Email is all over the place on this, lots of agreement, lots of “Yes, but…” and a lot of bitterness against the GOP establishment. A few examples:
But – where is the criticism of Karl Rove? His temper tantrum was disgraceful and In poor form. Washingtonian Republicans like him still don’t get it. We want RINOs out of the leadership of the party. Period. This is a revolution of less government , lower taxes (to spur growth) and less spending – and people like Rove better get on board – or get lost.
Where is the criticism of Mike Castle and his campaign? – he attacks on this woman were awful. And now he will not support the Republican candidate that was selected by his party’s voters? He confirmed that Delaware made the right decision! The worst kind of RINO there is – is a RINO that doesn’t support the candidate that beat him.
Where is the criticism of the NRSC? – on the night of her win they leak to Fox News that they aren’t giving her a dime? Pathetic. The NRSC doesn’t get this movement. They love RINOs. RINOs give them power – not the people. RINOs got us started with this deficit spending nonsense – they deserved to lose in 2006 and 2008. The country is pissed and Rinos are a key part of why we are indeed unhappy.
We all need to spend more time criticizing the RINO establishment (Susan Collins, Mike Castle, Murkoski, the NRSC and the like) – because they enabled this mess to happen and are no better than the leftists running the show now.
We want change and we are gonna get it. This is not like any election in our lifetime. And the Karl, The NRSC and the rest of the Republican establishment better wake up to this fact.
Thanks for reading this.
And:
Dear Jonah,
I normally agree with you. But I have to respectfully disagree on the Castle O’Donnell race. Castle is the typical big government piece of garbage that the rank and file hate. And he is exactly the kind of Republican that people rightly point to when they claim Republicans really don’t mean it when they claim to be small government.
Is O’Donnell any better? All I have seen about her is that she can’t win. So what? Isn’t this the magazine that was founded by a man who once ran for Mayor of New York saying he would not serve if elected? What about the virtues of running a principled but losing candidacy?
I would rather see O’Donnell lose the general election than Castle win. A Democrat in that seat will do less damage to the small government cause the Castle will. The problem with big government Republicans like Castle is that they cut the legs out from under Republicans who really do believe in small government. National Review admits that he will vote with the Democrats 40% of the time. When he does that, he makes that 40% of the Democratic agenda “bi partisan”. And since every Republican is going to be portrayed by the media as some small government type, it will allow Democrats and the media to say to small government advocates “see, even one of your own thinks you are nuts”. Castle in the Senate will help Democrats to marginalize and de legitimize small government. We are better off with a Democrat.
And lastly, you really have no idea how much the average Republican voter hates the Republican establishment. Well, here is a case where Republican voters are telling a big government Republican establishment guy to go get bent. The same establishment that gave us NCLB and the Bush deficits and ran the party into near permanent minority status. Mike Castle and Charlie Crist stand as a warning to all other big government Republicans that the days of getting elected because you only steal half as much as the Democratic alternative are over.
Maybe it is because of the circles you run in, but I don’t think you understand how angry people are in the country. It was an absolute insult to Republican voters to take someone as awful as Castle and expect the rank and file to vote for him just so Jim DeMint can be majority leader. Republican voters played that game in the 00s. And swallowed their principles and voted for lousy candidates in the name of keeping Democrats out. Well no more. That is the fallout of the 00s. Yeah, people want to get rid of the Democrats. But they are not going to do it if doing so means putting the same garbage that gave us Abramoff and the rest of the 04-06 Congress. And if that offends the delicate sensibilities of NRO and the Republican pundit establishment, well sometimes life is like that. And you better get used to it. Because the days of people like Castle winning in this party are over.
Me: By the way, I do agree with the first reader that it is/would be outrageous for the GOP to withhold aid and support for O’Donnell now that she’s the nominee. It works both ways. You can’t condemn pols like Charlie Crist or Lisa Murkowski for refusing to accept the will of primary voters but then refuse to accept it yourself when things don’t go your way. O’Donnell is the Republican nominee and she deserves the support of Republicans, including from Mike Castle.