Mike Castle

In this series of weekly articles I usually cover a few of the week’s main story lines. This week, however, a large amount of time has been given in the media to the last of the primary elections… and the fallout that has followed. With only forty five days until the general election, it seems only right that I devote this page to this one topic.

Miller and Murkowski - Just when you think it's over....

It was announced yesterday that Lisa Murkowski, beaten in the Alaska Senatorial primary by Joe Miller, will run in November as a write-in candidate. The bitter irony of this act is that the Republican establishment, of which the Murkowski dynasty could be considered a part, has spent the better part of the week condemning the Tea Party for its support of Christine O’Donnell.

While old guard Republicans are saying that it’s better to get a Party member into the Senate, regardless of how far left they lean, than to risk loss by running a Conservative candidate, one of their own is taking the risk of splitting the Republican vote.

I have always held Karl Rove in high esteem, and I regard Charles Krauthammer as, possibly, my favorite op-ed columnist. I can see where they are coming from with their opinions on risking the loss of elections, but my instincts and, dare I say, morals, tell me that they are off base on this one.

Charles Krauthammer

In Krauthammer’s article of September 17, he used the analogy of a baseball batting average, with Mike Castle at .667 on the voting history of health care (no), the stimulus (no) and cap-and-trade (yes). He questioned whether it would be more agreeable to have a Democrat elected with an average of .000.

That’s being a little too selective, in my opinion. If you look at the broader picture, Castle is pro-choice, voted against the Iraq troop surge, voted for TARP and the Fannie Mae – Freddie Mac bailout, voted to increase taxes on oil companies, voted against controls on eminent domain abuse, voted for the cash-for-clunkers program…. the list goes on. He may show an overall Republican voting agreement figure of 80% plus, but that covers every single vote, down to whether the House restaurant menu should be updated. As for gun control… need I say it?

With this sort of batting average on serious issues, it appears that a moderate Democrat could be a preferential alternative to Mike Castle. What is the difference between a Democrat and a RINO voting against the wishes of Conservatives? Why he ever joined the GOP is a mystery to me. Perhaps the Democrats had filled their membership quota for the year?

I have said on many occasions that if I was to run for political office, I would rather lose heavily while voicing my true beliefs than to win by giving the electorate what they want to hear. It is this ideal of being true to oneself that drives the Tea Party. If they pulled the plug on a Conservative candidate, to give a RINO, and the GOP, a better chance of success, it would undermine the very principles that the movement is founded on.

America is not some reality show, where the producers decide to keep someone popular in the House (or Senate) to beat the ratings of the another network. This is the reality – the Republican Party must give the full support that is deserved by Tea Party candidates. Christine O’Donnell and Joe Miller won their respective primary elections fair and square.

Everyone, please, do the honorable thing and give them all the help you possibly can in the run-up to November. Time is running short, we need to pull together now to create an unstoppable force that will halt the tide of socialism. Stay true to your beliefs and have faith – the rest will come naturally.

I would like to congratulate Ron Johnson on his primary success in Wisconsin. Regular readers probably know that Ron was endorsed on the skipmaclure.us website. He has a difficult battle now with Russ Feingold, but I’m sure that if anyone can pull it off, Ron can. Please support him in any way you can.

I’ll finish with a quote from Jim DeMint: “I’ve been in the majority with Republicans who didn’t have principles and we embarrassed ourselves and lost credibility in front of the country. Frankly, I’m at a point where I’d rather lose fighting for the right cause then win fighting for the wrong cause”.

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

It’s not often that a writer gets a gift handed to him, but I got one today. My article yesterday focused on the necessity for the RNC and the so-called establishment Republicans to find common ground, and recognize that we (the Patriot movements) are not going to allow the Rockefeller establishment Republicans another shot at screwing up again.

Christine O'Donnell and Mike Castle

I was pointing out that party bosses in various states, who have an altogether inflated opinion of their own importance, can cram any candidate down our throats whether we like it or not.

We’ve seen it in Arizona, Nevada and Alaska… Tea Party/Patriot candidates have been kicking butt all over the place. It’s not surprising that the establishment types panicked and started undermining the work of the Patriots wherever they could, and that they were no more successful at it than the DeMarxists have been is not surprising.

The Republican Party of Delaware has endorsed a huge RINO, nine-term Representative Mike Castle, over the Conservative Patriot challenger Christine O’Donnell. In a shocking turn around she has come from near obscurity to within two points of Castle.

That’s where the rub is. Would somebody please tell me why the RNC and their various committees keep coming up with candidates nobody wants to vote for? Time after time. Then, when a totally spontaneous grass roots movement gets candidates elected all over the country, they go out of their way to suborn the efforts and the true will of the party as expressed by its grassroots members.

