Posted on 09/17/2010 4:18:33 AM PDT by ejdrapes
By Charles Krauthammer Tuesday in Delaware was a bad day not only for Republicans but also for conservatives. Tea Partyer Christine O'Donnell scored a stunning victory over establishment Republican Mike Castle. Stunning but pyrrhic. The very people who have most alerted the country to the perils of President Obama's social democratic agenda may have just made it impossible for Republicans to retake the Senate and definitively stop that agenda Bill Buckley -- no Mike Castle he -- had a rule: Support the most conservative candidate who is electable. A timeless rule of sober politics, and particularly timely now. This is no ordinary time. And this is no ordinary Democratic administration. It is highly ideological and ambitious. It is determined to use whatever historical window it is granted to change the country structurally, irreversibly. It has already done so with Obamacare and has equally lofty ambitions for energy, education, immigration, taxation, industrial policy and the composition of the Supreme Court. That's what makes the eleventh-hour endorsements of O'Donnell by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sarah Palin so reckless and irresponsible. Of course Mike Castle is a liberal Republican. What do you expect from Delaware? A DeMint? Castle voted against Obamacare and the stimulus. Yes, he voted for cap-and-trade. That's batting .667. You'd rather have a Democrat who bats .000 and who might give the Democrats the 50th vote to control the Senate? Castle wasn't only electable. He was unbeatable. Why do you think Beau Biden, long groomed to inherit his father's seat, flinched from running? Because Castle, who had already won statewide races a dozen times, scared him off. Democrats had already given up on the race.The Buckley rule
Friday, September 17, 2010
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Bite me, Chuck. She closed a so-called 25-point gap in one day to 11 on Rasmussen, and when her money starts being spent on attack ads, she’ll come back the same way Brown did in MA, the same way Miller did in AK. These beltway guys, no matter how sensible at times, just hate it when the people try to determine their own destiny.
I join you in your admiration of Charles, but he definitely has blinders on with this issue. What Charles , and many others are slow to realize is that all the old rules and conventional wisdom is GONE, and if you analyze using these old rules and wisdom you will be wrong - Rubio is unelectable in Fla., PA will never elect someone as conservative as Tommey etc
Let’s cut Charles a little slack and hope that he is just a little slower in coming to the revolution.
If Sarah Palin's appearance on the scene had done nothing else, it at least pried up the big, Republican slab of rock that had long been laying in the yard. The Castle farce and subsequent treatment of CO'D lifts the stone a little further, and we get to see more things that don't appreciate sunshine.
It looks as if the Delaware race from now until the election will consist mainly of tenured beltway ass-covering and snarky observations from our enlightened "betters." Great.
Just freakin' great.
Mr. niteowl77
the employees of the old media are being outdone by citizens of the new media. Charles is a weak voice in a chorus. He must not like that.
Yes, that's worked well to keep government small and responsible.
Definition of insanity, anyone?
Exactly - wtf is wrong with these people ? Their attacks on her are red meat for libtards. Coons wont have to make a single ad just copy Kraut and Rove off of youtube.
If the Democrats believed Castle was unbeatable, then why would Coons’ be sitting on $1 million for the general election?
The anti-woman hatred is a Romney thing, too.
One suspects the emails were from RomneyBOTs.
(... forgot Dr. K was handicapped and I apologize to him
for my last line in post 10.
But he ought get a brain scan to r/o pathology
which is clearly interfering with his ability to
see clearly .. or to tell the truth)
Remember Jim Jeffords?
I still don’t get why politicans like Castle, who are more liberal than some ‘Rat senators, insist on being Republicans.
51 Republicans can choose the majority leader and control the agenda.
“”That’s what makes the eleventh-hour endorsements of O’Donnell by Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sarah Palin so reckless and irresponsible.””
______
I have concluded that Rove, Krauthammer, Powerline Blog, and other Republicans bashing O’Donnell are having a jealous fit.
They think the words coming from their mouths or from their keyboards are so brilliant that everyone would drop what they are doing and give them rapt attention.
On the contrary they think Palin and DeMint are not at all refined as they are.
What the hissy-fit crowd does not understand is that their audience is so small that it does not sway elections. These guys were bashing O’Donnell before the election and it had no impact whatsoever.
Now comes the jealous fit of rage!!!!!
How about we let Mr. Buckley speak for himself Charles. Oh that's right he can't. I seriously doubt he wold call Mr. Castle a conservative.
Don't believe me? Look who's in the WH.
The DNC beat Conservatives to the punch with THEIR understanding on this new dimension of ‘electable’. Liberals knew what this meant and ran with it. They did an end run on not only the RNC, but the entire country and political system.
Once again (or should I say ‘still’) will Conservatives let the Liberals get around them? There has been a sea change among American voters.
Generations brought up on Laverne and Shirley re-runs (and worse) cannot be expected to comprehend the difference between Ronald Reagan and “O” or to appreciate the stodgy notions Conservatives have about who CAN or CANNOT win votes!!!!!
I always enjoy Krauthammer’s insight.
But this time, he’s way off.
Castle is to the left of Jim Jeffords and Arlen Specter.
What makes Charles think that when the right offer was made, Castle wouldn’t opt to become the 50th Democrat instead of the 51st Republican?
But more disappointing is the usually logical Krauthammer’s logical fallacy: If Castle scared off any serious competition from the Democrats, then why can’t O’Donnell win this race? She beat the most popular politician in the state. She can certainly beat one of the least.
Castle USEDTABE a reliable Republican "stand in". More recently he's passed over into senility so he's no longer reliable.
Same thing is happening to some of the pundits, and then there's the Karl Rove problem ~ we may be getting an understanding of why he didn't finish college.
He’s sure got a burr under his saddle about this. I don’t think he and Rove have a clue about the frustration in middle/muddle class America.
Rove just got divorced and not for the fist time. His best bud in WH was Ken Mehlman who recently outed himself as being Gay. And, yes, Rove is not much of a ladies’ man. Of course Kraut is (unfortunately) confined to a wheel chair as a para or quadra, plegic.
Excellent observations.
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