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The Spectacle Blog
A friend emailed me about this as I was driving home from the airport last night. I had only just learned of O’Donnell’s victory over the ultimate establishment guy which, particularly after his campaign, is the best I can say about him. Now that his effort to parlay his record into a promotion is now spent there is nothing more to say about him. You see, the primary is over.
Right?
If Castle’s campaign had instead been rewarded, I would have to weigh him against the alterative, now no longer another Republican but someone who had described himself as previously being a Marxist. Primaries are fought to be won, if within bounds. Your operation within or outside of those bounds informs the voters about whether and what level of support you deserve. If you win the primary as a Republican, even if you are Mike Castle, you are usually, though not always, running against someone even worse on the principles that matter to conservatives. And then the calculus changes.
This gives one pause to recall that the Castle crew’s unseemly efforts were rationalized with the argument that they simply wanted to ensure the seat was held by a Republican.
Well, today, that claim has officially passed its sell-by date. Today and the next few weeks shall tell whether there was any truth to that. Evidence on this score, like that episode at issue, began coming in with the election returns. Any continuing vitriol — and, while it was difficult to tell if it became more intense, it will be easy to see if it stops — further diminishes the already unconvincing rationalization.
And if the answer is that this apparently was not what was behind all of that — or, at minimum, that that is no longer what the continuing bile is about — what does that tell us? Other, that is, than that the voters made the right choice in telling this guy and his crew that they did not deserve elevation to the U.S. Senate?
View all comments (18) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Chris Horner
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/09/15/so-was-that-really-just-about
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Tim| 9.15.10 @ 9:04AM
Time for the GOP to show some class, if they're capable of it.
Booger| 9.15.10 @ 9:20AM
Castle was for cap-n-trade. Castle has a rating of "F" or "F-" from the NRA and the various pro-life groups. Castle's position on Obamacare was at best "unclear", and if he was for repeal it was his responsibility as a candidate to make that clear. Castle has never shown himself to have a problem with higher taxes or deficit spending. For whatever reason, Castle voted to impeach President Bush (43) over the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. But because he ran with an R by his name, he's allowed to spit in the face of conservatives, treat the Constitution as toilet paper, vote with the Demosocialists, and we're still "obligated" to support him as the party's nominee? Seriously, people. We're already seeing that now that O'Donnell won the nomination the "establishment" R party is refusing to back her. It's time for those of us who support Constitutional government to send a message to the R establishment: if all you can do is facilitate Obama's agenda a little more slowly, then you have to go as well. This isn't about R vs. D anymore. This is about the We the People and the US Constitution vs. the self-annointed ruling class of both parties.
Rich Fisher| 9.15.10 @ 10:56AM
Absolutely well stated. We are not interested in electing R's to "go along to get along". We want Obama stopped, reversed and run out of town. With or without tar and feathers. If you don't want to oppose this madness in Washington, then run as a Democrat. At least you would have honesty on your side at that point. We are fed up and won't take it anymore.
mike castle| 9.15.10 @ 9:35AM
"i will not encorse her"
got that?????
Booger| 9.15.10 @ 9:37AM
What's encorse mean? Careful, buddy, I don't think she wants you to "encorse" her anyway.
mike castle| 9.15.10 @ 10:17AM
sorry i was shaking with rage...ENDORSE HER...gotta go talk to charlie crisp now...hehe get it? he's toast too!!!
Charlie C| 9.15.10 @ 11:26AM
Your darn right I'm toast -this suntan booth is set waaay to high. I am so brown that I look like an oompah loompah. Got to go... Barry's got a conference call. He's promises lots of stimulus money for me... I mean my state if I can win.
DrTomVoter| 9.15.10 @ 9:36AM
It's interesting that the talking heads that are saying that O'Donnell may have cost the Republicans the Senate majority are the same ones that for weeks have been saying that the Republicans could not win the majority.