What this also means is that the party hierarchy isn’t listening to the country either. Well, it’s like this… you guys weren’t getting the job done and, in fact, many of you were prepared to lie down with the DeMarxists as long as they made nice with you.

It’s going to be a very tough year on incumbents… yes, indeed it is. You see, we know how you voted… we counted the votes… we counted who voted on what.

It’s going to be a very tough year for anyone who voted in favor of health care, or the stimulus, or the banking regulation bill or cap and trade… the whole gamut of Obama’s Marxist menagerie. Yes, we know how you voted… and we are going to vote you out of office.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

Yesterday, I wrote about establishment Republicans and their apparent opposition to all things Tea Party. Just who the heck are these people?

John Cornyn

We have just had a key election in Alaska. Incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski went down in defeat to Joe Miller in the Senate primary. Joe Miller was the Conservative ‘Tea Party’ candidate. The head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee flew to Alaska to aid Lisa Murkowski with the primary. John Cornyn (R), Junior Senator from Texas, had said that his committee will observe strict neutrality.

According to Miller’s campaign there are still national operatives in the state, and they suspected an effort to sway the election results in favor of Murkowski. There were still some 1,500 absentee votes yet to be counted.

According to Tea Party activists in Cornyn’s home state of Texas, protests were held at all of Cornyn’s offices to make it clear that they did not want the GOP or the NRSC interfering with Alaska’s primary race. There has been a pattern of interference, back-room deals and underhanded tactics where Conservative Patriots and their candidates have been concerned.

The people are speaking their choices. There is a Conservative tsunami just over the horizon. If the RNC and the NRSC think that we will stand still for more of what we got from them when they were last in power, they have another think a- comin’.

The National Republican Party has been an abject failure. We need only to look around us to see the result of that. It was the irresponsible actions of the (then) majority party under George Bush that are directly responsible for Barack Hussein Obama being in office.

There are more primaries coming up soon. Delaware’s Republican primary is on Sept 14. The Tea Party Express has endorsed strong Conservative Christine O’Donnell over US Representative Mike Castle, the choice of the RNC and NRSC. It’s like this folks… Mike Castle is one of the biggest RINOs in Washington. This dude has been in virtual lockstep with Barack Obama’s agenda from the beginning. He needs to be defeated and it looks very much like he will be.

Message to the RNC. Keep it up and you’ll see the destruction of your party. You’re under as much scrutiny as the DeMarxists are. You worked very hard to lose our trust. Now you’re going to have to work much harder to get it back. Backing RINOs isn’t a very good start.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

First, a big shout out to my buds @ The New York Times. While the "Paper of Record" chose not to use my name or the name of RedState's Moe Lane we were both quoted verbatim as the authoriative voice on what ought to be done about the "Cap & Tr8-ors"

Thanks for giving this a wider audience

 "I don't think one can minimize why this was a truly hideous vote for those eight folks," a commentator on the conservative blog the "Next Right" wrote. "Here we had a chance to derail the Obama socialism train and restore the Republican party to policy relevance, and these guys bailed out so they could get a nice mention in the NY Times."

Guess it still feels like John Mellencamp sang in "Small Town" "hey, look at who's in the big town"

I digress

Here's the choice for the Cap &Tr8-ors

former Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Lieberman has come out against Obama's "public option" health care scheme.

“If we create a public option, the public is going to end up paying for it,” Lieberman said following an hour-long confab with public-health experts at the Ashmun Street community center of the Monterey Homes public housing complex. “That’s a cost we can’t take on"

I've disagreed with Joe frequently, but on this one he is clearly part of the "reality-based community".  Evidently "Countrywide Kent" Conrad is also not sipping the public option kool aid either.

So, here's the deal for Rep. Bono Mack, Castle, Kirk, Lance, LoBiondo, Reichert and Smith (I omitted McHugh on purpose; he's already been bought).

 You can go with Joe Lieberman and publicly break with the central element of Obamacare.  

Or you can get sent to the ice floe.

Choose Wisely. (if you you choose poorly, this will do you more good than Pac $$ and endorsements)

Yesterday was a slow day at the office, so I spent a lot of time on the I-phone seeing if we could actually give the lefties a shiner by defeating their "cap and trade" fiasco.

Then I got home, saw the result, and traded e-mails with various people in the "movement" The kindest response to the eight turncoats that enabled Waxman-Markey to pass was roughly along these lines

I don't think one can minimize why this was a truly hideous vote for those eight folks. Here we had a chance to derail the Obama socialism train and restore the Republican party to policy relevance, and these guys bailed out so they could get a nice mention in the NY Times tomorrow. Swell.  Even the White House is giving up on the "global warming" issue and you guys sign up for the mission.  Putzes,

The immediate response that I had was that the kindest thing to do to these "fredos" was to throw them out on an ice floe with the polar bears. And others were along those lines. Or at least, shut off their campaign money, demand retirements, or find primary challengers  But that's my spleen talking. Today my brain took over.

