RedState

06/08/2010 

Bryan McCarthy

The concept of principle before power is one that is foreign to the majority of career politicians. The secret to longevity in politics is the ability to shift positions and make deals. This requires either an absence of or an abandonment of principles. Witness the long career of Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. Another politician of this stripe is Representative Mike Castle (R?) DE. Mr. Castle has made his living by spending taxpayer money for over forty years. Throughout his tenure as a congressmen, Mr. Castle, who calls himself a Republican, has voted with The Democrats more often than he has voted with his own party. Most recently he voted with The Democrats FOR Cap-and-Trade and the $700 billion TARP bill and AGAINST the surge in Iraq. He waited until the last minute to declare his weak opposition to Obama-care and has now refused to support the repeal movement. During his time in office He has voted for virtually every major tax increase, and he is steadfastly pro abortion. Mr. Castle is also a champion of entitlements of every sort. He himself feels entitled to the Republican nomination for Senate this year. He can be excused for that misconception because that is how things work in Mr. Castle’s world, the corrupt world of politicians who value power over principle. However, Mike Castle faces a strong conservative challenger, Christine O’Donnell, in the upcoming September, 14, 2010, Delaware Republican primary.

There are those who say that this election is simply about gaining a Republican majority in the senate this year. I am sympathetic to that point of view because over the past thirty years I myself have espoused it. It was the basis upon which as a former Pennsylvania resident I once supported Arlen Specter. It is the type of thinking that many Florida voters used when supporting Charlie Crist. However, as years have passed, I have come to see that this type of thinking is itself old. It is cynical and, in fact, cowardly. Most of all, it is self-defeating.