Dear Editor:
Since we do not have a representative in Washington looking after our interests today, I have one question.
Why did DeLay put everyone through this mess and not get called on the carpet by the GOP?
Is everyone in the party on LSD – is reality so distorted by Mr. DeLay that they are not addressing the embarrassing fact that when DeLay cut and run from a fight with the “dreaded Democrats” his seat flipped to Democrats when a new GOP candidate in this year’s primary would have been a sure winner?
In the battle of the ballot box DeLay left the GOP with a write in candidate in a computer world. That is like giving someone a knife for a gun battle.
As a primary opponent, I am ineligible to be a write-in candidate under Texas law, but it is something I would not try even if I could. The old paper ballots of Ft Bend are gone, and the computerized voting machines are not friendly to write-ins since write-in candidates aren’t listed on the ballot. Being a write-in is a fool’s errand or an exercise in vanity, with or without precinct chair blessing and money. As a named candidate on the primary ballot, I had better odds of winning than any write-in has in the general election. I doubt a write-in would get even 2% of the vote.
So the question remains, why did DeLay run if he wasn’t going to finish the job as a candidate? Was the thought of losing too painful? Do football teams not show up if they think they will lose? Or was the idea of letting the democratic process of Dick and Jane Voter pick another candidate during the primary process not as appealing to him as a back room replacement engineered by party insiders ?l
The GOP’s boxer just jumped out of the ring. They cannot, in fairness, blame the other team whose boxer is still in the ring when their own 20-year representative cut and run. That is like blaming the other team for showing up and playing by the rules.
The irony is that DeLay himself turned over the first Congress seat to the Democrats.
The final twist could be this: Once the CD22 Congress seat has become a Democrat seat held by a moderate Nick Lampson (who has 8 years seniority already and received the NRA endorsement in three of his four races), demographic changes in CD22 could well keep it one along with the power of incumbency and national election swings in 2008…
And it was DeLay’s bailing out that made it a piece of cake for the Democrats, replaced by the same Democrat he had kicked out of office through redistricting. Some would call that ironic, or poetic justice.
Michael Fjetland
Sugar Land
Why did DeLay put everyone through this mess and not get called on the carpet by the GOP?
Is everyone in the party on LSD – is reality so distorted by Mr. DeLay that they are not addressing the embarrassing fact that when DeLay cut and run from a fight with the “dreaded Democrats” his seat flipped to Democrats when a new GOP candidate in this year’s primary would have been a sure winner?
In the battle of the ballot box DeLay left the GOP with a write in candidate in a computer world. That is like giving someone a knife for a gun battle.
