Mike Castle

The Right Wing Has No Limits: REDSTATE’s War On Conservative Republicans As NOT Conservative Enough!

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REDSTATE is a right wing website of blogger Erick Erickson, and seeks to make the Republican Party as right wing as possible, failing to realize that the party will destroy itself if it goes that direction anymore than it is already!

In an entry this morning entitled “Conservatives Stand To Lose Big In 2012”, Erickson declares war on conservative Republicans in the Senate who he claims are not conservative enough!

On his hit list are the following Senators:

Richard Lugar of Indiana
Roger Wicker of Mississippi
Bob Corker of Tennessee

Also, such well known candidates for the Senate as the following are opposed as not conservative enough:

Former Congresswoman Heather Wilson of New Mexico
Former Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin

Ericikson also attacks such former Republican officeholders as former Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, former Governor Charlie Crist of Florida, former Kentucky Attorney General Trey Greyson, and former Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware, treating them as if they are “poison”!

His declaration of war on the above, if successful, will marginalize the GOP to such an extent that it will lose all semblance of being a major political party, and maybe, just maybe, that is his intent, with the replacement of the GOP by an openly Fascist party, a la Benito Mussolini, Juan Peron, or Francisco Franco!

Independent Candidacies A Long Shot This Election Year, As Always!

Ronald 2 Comments

This year, there are at least four and possibly five Independent candidacies that might affect election results!

The most likely to succeed is Independent Senate candidate Charlie Crist, Governor of Florida, who broke with the GOP and is running against Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek!

A second strong possibility is Independent Lincoln Chafee, former Republican Senator from Rhode Island, running for Governor!

Additionally, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is running a write in campaign for her seat after losing the primary to Tea Party backed Joe Miller!

Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware is considering a similar write in campaign against the person who defeated him in the GOP primary, Christine O’Donnell!

Finally, former GOP Congressman Tom Tancredo is mounting an independent bid for Governor in Colorado!

The most recent prominent Independents in office have been Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut!

Further back, Jesse Ventura was Independent Governor of Minnesota; Senator Lowell Weicker was Independent Governor of Connecticut; and Angus King was Independent Governor of Maine!

These cases of Independents running for, and some winning, office are fascinating, but the odds this year, as always, are daunting!

IF both Charlie Crist and Lincoln Chafee win, it will be considered a major coup for the movement toward independent candidacies, but it is also very possible NO Independent will win, as the two party system is well entrenched!

Fighting For The “Soul” Of The Republican Party: Internal Struggles in Florida, Delaware And Alaska!

Ronald 1 Comment

It is good to see that some Republicans, considered moderates, are refusing to allow the Tea Party Movement reactionaries to seize control of their party without a fight!

First, we had Charlie Crist, who decided to run as an Independent for the US Senate in Florida, and has a good chance to defeat Marco Rubio, the GOP and Tea Party nominee for that seat!

Then, we had Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware, who has refused to endorse Christine O’Donnell for the Senate after she defeated him in the primary this week, because of her lies and distortions, along with her lack of qualifications!

Now, belatedly, Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is attempting to do something only one Senator ever has achieved–win the election by write ins only! Only Strom Thurmond of South Carolina accomplished that in 1954 as a Democrat! Murkowski lost the Senate nomination by a very small margin to Joe Miller, who she and many describe as an extremist with loony views! She attributes her defeat to her earlier unwillingness to come out fighting against him!

Of course, this Murkowski attempt at a write in victory will be very difficult, but she is well known and liked throughout the state, and her father also was Senator and Governor of Alaska! This is also a personal battle between the Murkowski family and Sarah Palin! The likelihood is that this move by Murkowski will fail, but help Democrat Scott McAdams to win the Senate seat!

The odds are that these internal revolts in the GOP will help the Democrats to keep control of the Senate and lose fewer seats than often imagined in the polls!

And should Murkowski pull out a miracle victory, and Crist win and even organize with the Republicans who have repudiated him (which seems highly unlikely), we will still be better off with two “moderate” Republicans than with two right wing fanatics in the Senate!

The future of the Republican party as an opposition is to be what they were historically–a centrist party leaning to the right, just as the Democratic Party is a centrist party leaning to the left–the mainstream where most Americans are then and now!

The worst possible scenario would be if the “Tea Party Eight” all won Senate seats, as that would be a nightmare not just for the Democratic party and the nation, but also for Senator Mitch McConnell and other establishment Republican leaders in the upper chamber!

Christine O’Donnell: Questions About Her Competency, Integrity, And Motivations! :(

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Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell is a new Tea Party favorite, but one who makes you wonder about the competence, integrity and motivations of this right wing Republican associated movement! 🙁

Questions have been raised about her competence, including the fact that she has lied about being a college graduate, which she only became this year after finishing one more course and paying much belated fees and bills due to Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey from the 1980s!

Also, O’Donnell has not held a paying job for years, and seems to have used campaign funds to pay her personal expenses, including rent and credit card bills! And she has alienated campaign staff who have not been paid for their services in past campaigns for the Senate! 🙁

O’Donnell also has in the past promoted a very narrow minded view of sexuality, including arguing against any sexual activity outside of marriage, including masturbation, and yet lives with a boyfriend, and seems unlikely now to be practicing celibacy, which she pushed as a religious issue in the 1990s!