Sean| 9.15.10 @ 9:56AM
The establishment always expects conservatives to rally to moderate and liberal Republican nominees like McCain. Yet they continue to bash O'Donnell after she has won. I detect two different standards.
Stan Redmond| 9.15.10 @ 10:09AM
SCREW YOU CASTLE!!! Screw you GOP. It is SHAMEFUL how you treated this woman and shameful how you treated the people voting against you. You've [the GOP] ignored the conservatives too long and look what supporting you gave us. The Maine twins, Castle, McCain, Graham, Ahnold, that 99.9% of the time vote liberal. Now the country is on the edge of collapse and we're suppose to worry about keeping Castle in office because he's an alleged Republican? We are tired of elites ruining our lives and our country.
Tim Williams | 9.15.10 @ 11:27AM
The reactions of Karl Rove, NRSC, and Mike Castle, before all the votes had even officially been counted in O'Donnell's victory, shows that they never really believed we all needed to pull together. They wanted conservatives and grassroots activists to get out and push.
The most important thing is for an (R) to win? Apparently, not even Mike Castle believes that. And all of these reaction s prove one point beyond any doubt: Delaware primary voters made the right choice.
NotALibertarian| 9.15.10 @ 11:33AM
The establishment wasn't concerned that O'Donnell wasn't electable; the establishment didn't WANT O'Donnell to be electable. Why? Because she is an unashamed, traditional Christian. And now they will do everything they can to scuttle her.
Proof of this attitude is the unbalanced criticism of O'Donnell's financial status. Where is the criticism of Mike Castle's? He entered Congress many years ago with little money. After 20 years in Washington, he's rich. How does that happen? Why wasn't THAT going to be a liability for his candidacy?
And let's consider who cost Republicans the presidency: Mr. Establishment himself, John McCain, helped along by Karl Rove's former employer.
Margie| 9.15.10 @ 2:20PM
The truth reveals itself once again. The same exact reasons some hate Sarah Palin. She's a Christian. And when Bible believing Christians get involved in politics they will always be spat upon by the holier-than-thou know betters.
God bless her & congrats!
SoCon| 9.15.10 @ 11:35AM
Michele Malkin has a great smackdown on Rove--read it if you can. Malkin's awesome.
Margie| 9.15.10 @ 2:22PM
Here it is:
http://michellemalkin.com/2010.....ikes-back/
JASmius | 9.15.10 @ 12:01PM
I could buy that argument, Chris, if the raison de 'tere of Christine O'Donnell's third Senate run in six years was or had ever been about winning the general election, instead of sticking it to the GOP establishment.
What you're saying is the pre-mortem excuse with which the O'Donnell campaign will be filling its post-election defeat recriminations. That "if only those rotten RINOs had gotten behind Christine, she would have won!"
Latest Coons-O'Donnell poll (Triple-P, a Donk pollster, but still....) has CO'D down....sixteen points.
Here's a thought: D'ya think maybe if the O'Donnell campaign hadn't used such execrable tactics (Why make things up about Castle's record, like the "yes" votes for Hogzilla and O-Care that he never cast if he was such a RINO already?), it might be a tad easier for establishmentarians to keep their breakfasts down this morning?
There's a word for that sort of thing: base-shrinking.
albert constantine, jr.| 9.15.10 @ 4:33PM
While I heard a number of distortions or inaccuracies about Castle's voting record, they did nothing to persuade me. The accurate reporting of how he voted in the Delaware media and the Congressional Record was sufficient for me to decide that he would not merit my support against any candidate who positions did more closely reflect mine on political issues of importance. Castle's vote on Cap & Trade was only one of many that helped him shrink his base of at least this one of the 30,521 who voted for Miss O'Donnell yesterday.
Oldefarte| 9.15.10 @ 12:43PM
IMO, Castle deserved to be defeated when he voted FOR Obama's/Democrats healthcare and cap and trade legislation. He wrote his own epitaph in doing thus!!!!