Christine O’Donnell is to Blame (Updated with Video)
On the Rachel Maddow Show right now, guest host Steve Kornacki is tracing all the Tea Party craziness and the GOP’s fear of primaries, and thus the resulting dysfunction in the GOP caucus, and the government shutdown and the debt default threats all the way back to September 14, 2010. The night of the Republican Delaware Primary. The night Christine O’Donnell beat Mike Castle. Here is the video:
This sentiment animated O’Donnell’s kamakzi attack on Castle:
BTW – Coons could have beaten Castle. It would have been a tougher race, but Castle was on the way out. O’Donnell gets too much credit in these stories.
The Teabagging nuts down here in Sussex still love the Witch
Jason even Coons disagrees with you on that.
Jason.. Beau Biden might have had a chance, but not Chris Coons. IIRC, at the time, we were all speculating that Coons was doing it to raise his name reg statewide for a run at statewide office. Hmmmm. Let me dig into ye olde archives to find out…
Yeah, the CW when Coons got in was that he was doing his “Good Team Player” thing, and I think he thought that too. After it all, he would have a higher state-wide profile. O’Donnell as the actual R nominee was a gift.
Although I did think at the time that a good blue D critiquing Castle for his votes mirroring Tom DeLay’s in this state had a decent chance.
Delaware was already solidly blue by 2010. I was at an early Coons event at a neighbors home and Coons was convinced that Castle was sleepwalking. That turned out to be the case and he never had to face him. I’m not surprised Coons is gracious to Castle in victory though. What else is he going o say?
Now that I watched the video there is one correction, the race that was ground zero was not Castle/O’Donnell, it was NY23, the DeeDee Scozzafava race where Tea Party nutjobs accused her of backing the healthcare legislation (she did not) and the stimulus (she did not), and despite the fact that she was arguably the most conservative Republican in the NY Legislature, she was painted as a liberal. She would later be quoted as saying, “They lied about me, they lied about my record and they threatened my family.”
Classic Tea Party campaigning. O’Donnell merely hired the NY23 people, and copied the template.
Jason, seriously, Dude, not one poll had Castle losing to Coons. Coons wasn’t exactly loved in NCCo, Castle was.
I rarely agree with Jason.
But while the chances were tight, Castle wasn’t an absolute shoe in. Much like his loss to Christine showed, the Coons campaign knew that the Castle campaign wasn’t the operation many had expected it to be. Coons was within 11 points right before the primary and things were tightening. It was going to be a tough needle to thread, but to say Coons and everyone in his circle had written off a possible victory against Castle is not accurate.
Booyah! Broken Clock Bitches!!