She claims to be an expert on the Constitution, but has never written or expressed orally any specific knowledge of government issues, and just seems to be a professional office seeker, with three attempts for a Senate seat, but with no actual credentials! 🙁

This woman is extremely attractive, but comes across as not very bright or knowledgeable, in many ways a clone of Sarah Palin!

The Delaware Republican Party repudiated her before she defeated Congressman and former Governor Mike Castle in the primary by a small margin of votes, and Castle will not endorse her as he states that she has lied consistently, which indeed seems to be totally true, including claiming that she had won two counties in Delaware against Joe Biden in 2008, when she won none of the three counties in the small state! 🙁

Karl Rove, former adviser to George W. Bush, may be switching gears under pressure to back O’Donnell, after criticism of his strong stand against her competency, integrity and motivations, but the fact he has switched views does not take away from his earlier views, which seemed indeed legitimate!

Karl Rove may be objectionable in many ways, but he truly knows politics and candidates backwards and forwards, and his initially strong doubts about O’Donnell have to be seen for what they were! CHRISTINE O’DONNELL IS NOT QUALIFIED TO REPRESENT DELAWARE IN THE US SENATE! 🙁

Is Delaware A Sign of “Civil War” In The Republican Party?

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The battle within the Republican Party in Delaware for the Senate nomination in tomorrow’s primary may very well be a sign of the future of the GOP nationally!

Moderate Congressman Mike Castle, an 18 year veteran of the House of Representatives and former Governor, is being opposed by Christine O’Donnell, who has twice lost Senate races against Vice President Joe Biden, and in the mind of GOP leaders in the state, has absolutely no qualifications for the Senate, other than her very good looks!

The Tea Party Movement, Sarah Palin, and South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, angling to be Senate leader for his party in a challenge to Senator Mitch McConnell, all are backing O’Donnell!

The result is that there could be said to be “civil war” between moderate centrists and the right wing of the party, which is becoming more aggressive everywhere, representing a long range threat to the stability of the GOP across the nation!

This is a sad commentary on the GOP, facing a crisis of identity as the Tea Party Movement works to overtake and reshape the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and YES, even Ronald Reagan! 🙁

The Tea Party, Sarah Palin, And The Delaware GOP Senatorial Primary: Suicidal Tendencies Grow! :(

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Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Movement seem out to prevent any moderate Republicans from being elected to the US Senate, thus giving the Republicans a more extremist image, which is likely to lead to defeat, but even if it does not, marginalizes the long term future of the party! 🙁

Alaska’s Senate primary saw moderate Lisa Murkowski defeated by Joe Miller, an extremist Tea Party favorite, which at least makes that state a more competitive one for Democrats! Sarah Palin used her influence to help defeat the Murkowski family again, as she had when she defeated the father who was Governor in 2006!

Now Delaware, a state sure to elect a moderate Republican with a 20 year record in the US House, Mike Castle, suddenly has the possibility, due to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party extremists, of electing a completely unqualified woman, Christine O’Donnell, who happens to be attractive as her only virtue, as the Senate nominee next Tuesday, September 14!

The odds of O’Donnell defeating Democrat Chris Coons are seen as unlikely, but the desire to move the GOP to the far right seems to outweigh the reality that the GOP cannot survive intact as an extremist right wing party long term! 🙁

We already have right wingers named Sharron Angle, Rand Paul, Joe Miller, Ken Buck and Mike Lee, who make a bad image for the party, and hopefully most will be defeated, an advantage to the Democrats!

But if they win, and Christine O’Donnell wins, the Republican party is killing its long term future, as to govern the country we require a mainstream centrist set of parties, and the GOP is fast losing any possibility of being perceived as such!

Surprise In Delaware: Joe Biden’s Son Not Running For Senate

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A big surprise emerged today when Beau Biden, Attorney General of Delaware and son of Vice President Joe Biden, announced he would not run for his father’s Senate seat.

It is believed possible that the loss of the Massachusetts Senate seat to Republican Scott Brown may have affected the younger Biden’s decision. It was seen as easier for him to keep his position as Attorney General, than to challenge Mike Castle, the present Delaware Congressman, who has had a long career in that chamber and is now running as the GOP candidate for the Senate.

The problem with this decision, however, is the message it sends, that the Democrats are basically giving up the seat that was Joe Biden’s for 36 years. Interim Senator Ted Kaufman, the former aide to Joe Biden, has made clear he will just finish out the two year term to the end of the year, rather than run for a full term.

The whole situation seems to make no sense, and it is a shame that the Democrats are ready to just concede the seat. At this rate, the Democrats could lose more seats than one once thought.

The Cook Political Report projects that the GOP will gain 5-7 seats in the Senate this year as things now stand. If that is the case, then the Democrats had better get moving now to get some of their agenda accomplished, including health care in some form, because if the Senate is something like only 52 to 54 seats for the Democrats in 2011-2012, it will be a major battle to get anything done before the Presidential election. And as stated earlier, it will make replacements of aging Supreme Court Justices Stevens and Ginsberg all the more complex and difficult!