Here at PB.com, we take a natural interest in Delaware politics. After all, since one of our key policy preferences is keeping the federal government out of corporate governance and keeping Delaware # 1 in that field, we have a lot invested in Delaware's state and local politicians.
I strongly support Mike Castle's bid to be the next US Senator from Delaware. He's a highly electable Republican moderate with a good record on business and corporate governance issues. (Check out his issues page.) Delaware is not, as far as I can tell, a hot bed of conservatism these days. A far right GOP candidate would considerably raise the likelihood that the Democrats retain this seat.
Unfortunately, Castle's got a challenger named Christine O'Donnell who apparently is going to pick up support from the Tea Party folks. I checked out her web site and was appalled by her issues page. On top of reflecting about a 6th grade writing style, it is one of the most intellectually dishonest document's I've read in ages. Examples:
- Accuses Castle of voting "to subject children to out-of-state abortions without consent of parents." To subject? The implication is that there is something coercive going on.
- Accuses Castle of " the bill to destroy, exploit and experiment on unborn children as scientific lab-rats." I don't support embryonic stem cell research, but this is an outrageous way of describing an issue on which reasonable people can and do differ
- Accuses Castle of "Voted to ban exploration for American energy, keeping gas prices high." The implication is that he voted to keep gas prices high.
- Accuses Castle of "Voted to allow liberal activist judges to strip “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, against the Constitutional protection of marriage, and against educational choice for parents with children in failing schools." Prove it. Identify the votes.
- Says that she "Believes our country was founded on core values of faith, family and freedom and will fight to defend those values." Great. Another culture warrior. If she really intended to fight for freedom, she'd have to include the freedom to disagree with those alleged core values. But I doubt that is the kind of freedom she has in mind.
- Says that "Christine’s strong support of 2nd Amendment rights has earned her an “A” rating from the NRA." Great. Just what this country needs. More guns.
- Says she opposes "outsourcing our foreign policy to the U.N." Who the hell doesn't? Does she really think Mike Castle wants to do that? BTW, does she see black helicopters everywhere?
I've been a Burke/Kirk/Buckley/Neuhaus conservative for ages. And one thing conservatives don't do is to let the perfect become the enemy of the good. We leave that for fundamentalist extremists
Mike Castle and his ilk are good center-right people who should be welcome into a broad-based governing coalition. He's won 13 state-wide races as a Republican, for Gawd's sake. Tossing out a smart, highly electable guy like Castle in favor of somebody like O'Donnell makes no sense to me. If she wins the primary, she'd be almost certain to lose the general election.
The latest Rasmussen poll reports that:
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the state finds Castle picking up 49% of the vote, while Democrat Chris Coons gets 37% support. ... Conservative activist Christine O’Donnell, who is challenging Castle for the GOP Senate nomination in a September 14 primary, now runs 10 points behind Coons.
And, if she won the general, and the quality of her issues page is any measure of her firepower, she'd be ineffectual at protecting Delaware's interests.
If the future of American politics is having to choose between people like Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell on the one hand and Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer on the other, count me out. (Not to pick on women. They just sprung to mind.)
So I'm sending Castle some money. You should too.
Comments are off because I really don't feel like paying for bandwidth for the usual trolls.
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