Delaware - Mike Castle, lesser of two evils in primary and general

Mike Castle has my least favorite voting record. 99 out of 100 times, I would not vote for him in either the primary OR general. Nothing personal, but he's a gun grabber who voted for cap and trade. Dealbreaker twice over. If he was running in the house re-election, I probably wouldn't vote for him. However, I need his committee vote in the senate in the outside chance that Harry Reid gets fired.

Mike Castle is running against national tea party and Palin supported Christine O'Donnell. While O'Donnell is better on views, she can't win in November. It's not because of her views or Castle's local popularity that she can't win. It's because of her own past. Redstate got off this bandwagon for a good reason.

From Weekly Standard

O'Donnell alleged in a July 1, 2005 complaint filed in district court that she had been demoted because ISI's conservative philosophy dictated that women must be subordinate to men. She claimed she was fired when she contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding her demotion. ISI told the Delaware News Journal that she had been "terminated for operating a for-profit business."

First off, it's rare that employment reasons for termination are even mentioned in public. That looks cut and dry to me. Jeopardizing a non-profit. The response? A frivolous lawsuit.

Up to $3,952,447 in "Direct Damages, including back pay" and "lifetime lost income and liftetime damage to reputation."

--Up to $500,000 "for emotional distress, humiliation, emotional pain, embarrassment, depression."

--Up to $3.5 million in punitive damages for "willful, legally-malicious and outrageous conduct" by ISI.

Lifetime lost income? You got to be kidding me. There's much worse at that article. Castle's wrong, but he's not a clown.

In addition to all that, Delaware is Delaware. It's a fiscal mostly liberal, pro-corporate, and social liberal state. It's the exact opposite of my views, basically. The best we can get there is another Bill Roth type. Castle isn't as good as Roth, but it's him or a clown like O'Donnell who will lose simply for being a clown even taking views out of the equation.

Why would I hold my nose there for someone like Castle this one time only? Two reasons. Committee votes and the fact that he'll take over IMMEDIATELY. This does not wait till January when the rest of the senate gains happen. Right now we need Brown, Snowe, and Collins all to be on board if there is a filibuster. Castle gets at least some breathing room, and Coons will make it even tougher with the vacancy. If a gun vote comes up, at least we got Ben Nelson, Jim Webb, and Jon Tester as reliable democrats on that one issue, and I don't expect that in lame duck. Cap and trade is a risk. Coons will vote for it. I guarantee it. Castle will too. That's why I said one time only.

We need 10 pickups to get the senate. That gives us control of committees and determines what will be heard and not heard.

The better chances for major pickups will happen in 2012 and 2014 as those are six years after the wave years by the dems. This year, take what you can get, and kick Reid out of majority leader, Schumer off of judiciary leadership, Dick Durbin off of whatever committee he leads, etc, etc.

To the National Tea Party and Sarah Palin, pick better battles. This one isn't one you want to be on. One look at the complaint report shows that O'Donnell is bad news.