Ignoring the pleas of the Red-Headed Stranger, Texas high court OKs Kucinich's exclusion from ballot

The Texas Supreme Court last week declined to intercede in a dispute between presidential candidate Rep. Dennis Kucinich and the state Democratic Party over Kucinich's refusal to sign a party loyalty oath. As a result, Texas will be allowed to print primary ballots without the candidate's name.

Kucinich objected to the oath stating that a presidential candidate would "fully support" the party's eventual nominee, crossing it out when he filed for a spot on the primary ballot. Kucinich has said he would not support any nominee who would use war as an instrument of foreign policy. After the party excluded him for his refusal to sign, Kucinich sued for ballot access with the help of a rather surprising co-plaintiff: longtime Texas voter and country music legend Willie Nelson, who had this to say about the brouhaha:

"Dennis Kucinich is a strong defender of the Constitution, the national security, and the civil liberties of the American people. He's right to challenge a blind loyalty oath to the Democratic Party because it's un-American. The irony is that the state Party is trying to exclude him from the ballot even though he's the one Democrat who's been the most loyal to this country and to what the Democratic Party should stand for. Dennis's loyalty is to the Constitution of the United States and to the American people -- not to the Texas Democratic Party."

The case now goes before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Kucinich's battle for the Texas ballot is the latest setback to his progressive candidacy. Last week NBC shut him out of its televised Democratic debate, even though it initially invited him to participate. Kucinich blasted the network -- and its corporate ownership -- in his latest Campaign Weekly Update video posted to YouTube:

"General Electric owns NBC, and General Electric is one of the largest nuclear power contractors in the world. They build nuclear power plants, and they also of course want to make sure that Yucca Mountain in Nevada remains a site for the dumping of nuclear waste so they have a place to put the waste that is created by the plants they want to build. GE also owns Raytheon, which is a major defense contractor, and of course they benefit and profit from war. That they have a major network in their portfolio only gives them an opportunity to enhance their power of being able to promote war -- even a war that was based on lies a few years ago -- and being able to promote an energy policy that has been proven to be very expensive and has cost us a lot of jobs, particularly in the industrial Northeast. GE, Raytheon and NBC have also contributed to candidates who are in the debate today. So they have an interest in excluding someone who disagrees with the promotion of war and the promotion of nuclear power, and they have an interest in narrowing the field to those who believe in their policies. This is a real danger to our democracy."

(Photos courtesy of dennis4president.com and www.willienelson.com.)