2010 was a come-back for the GOP, erasing the
Democrats’ wins over the previous four years, and a massive rebuke to the Obama
tax and spend, regulate and frustrate juggernaut. What happened in 2012?
Republicans had not properly integrated the purposeful passion of the Tea Party
with the savvy pragmatism of Washington experts. A disparate disdain created
out-of-mainstream candidates who said too much, did too little, had no ground
game. The mixed results remind one of the popular high school class
presidential candidate who has a lot of passion, but a string of C’s and D’s on
his report card.
2010, and Washington Post Columnist George Will
commented that the lone house Rep (and Republican) of Delaware, Mike Castle, a
direct descendant Biden, then held in transition
by candleholder Ed Kaufman, who had no interest in keeping the seat.
2010, the Senate seat was all but assured for Mike
Castle, Delaware’s former Lieutenant Governor, then Governor, then at-large
House Rep for eighteen years.
Was he the conservatives’ favorite? No. Was he a hit
with every radio personality? Who cares? He represented the First State with
first rate pride and purpose. He voted against ObamaCare, he voted against the stimulus.
He also voted for Cap and Trade. So what? The Democratic supermajority in the
US Senate killed Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade before it left committee.
Then came Christine O’Donnell to challenge Castle.
Something about that woman rubbed Republicans the wrong way, and bothered a lot
of Delaware voters, too. Grassroots, Middle Class, and even elite Republicans, including
Tea Party activists, were spot on with their uproar about spending gone berserk
in the Beltway. Their frustration with Washington was both candid as well as
credible, yet the same movement began endorsing incredible candidates while
disdaining the established contenders merely because they were Establishment
types. Sharron Angle of Nevada had the ground, but not the ground game. Sarah
Palin’s personal problems interrupted former attorney Joe Miller’s upswing in
Alaska, where Establishment GOP Lisa Mur-Kow-Ski’s write-in initiative trumped
the Tea Partier and the Democrat. South Carolina US Senator Jim DeMint made
some bold and wise endorsements, but they were hit and miss in Delaware, where his
last-minute endorsement stole the election from right-for-Delaware Castle. Instead,
DeMint was hoping to build a castle in the air with “Mamma Grizzly” Christine O’Donnell,
who was grizzled with problems.
Was Christine O’Donnell too conservative for
Delaware? Yes, but that is not the real problem. She was not consistent, she
was not competent, and she was not connected.
How can anyone claim consistent conservative
credibility when they launch a gender discrimination lawsuit against a
conservative think-tank? True conservatism respects the fundamentals of the
national charter and individual liberty, not telling people what to do, in
public or in private, because of religious affiliations. A true conservative
does not mismanage campaign funds, only to endure an indictment from the
federal government.
Was it her frequent gaffe-prone, daffy appearances
on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect”, in which she claimed that she dabbled
in witchcraft, or that she would still tell the truth about family members
hiding from the Nazis if she had lived during the Holocaust? Was it her gross
insistence on lecturing young people how to treat their bodies in private? When
it comes to “competence”, O’Donnell does not come to mind.
Was it New York native O’Donnell’s loose interpretation
of her previous “campaign accomplishments”, when she claimed that she had won
two out of three counties in Delaware? No matter how anyone spun the numbers, O’Donnell
had a track record of running losing races: unconnected.
Mike Castle deserved, no deserves, to be Delaware’s Senator. He is competent, consistent,
and connected. Tea Party Republicans have been lacking the connected part for
the past two cycles. It’s not enough to be fired up, but other people have to
be fired up with you. It’s not enough to feel oppressed by a repressive
government; other people have to see the oppression that you feel. Castle
understood this, and so did the voters in the First State, who just named a bike
trail in his honor.
2010 was great: The Chicago Stock Exchange spokesman
yelled on the floor, demanding that it was high-time for a “Tea Party”. The Tea Party movement stormed the National
Mall. Sarah Palin decried ObamaCare’s Death Panels. 2014 can be a greater, without
the GOP infighting between the raging populists and sage establishment. Mike
Castle represents this pathway for Tea Party populists and Establishment
pragmatists to work together and cut the spending, lower taxes, and decentralize
federal power back to the states.
With all due respect, the only “RINO” in Delaware
2010 was O’Donnell, not Castle. Her “ideological” perfection was the enemy of
Castle’s pragmatic “good enough”. Castle was good enough in 2010. He would be
good enough in 2014. The Delaware GOP catch a break, catch a win, and help the
GOP catch fire with a new Fifty-State Strategy with Castle in 2014. As for O’Donnell,
let her run for dogcatcher.