You want a perfect summation of the RINO? (King Shamus)

Here it is, courtesy of Bob Belvedere.

Here before us is another reason we, the outsiders, the TEA Party folks in action and spirit, must show no quarter towards the GOP Establishment.  Besides living in a collegial and congenial past that no longer is [call it what you will, the Gerald Ford or Bob Michael Era], the GOP and conservative Elites have a track record that is strewn with utter and abysmal failures.  In fact, historians not yet born will label them as the Useful Idiots of the Left who, by their weaknesses and naiveté, help bring about the lamentable situation we now find ourselves in.

Bingo.  Read the rest of his post; Bob's got some good stuff in there.

This is what kills me when people talk about the Republican establishment and their fetishization of electability.  It's one thing to acknowledge that RINOs and moderates can often get elected easier (in certain states/districts/campaigns) than a rock-ribbed across-the-board rightwinger.  This is a fact that we shouldn't simply dismiss out of hand.  For instance:  looking back on the particular circumstances of the race, Mike Castle probably had a better chance of winning the Senate election in Delaware than Christine O'Donnell.

However, what would we--actual factual conservatives--have gained by getting Castle into the Senate?  He would've voted for Cap-n-Tax in a potential dead-duck congressional session.  He was still going to be pro-choice and anti-Second Amendment.  Knowing his record, his first term in the US Senate would've been marked by ArlenSpecterian hands-across-the-aisle moments of capitulation to various facets of the liberal nanny-state agenda.  A hug for Obama would not have been completely out of the question.

Would a guy like Mike Castle, a classic go-along-to-get-along DC establishmentarian, have the stomach for repealing ObamaCare?  What makes anybody think Castle would be capable of defunding the utterly wretched NPR or abolishing  the utterly useless Department of Energy?  In what possible scenario would a guy like Mike Castle vote against illegal immigration amnesty?  Could Mike Castle, famous for his chummy, clubby attitude towards Democrats, actually go along with his own party on something substantive like real free-market entitlement reforms?  Many signs point to an emphatic 'no.'

Not only would a potential Senator Mike Castle be a thorn in the side of conservatives, he'd be doing everything he can to damage the already-tarnished Republican brand.  While he was busy building a media-backed Fiefdom of Royal RINOLand, he'd also happily throw monkey wrenches into GOP-backed fiscal discipline measures.  

So conservatives would get lots of drawbacks and almost no benefits from a Senator Mike Castle.  But the Tea Party and it's allies were supposed to forget all that because Mike Castle happened to have a weak 'R' behind his name?  Really?

(Cross-Posted at Blog De KingShamus)

Comments

[Malcolm Kirkpatrick]

Rinos damage the brand. Just as McDonald's corporation would rather close an unsanitary franchise than keep it open, it's better to defeat a Rino-Castle in the primary and lose the general election than to install a brand-damaging Rino-Castle in office. Of course, it's best to win with an O'Donnell.

[Brian B]

Furthermore, the O'Donnell loss is a really poor choice of races to use as support for RINO's. How many undecideds, moderate Dems and independents were put off from voting for her by the scorn heaped upon her by members of her OWN party, and how much better might she have done with Republicans if "the Party" had more enthusiastically supported the candidate selected by their OWN rank and file?