Well, well, well, if tea is not your cup of tea, perhaps
we can scrounge up a few crumpets for you on Election Day. This
November, we have a wide variety of teas from such exotic locales
as Alaska, Nevada, Delaware and even New Hampshire. (There is even
a rumor that Herb London and Al Regnery will partner up to market
something called Herbal Tea.) Any movement whose influence is being
felt in all of the aforementioned states is not about to be blown
away by the sneers and sniggers the Democrats have been firing in
opposition.
More importantly, the Tea Party candidates have jolted the
Republican establishment to the core. They even managed to do that
in Delaware: a consummation devoutly to be wished, as Joe Biden
wrote back in his Globe Theatre days. Here the Poobahs, the nabobs,
the satraps, the moguls and the Kahunas all agreed that Christine
O’Donnell was the bugaboo. Well, boo-hoo about your boo-boo,
fellas. It could not have happened to nicer guys.
Okay, let me get a grip on myself and come down from
cheerleader mode to apply for readmission in the precincts of
dispassion. In the last few days leading up to the Delaware
Republican Senatorial Primary, your old-guard Republican insider
types put on a full-court press in support of Mike Castle. Mike has
been a Representative from Delaware for many years and polls
indicated that if he won the primary he would win the general
election handily. He is a classic RINO, whose horn is considered an
aphrodisiac by Northern tribes. His opponent, Christine O’Donnell
was getting the usual treatment from the usual suspects: “too dumb,
too nutty, too slutty, too green, too yellow, too blue, too gray.”
The polls have been less kind to her than to Castle.
But the voters spake, and the pillars did shake. The
voters smote, and the Castle lost his moat. Mike Castle will not be
your Castle.
Which brings us to the fierce debate which raged between
Charles Krauthammer and Rush Limbaugh prior to the primary vote.
Both of these gentlemen have waived their protections under the
Americans with Disabilities Act and advance their arguments with
vigor. Krauthammer slammed Palin and DeMint for backing O’Donnell:
they were being “irresponsible and capricious.” He cited a maxim
propounded by the late William F. Buckley Jr. to the effect that
one ought to back in primaries the most conservative among the
electable.
Limbaugh responded that such considerations are suspended
in time of emergency, when the country is traveling full-speed in a
hand-basket down the road paved with good intentions.
I concurred with Limbaugh yesterday and with the citizens
of Delaware today. It is not enough now to elect candidates who
lean rightward of Obama. We need people who understand that
trillion-dollar deficits and socialized medicine are not
inconveniences. They are not annoyances. They are not setbacks.
They are not unpleasantnesses. They are not regrettable episodes.
They are not divergent views, odd turns, eccentricities. They are
not even outrages and atrocities. THEY ARE
IMPOSSIBILITIES.
Only candidates who understand that the only answer to
“yes, we can” is “no, we cannot” are worth fielding. That is the
whole point of sideswiping the political process with a third-party
non-party wrecking crew who hold their teacups with monkey
wrenches. The Republican establishment is asea and a movement is
afoot. This is all coming to a head in November, when we will see
who is really ahead and, derivatively, what lies ahead. (Plenty of
lies ahead in the campaign, that’s for sure.)
The biggest winner of all is Sarah Palin, who has been
tarred by our feathered friends as the ultimate in unelectable.
Well, she let down her hair and said goodbye to the Castle.
Everything is different now. She is through the looking-glass, and
so the last word must go to the White Queen:
“That’s the effect of living backwards,” the Queen
said kindly: “it always makes one a little giddy at first
—”
“Living backwards!” Alice repeated in great
astonishment. “I never heard of such a thing!”
“ — but there’s one great advantage in
it, that one’s memory works both ways.”
“I’m sure MINE only works one way.” Alice remarked. “I
can’t remember things before they happen.”
“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works
backwards,” the Queen remarked.