No. it's time for a more "reasonable" approach.

See we now have an even more serious threat to the future of the Republic, and that would be a socialized health care system. I'll let John Hinderaker explain.

One of my law partners asked me yesterday which of the Democrats' current initiatives is worse, the tax on carbon or the health care "public option," otherwise known as socialized medicine. I replied unhesitatingly that socialized medicine is much worse. Carbon tax-and-trade can rather easily be repealed once people realize what a dumb idea it is. However, once our health care system has been destroyed and replaced with "single payer" socialized medicine, there is no going back

We need to explain to the Octofail Republicans that there is only one way out of the flaming pit they have dug for themselves. They need to become hard line zealots against the "public option" health care "reform".

And not milquetoast statements and a quiet vote "nay" on final passage. I mean going medieval on the whole concept 24/7/365. I mean like righteous 100 decible opposition. I mean like Rudy Giuliani vs. squeegee men or Michael Moore v. the Hometown Buffett bad.

Anything less, and we re-send the pink slips with no remorse and no reconsideration.

Now for our political geniuses.  First off, let's dispense with the "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" canard here. This was a statist bill from the word go and there wasn't a libertarian idea within the same zip code. It was simply an energy tax.  Ok if you want to keep the government out of my bedroom. How about letting people afford to heat their bedrooms? 

Second, this bill is going to appeal to the vocal but few Saab Socialists who put the environment ahead of the economy. It is going to be painfully unpopular with blue collar America. Maybe Dave Reichert's uber green district will like it; but if Mark Kirk or Mike Castle think this isn't going to backfire on them big time in Rockford and New Castle they are going to find the Democrats whacking them with their own bill next November.

And please explain Mary Bono Mack.  Both her and the lame hubby from SW FL are painful underachievers, proving surnames don't equal leadership. (Something we know well in CT!)

So that's the offer.  Back before he went girlie man in Sacramento Arnold Scharzenegger told John Connor this

Come with me if you want to live

Well, "Cap and Tr8-ors".....either make sure Obama's health care reform fails...or

Hasta la vista, baby!

There's a concept people in the suburban Northeast of mild prosperity are very familiar with

"Certified Pre-Owned"  

If one is a fan of pro or college sports around here , one is inundated with ads on YES and ESPN, as well as the network sports recap shows, beseeching one to buy a slightly driven and sterling condition Benz, Beemer or Lexus coming off lease.

I knew a guy who did this and got a Benz convertible quite cheap. Helped him get PI clients for his practice and was fun to drive on moonlit summer nights from Stone Harbor to Wildwood back in the day. He used the dough he saved to buy a house.

You get a value buying certified pre-owned--getting a luxury car for Nissan prices; but you realise that there's only so many miles left in the creampuff. Still, a good deal for the appearance concious. 

But I'm not sure this is a great political strategy. Nonetheless, the NRSC is looking almost exclusively at elder statesmen in their candidate recruitment.

This week Charlie Crist announced for the Florida senate seat he ran and lost for in 1998. Sure he's won a few times since for AG and Governor and he is quite popular, but Marco Rubio is the fresh face in this race.

Likewise, the NRSC first backed the 79 year old Arlen Specter and when he became Harry Reid;' headache, thought the answer was the 64 year old Tom Ridge; first elected to federal office in 1982.

We are running Roy Blunt in Missouri. He was first elected Secretary of State there in 1984. At that point his son Matt was 14. Matt's already been elected Governor and stepped down after a difficult term. Back to the Future?

The NRSC is likewise trying to get a near 70 something to run in DE (Mike Castle) and a 60 something is their favored candidate in CT ( Rob Simmons). OK, the blue state benches are somewhat thin, but there is a 42 year old candidate running in CT as well. (Sam Caligiuri)

It's not just the Senate, I recall seeing that the ageless Tommy Thompson may seek the Governorship again in Wisconsin, having first won it in 1986.

I'm not going to disparage any of these individual candidates. Each may well be the strongest possible candidate available in their state this year. The problem is that at a point when the party needs to introduce "new models"   the Beltway brain trust is trying to give our old reliables a tune-up, a detailing, and then send them off down the road.

We may win a few seats this year doing this, but we will find many of these folks retiring after a single term and have to hope we build a bench in the meantime. And when we are gasping for breath with younger voters, we are wasting a cycle by not promoting candidate who represent Generation X and Generation Y.

Lots of people buy Certified Pre-Owned. The problem is: almost all of them really wanted to buy a new model. What if the competition offers one at a reasonable price?