The Other McCain

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

Weigel on Delaware

Posted on | September 7, 2010 | 17 Comments

Dave Weigel is a native of Delaware and has a feature at Slate about the Senate campaign between Mike Castle and Christine O’Donnell. He explains last week’s onslaught of negative attacks on O’Donnell:

When she declined to stand aside for Castle, who’s been eying an open Senate seat for years, the party ignored her.
It stopped ignoring her last month. In Alaska, Joe Miller . . . defied predictions and polls in order to beat Sen. Lisa Murkowski in the GOP primary. The Tea Party Express, the political arm of the movement that had spent $550,000 on ads to help Miller, declared victory and planted a new flag in Delaware. O’Donnell, the group announced, would be the movement’s new cause, with ads and fundraising drives that would push her over the top.
The Republican establishment woke up and turned the cannons.

And that’s the story in a nutshell. Everyone who has been participating in the oppo-research dump on O’Donnell is doing the bidding of the same GOP Establishment that tried to foist Charlie Crist on an unwilling electorate.

Some people have accused O’Donnell of paranoia for complaining about being followed by video “trackers.” But from Weigel’s story, here’s the kick in the head:

She happily points out the tracker that Republicans have sent to follow her.

Yeah, that’s right: Republicans are paying these people to stalk her. It’s outrageous, and anyone who supports Mike Castle is endorsing that kind of tactic in what is — I feel obliged to point out — a GOP primary for an open seat. This is what the Not One Red Cent rebellion is about: The party establishment need to stop meddling in contested primaries.

Let me repeat the question I asked over the weekend: How many pro-life voters in Delaware? Castle’s pro-choice, O’Connell’s pro-life, and that life-or-death issue ought to be decisive in a GOP primary.

CHRISTINE O’DONNELL for U.S. SENATE

Comments

17 Responses to “Weigel on Delaware”

  1. Maggie's Notebook
    September 7th, 2010 @ 1:56 pm

    House Leadership Must Get a Good Faith Pledge from Mike Castle or Move to O’Donnell’s Camp…

    So, there are few problems here: Senator Mike Castle is a RINO – yes, he is. He voted for cap and trade and he voted for the DISCLOSE Act. What more do you need to hang the RINO sign around his neck?…

  2. Estragon
    September 7th, 2010 @ 4:05 pm

    We already know Weigel is our enemy, by his own words.

    O’Donnell won’t even rule out running as an independent if she loses the primary. She lies about her record and finances, is paying her rent with campaign money, and “sold” her house to her campaign lawyer to avoid foreclosure.

    Castle’s a RINO, but O’Donnell is a lying crook. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Castle beating the Democrat by double digits, and O’Donnell losing by double digits.

    What is it about lying, crooked losers like O’Donnell and Hayworth that attract some conservatives to support them? Have you no ethical standards at all?

  3. Estragon
    September 7th, 2010 @ 4:26 pm

    Oh, and is there any EVIDENCE who is paying the “tracker” – other than O’Donnell’s assertion?

    I have to ask, since there is a history of falsified charges against the dreaded “GOP Establishment” here, as recently as Alaska.

    You seem to imply, or at least don’t question O’Donnell’s implication, that the tracker is being paid by the Party. Where’s the facts to establish this?

    If it is Castle’s campaign paying to track her, can you blame them, given her propensity to say and do stupid and outrageous things?

  4. Joe
    September 7th, 2010 @ 5:14 pm

    I want the GOP/RNC not taking sides in primaries. It is sad I do not trust the GOP/RNC, but I do not trust the GOP/RNC. Which makes me take some of the criticism of O’Donnell with a very big grain of salt.

    That said, the arguments that Ace, Allah, etc. are making for Castle over O’Donnell are legitimate to a point. And the arguments Stacy, Smitty, Riehl, and Levin are making are legitimate too. So make your arugments and let the GOP voters of Delaware decide.

  5. furious
    September 7th, 2010 @ 5:43 pm

    There’s pro-choice, there’s pro-life, and then there’s Pat Leahy re-assuming the chairman’s gavel at Judiciary in Jan 2011.

    The host should have prefaced the kicker “from a story by Dave Weigel, dismissed from the WaPo over his postings to Journolist”.

    The host also could have mentioned, for context that as part of Journolist Dave Weigel “used a professional forum to encourage journalists to starve coverage of certain stories or outlets, and to frame coverage of the Massachusetts Senate election in a manner to help Democrats.”

    What’s to say Mr. Weigel isn’t pursuing the same agenda under Slate‘s masthead?

  6. Brainster
    September 7th, 2010 @ 5:44 pm

    Yeah, I trust Dave Weigel; he’s obviously got the best interests of conservatives at heart.

  7. qq
    September 7th, 2010 @ 5:57 pm

    “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

    “If a known lying Democratic shill like Weigel prints an unsupported slanderous assertion about the GOP by a desperate losing candidate like O’Donnell, don’t bother checking it out, just reprint and treat it as if it were an established fact.”

    I can’t imagine the level of cognitive dissonance required to follow both of those maxims.

  8. This is Why I Stopped Donating to the Republican Party | The Lonely Conservative
    September 7th, 2010 @ 10:23 pm

    […] said they would stay out of these races, but I guess they just can’t help themselves. Stacy McCain has been following closely, here’s the latest: Everyone who has been participating in the […]

  9. kaye
    September 8th, 2010 @ 2:09 pm

    You cannot shut your eyes to Mrs. Odonnell obvious short comings. Her campaign has even implied Rassmussen is on the RNC,s payroll because they did not like the outcome of her polling. Listen to the radio interview with the well known CONSERVATIVE commentator in Delaware. She had her cronies even start a rumourthat Mike Castle is gay for God’s sake.

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    September 11th, 2010 @ 2:49 pm

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