Fellow Delawareans,
It has been my privilege to serve you in Congress and I have taken the trust that you have placed in me seriously. As your Congressman I have striven to balance the immediate needs of Delaware with the long term needs of the country and am proud of my record of accomplishment.
To a large degree, those accomplishments have been possible because of my determination to look beyond ideology and political party. Putting the demands of partisanship aside, I have worked hard at my goals of represent every Delawarean in Congress and believe that I have done that.
However, there is one area where the wedge of partisanship not only separated me from your concerns, but also separated me from my conscience. That was voting for George Bush and chairing his election and reelection campaigns here in Delaware.
By supporting George Bush, when my intellect and conscience told me to speak out against him, I did a grave disservice to you my constituents and my supporters and ultimately to the country.
Like many of you, I was initially mislead and then hoped for the best regarding the President, but it was soon obvious to me that he was lying about the Iraq war and actively working to undermine our constitutional form of government. At the moment of that realization I should have unequivocally withdrawn my support.
My conscience demanded that I speak up, but I did not. I sincerely apologize for my cowardice in not doing so.
Knowingly departing from the dictates of my intellect and conscience is something that I will have to contend with for the rest of my life. And while I know that I can not restore my integrity through this apology, I hope that I can restore some small part of my reputation for honest and intelligent service to the state and people of Delaware.
To that end I promise to back up this apology with a sustained commitment to oppose the President and his plans to escalate and enlarge the catastrophe in Iraq that my silence enabled.
Sincerely
Michael N. Castle