Update: realclearpolitics.com picked up the DiStefano column. I’d expect that “They’ve asked me to run for the Senate as a Republican. comment to start turning up everywhere in the next few days.
Read Joseph N. DiStefano’s whole column, it is a doozy. Here are some oddly unguarded musing from the 99 year old Congressman.
“They’ve asked me to run for the Senate as a Republican. I don’t know if I’m going to do that,” business-friendly Castle told a crowd of financial planners at Cira Centre in Philadelphia yesterday. (snip)
Meanwhile, says Castle, “my wife talks about beaches in Florida. I don’t know if I want to run for the House again, let alone for the four years of Biden’s term.”
DiStefano and Castle discuss the DEGOP’s shallow bench:
But Castle’s the last proven vote-getter the Republicans have in the First State. If he steps down, Democrats could take both Senate and House posts. “That’s the quandary.”
How do you pass the torch if there’s no one behind you?
Then he transition to being worried about the National GOP which, he notes, has been taken over by maniacs, and televangelists.
“I’m worried about the Republican Party,” Castle said. “The Republican message is getting a little old. We’re still talking about Ronald Reagan,” who was president “before some of the voters were born.”
Unpopular stands on “social issues” may have hurt the party. But “what hurt the most was the eight years of President Bush in which the very issues we’re talking about today were not addressed. That has been a very strong negative for the Republican Party.
“My vision for the Republican Party is a presidential candidate who can be a good leader. . . . I know it’s not Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich or Dick Cheney.”
The Republicans need “a manager.” Maybe Minnesota Gov. “Tim Pawlenty, or Florida Gov. Charles Crist . . . someone who can say, ‘Here’s what we should be doing for Social Security or health care.’ ” And get back on the national agenda.
As a long time Castle watcher I can tell you that he doesn’t think that shit. He simply thinks that moderates in Delaware will like hearing it.
Now the kicker. He set a new deadline for making the call: August 30, 2009
He told me he’ll decide about a Senate run – or retirement – by the end of summer.
Note: I love his “oh well..” take on the problems of the DE Republican Party. As if he wasn’t calling behind the wheel of the bus when it busted through the guardrail and tumbled down the ravine.