Lord help me...

...I may be turning into one of "them."

You know -- "them."  A conservative Republican who puts conservative principles ahead of so-called "Republican wins."  One of "them," like those whom I've excoriated from Free Republic for being narrow-minded and singularly-focused.

I've always maintained that I'd rather see "moderate" Republicans (read: RINOs) like the Maine twins, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, or Lindsay Grahmnesty, or "maverick" John McCain with "Rs" behind their names elected rather than having folks with "Ds" behind their names occupying the various seats of power.  Kind of like holding my nose to vote for McCain two years ago... or George W. Bush (twice), or Bob Dole, or George H.W. Bush... heck -- the last person I felt good about voting for was Ronald Reagan.

After witnessing the Republican Party's shameful behavior in the Delaware Senatorial primary race between a Democrat pretending to be a Republican (Mike Castle, the "establishment favorite") and an honest-to-goodness conservative candidate, (Christine O'Donnell), I can't take it anymore.

To hell with RINOs.

The Republican Party announced BEFORE TODAY'S PRIMARY in Delaware that, should O'Donnell defeat THEIR favorite, Castle, that they (the Republican party) would NOT support her.  The Republican Party in Delaware launched a last-minute robo-call smear campaign against O'Donnell.  Call me overly simplistic, but I always thought that a political party's place was to present candidates to the electorate and, may the best man or woman win. Unless there was an incumbent, I always thought the "party" stayed out of the "endorsing business" until after the primary election. Well... maybe not even then. I remember when the Democrat party did NOT "take sides" when Robert F. Kennedy challenged the then-sitting President, Lyndon B. Johnson...


But this?  This blatant favoritism?  The threats of non-support?  This "thumb-in-the-eye" to those "little people" -- you know... the voters, who actually bestow upon these people the power they so-desperately crave is just too much.

I've had it.  Time to purge the Republican Party of these RINOs.

The "establishment" said that Ronald Reagan was unelectable -- he was elected twice, brought the nation back from the ruin that was Jimmy Carter's disastrous one-term Presidency, ushered in a new era of prosperity with a combination of tax cuts and less government regulation (a prosperity that lasted nearly 20 years -- Bill Clinton should be thankful) and... oh, by the way... did I mention that he and his policies were directly responsible for causing the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the reunification of Germany while he was busy fixing the mess left by Carter?  And, unlike the current empty suit in the White House, Reagan didn't spend his time whining about the "mess" he'd "inherited" from the previous President -- he just went about fixing it.

Oh... and he inspired an entire generation of formerly uninvolved citizens to be proud to be Americans again.

Not bad for someone who was "unelectable," eh?

Now the talking heads (mostly "neocon" Republicans like Karl Rove, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol, and the like) are whining about how O'Donnell cannot possibly win in the general election in a little more than a month and a half; how the "selfish" and "angry" voters in Delaware just guaranteed a Democrat victory, come November, because of their uneducated choice of candidate for the United States Senate.

Like the way Martha Coakley defeated Scott Brown in Massachusetts last January?  Oh.  Wait.  That's right.  Scott Brown won, didn't he?

Don't buy the spoiled-sport nonsense from the "establishment" Republicans -- Christine O'Donnell IS eminently electable in November... the Republican "powers that be" just have their collective panties in a knot because they didn't get their way in the primary race.  Check their candidate, Mike Castle's voting record in the House of Representatives -- looks like a lot more of a Democrat than a Republican, that's for sure.

What's funny is that "establishment" Republicans insist that Republican candidates must be "moderate" in order to win elections.  You couldn't get much more "moderate" than John McCain, and Barack Obama cleaned his clock two years ago.  George W. Bush ran as a "moderate" Republican, and there has never been more of a "big government" Republican President in the history of the nation.  Bush strayed from the values that have historically been Republican, and eked out a victory over Al Gore in the Electoral College in 2000 and did only slightly better in 2004 against John ("did I mention that I served in Vietnam?") Kerry.

I think that when these power brokers emphasize the "need" for Republican candidates to be "moderate," what they are really doing is admitting defeat unless they field a slate of candidates who are, in reality, "Democrat lite."  Disgusting.  We are a center-right nation, with a large majority of our citizens having strong, Judeo-Christian, conservative values.  There is no need to field "Democrat lite" candidates in order for Republicans to win elections.  Rather, the Republican Party needs to field and support candidates who appeal to the broad voter base that the "inside the beltway" crowd generally despise.

Meanwhile, Republican candidates that actually embrace conservative values, like Ronald Reagan did over thirty years ago, are loved by the people and they win elections.  The "power brokers" don't like that, though -- those Republicans are too independent for their tastes.

Oh...

As an aside about Christine O'Donnell -- if she is so "unelectable," why was she the Republican party's nominee to face Joe Biden in 2008?  Biden wiped her out but then... he kindof outspent her, though --

$4,907,000 to $116,000

Given the sour mood of the electorate over the direction the Democrats have taken the country since winning back power in the 2006 elections, and adding to their totals in 2008, don't be surprised if Christine O'Donnell -- despite what the neocons say -- prevails on November 2nd.  Even Chris Matthews is worried that she will win.

After the elections, I think we need a thorough, top-to-bottom housecleaning of the Republican Party, starting with the Delaware Republican Party, whose head said that Christine O'Donnell is unelectable and that she "...couldn't win a race for dogcatcher."

November or never...

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