names after their conventions. [They could easily have submitted Obama and McCain as the main candidates, but the law requires VPs as well.]
I suspect that either (a) we will discover retroactively that they filed something; or (b) a carefully purchased Texas judge will simply set aside the law ala Frank Lautenberg's illegal replacement of Bob Toricelli a few years ago in New Jersey; or (c) at the very worst they'll find a way to call the legislature back into session to amend the law.
Because, quite simply, even if the Republicans and Democrats actually did screw up and fail to obey the law, there is no way in hell they are going to let Bob Barr walk off with 34 Electoral votes.
Which raises a really interesting point about our nation of laws, not of men.
Why is it that States are allowed to jerk around third parties--Libertarians, Greens, Constitutionalists, Independents--on all sorts of ballot access technicalities, and to use every trick in the book to keep them locked out of the process, but can't wait to bend over and grab their ankles if the Demopublicans (God forbid) miss a filing deadline, a replacement deadline, or mess up some other technicality?
George Orwell had the answer in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal. Some animals are more equal than others."
Comments
"Oh, it turns out they did file the paperwork in time. Due to a computer/paperwork/communication/human error it was misfiled. Everything is fine now. Nothing to see here, move along."
As an Obama supporter I'd love to see this rule enforced. Does that make me a bad person?