Barr messes in Texas with McCain, Obama

Last week, former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr won a legal battle to get on the Nov. 4 ballot in Pennsylvania as the Libertarian presidential nominee. A local Republican Party official had filed a lawsuit last month to have Barr’s name stricken from the ballot, despite an earlier pledge by John McCain that he would not tolerate party underlings trying to restrict ballot access for third-party candidates.

Well, Barr has returned the favor by filing suit in Texas to have both McCain and Barrack Obama tossed from that state’s ballot. According to the Dallas Morning News, Barr is arguing that both major parties missed a state deadline to certify the names of their candidates.

The Libertarians are contending that the Democratic and Republican nominees are disqualified from appearing on the ballot because they missed the state’s Aug. 26 deadline to certify candidates. During the national conventions, Mr. Obama was not voted as the nominee until Aug. 27 and Mr. McCain claimed the GOP nomination on Sept. 3.

Rather than dismissing the suit, the Texas Supreme Court has asked both parties to file responses by Monday. Stay tuned.