The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

No Regrets in Delaware

Posted on | November 12, 2010 | 18 Comments

DOVER, Delaware — Christine O’Donnell did not merely defeat Mike Castle in Tuesday’s Senate primary. She beat the Republican establishment, both nationally and in Delaware, and she beat a veritable army of naysayers who said she couldn’t do it. . . .
– “This Changes Everything,” The American Spectator, Sept. 15, 2010

The other day, in defending Mark Levin, I offered my post-mortem critique of the O’Donnell campaign and was willing to move on. But then Instapundit linked Professor Bainbridge who linked Doug Mataconis who linked Dan Riehl who said:

Surrendering to liberalism, while claiming victory as a Republican, is a defeat for conservatism.

Whatever else Dan Riehl said — and he’s obviously not trying to get a gold star for “plays well with others” — that one sentence is exactly right.

Defeating Mike Castle in the GOP primary was a big victory. Electing Christine O’Donnell on Nov. 2 would have been a bigger victory but, to quote a very wise man, “Don’t demand perfection, or you’ll be disappointed.”

So if the outcome in Delaware wasn’t perfect, it was much better than the prospect of Mike Castle getting elected to the Senate. Good-bye, Mike — enjoy your retirement.

As for the rest, let us keep in mind the words of a very wise man: “Political change is a process, not an event.”

In 2004, the GOP powers-that-be ganged up to thwart Pat Toomey’s primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter. Less than five years later, with Toomey leading Specter in their Republican primary rematch, Specter quit the GOP, lost the subsequent Democratic primary and is now just two months away from surrendering his seat to Pat Toomey.

Conservatives were told for decades that Arlen Specter was the best they could hope for in Pennsylvania, a state that was alleged to be trending inevitably toward Democrats.

In the words of a very wise man: “Heh.”

Not only did Toomey chase Specter out of the primary and beat Joe Sestak on Election Day, but Pennsylvania Republicans won the governorship and five House seats, defeating incumbent Democrats Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-3), Bryan Lentz (PA-7), Patrick Murphy (PA-8), Chris Carney (PA-10) and — sweetest of all — 26-year incumbent Paul Kanjorski (PA-11).

So much for that inevitable trend, you see.

The trend-hoppers thought jumping aboard the Obama express was their ticket to ride, and instead it was their ticket to political oblivion.

Charlie Crist embraced the stimulus. Good-bye, Charlie!

Mike Castle voted for cap-and-trade. Good-bye, Mike!

I’m reminded of what a GOP operative said to me shortly after the NRSC endorsed Crist in May 2009: “All they care about is getting their chairmanships back, and they don’t care how they get there.”

Yeah. Fuck John Cornyn, fuck the NRSC and fuck your chairmanships, you treacherous bastards.

The Tea Party movement didn’t succeed in defeating all the backstabbing RINO crapweasels — cap-and-trade-endorsing Mark Kirk managed t0 get elected in Illinois, Lisa Murkowski appears likely to survive in Alaska, and that two-faced son of a bitch John McCain got re-elected in Arizona — but the Tea Party succeeded often enough to put the GOP Establishment on notice henceforth.

Busting the balls of the Establishment is a process not an event.

A very wise man said that. You can look it up.

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Category: Dan Riehl, Delaware, Election, Instapundit, Tea Party

Comments

  • Anonymous

    Fundamentally, there is no difference between Coons and Castle. Both are progressives. Both would have voted for the Obama Regime agenda, Obama Regime judges, etc. Castle is a lefty, doesn’t matter what letter is behind his name. You cannot advance conservatism by electing lefties.

    In some cases, you lose the battle but win the war. Defeating Vichy Republicans is as important as defeating the Fascist Democrats they align themselves with.

  • thirteen28

    A-freakin’-men, Stacy, very well said.

    I hope all the others (e.g., Ace, etc.) who have sand in their coochies about giving up a “winnable” seat will read this. Advancing a liberal never works for the good of conservatism, even if said liberal has an (R) by his name.

