Mike Castle wants to be a Senator. By all measures, he’s a great Republican recruiting victory, he’s a popular former governor and popular multi-term Representative. He has high name recognition and is considered a moderate which is probably a good fit for an overwhelmingly Democratic state like Delaware. So, he’s invincible right?
Yesterday’s News Journal highlighted last year’s voting records for Delaware’s Congressional delegation, noting that Mike Castle voted along party lines for most votes last year (full voting record). He voted with the GOP 86.5% of the time – he voted against the stimulus, he voted against the jobs bill, he voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, he voted against Health Care Reform while voting for the Stupak Amendment (can he still call himself pro-choice?) and voted against financial reform.
So, what does this all have do with Castle wanting to accomplish nothing? Well, the topic of the dysfunction of the Senate has been quite a hot topic lately. Members of the press have been done very little to question the unprecedented use of the filibuster by Senate Republicans. Since 2006, Republicans have increasingly used the filibuster, it’s now up to 70% of the time, to require a 60-vote supermajority to get any legislation through the Senate. Here’s a handy graph to illustrate the point:
The Republican Party is the Party of No. They are dedicated only to opposing the Democratic agenda. The only ideas the GOP has right now are the same failed ideas from Bush days. If you don’t believe me, just take another look at the GOP purity test:
(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further
For those keeping count, that’s 7 of 10 principles that are just opposition of some proposed legislation.
The question that the media, Castle’s opponent(s) and voters need to ask Castle is what he plans to get done in the Senate. Is he just another no vote to block legislation? If so, we don’t need Castle for that, we could elect a rock or a potato. Does Castle plan on working with the majority to get legislation passed? Will he help pass the Democratic agenda, which is popular in Delaware or will he vote with his party to block legislation? Is he planning on doing the people’s business or blocking it?