PrintSeptember 17, 2010
All Factions Need to Heed lessons from Delaware
There was a great deal of concern expressed earlier this week about reports that Delaware and national Republican leaders would not support GOP Senate nominee, Christine O'Donnell. Fortunately, it seems that most of the Republican establishment is taking the lead of Texas Senator Jon Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. He offered her strong verbal and financial support, even though his group had supported Representative Mike Castle, whom the Tea Party backed O'Donnell defeated in the September 14 primary to determine who would vie for the Senate seat formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden.
Establishment Republicans have finished licking their wounds and are supporting O'Donnell and other successful candidates associated with the Tea Party Express such as Rand Paul in Kentucky, Sharon Angle in Nevada, and Joe Miller in Alaska. The continued refusal by Castle and Senator Lisa Murkowski, who Miller defeated, to endorse their O'Donnell and Miller respectively, seems more and more petty and ultimately self-defeating. The nasty statements Republican "icon" Karl Rove made about O'Donnell help no one except the Democrats; and increasing numbers of people are seeing that.
Agree with the candidate, disagree; it does not matter. The people have spoken and we had better listen to them. That's the message all of us should be getting.
While the Tea Party has scored some serious successes in this primary season, there is one race in which its candidates suffered nothing short of a humiliating defeat: the GOP Senate primary in Illinois. None of the five candidates who challenged Representative Mark Kirk from the right were able to win many votes. The strongest among them, attorney Patrick Hughes received public endorsements from Conservative radio hosts Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin, got only 19 percent of the vote to Kirk's 57. It seems that the people have spoken.
But in an ongoing fit of pique Kirk's former Tea Party backed rivals are acting no different than Castle and Murkowski. Both they and many Illinois conservatives not only refuse to endorse Kirk, but keep up the drum beat of (in my opinion inaccurate) cries of RINO and spread misinformation that are helping no one but Kirk's Democrat foe, State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias.
The primaries are over; the people have spoken. Whether we are Tea Party Conservatives or establishment Republicans, we need to respect the will of the people and not take the position that "we know better." In doing so, Illinois Conservatives will help their state send a Senator to Washington who will work overtime to undo the tax and spend, big government Obama agenda-an agenda that Democrat Giannoulias will vote to support every chance he gets; count on it.