  • http://twitter.com/sdo1 Steve in TN

    From this item I take it that Stacy McCain, Dan Reihl, etc… will join with me in rejecting NJ Governor Chris Christie in any national office bid or for re-election since he is not a true conservative and holds to progressive opinions and policy regarding our Second Amendment rights.

    In fact, Christie himself identifies as a “moderate to left” on the issue.

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569805,00.html

    HANNITY: Are there any issues where you are, quote, moderate to left as a Republican?

    CHRISTIE: Listen, I favor some of the gun-control measures we have in New Jersey.

    HANNITY: Bad idea.

    CHRISTIE: Listen, we have a densely-populated state, and there’s a big hand gun problem in New Jersey. Now, I don’t support all the things that the governor supports by a long stretch. But I think on guns — certain gun control issues, looking at it from a law-enforcement perspective, seeing how many police officers were killed, we have an illegal gun problem in New Jersey.

    HANNITY: Should every — should every citizen in the state be allowed to get a licensed weapon if they want one?

    CHRISTIE: In New Jersey, that’s not going to happen, Sean.

    HANNITY: Why?

    CHRISTIE: Listen, the Democratic legislature we have, there’s no way those type of things — listen, at the end of the day, what I support are common sense laws that will allow people to protect themselves, but I also am very concerned about the safety of our police officers on the streets, very concerned. And I want to make sure that we don’t have an abundance of guns out there.

    As Hannity says, “bad idea.” As a progressive, however, Christie just can’t help himself. How about that guys? Y’all gonna give Christie the Progressive the same treatment as Castle the Progressive?

  • http://twitter.com/sdo1 Steve in TN

    I wonder if Stacy McCain and Dan Riehl will join me and other conservatives in rejecting Chris Christie as a national candidate or for re-election as NJ Governor based on the fact that he is not a true conservative. A true conservative holds all the natural rights, not coincidentally listed in our Bill of Rights, as inviolable.

    Isn’t that what we do, as eloquently stated in this item? Reject all statists, progressives, etc?

    In the item by Riehl that Stacy quotes, Riehl objects to Christie’s yearning for Castle as Senator. As further proof of Christie’s statist thinking, one should read from his interview with Sean Hannity during the NJ gubernatorial campaign:
    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569805,00.html

    HANNITY: Are there any issues where you are, quote, moderate to left as a Republican?

    CHRISTIE: Listen, I favor some of the gun-control measures we have in New Jersey.

    HANNITY: Bad idea.

    CHRISTIE: Listen, we have a densely-populated state, and there’s a big hand gun problem in New Jersey. Now, I don’t support all the things that the governor supports by a long stretch. But I think on guns — certain gun control issues, looking at it from a law-enforcement perspective, seeing how many police officers were killed, we have an illegal gun problem in New Jersey.

    HANNITY: Should every — should every citizen in the state be allowed to get a licensed weapon if they want one?

    CHRISTIE: In New Jersey, that’s not going to happen, Sean.

    HANNITY: Why?

    CHRISTIE: Listen, the Democratic legislature we have, there’s no way those type of things — listen, at the end of the day, what I support are common sense laws that will allow people to protect themselves, but I also am very concerned about the safety of our police officers on the streets, very concerned. And I want to make sure that we don’t have an abundance of guns out there.

    What Christie spouts is directly from the Brady Campaign and every other anti-rights group in existence. One can NOT be conservative and hold these, as Christie self identifies, leftist beliefs. As Hannity says, “Bad idea.” Christie’s last sentence belies any relief from claiming the Democrat legislature would prevent him from supporting Liberty.

    Christie is not a conservative. So, the question to Stacy McCain and Dan Riehl is: Will you support Christie, since he is a progressive statist, if he runs for national office in 2012 or if he runs for re-election as NJ governor? You can’t denigrate those who supported Castle this time if you do.

  • Ericrashley

    What was the first sign that Charles Johnson was about to flameout?

    He started trying to whale on Creationists.

    A sign of RINOism, or of RINOism that is latent and is about to go into the active phase of the disease, is to start worrying about typical American values in public. It should be treated the same way we treat a flu….’dear fellow, you’re not feeling well, cover your mouth so no strains of liberal virus escape, and go lay down for a couple days.’