Delaware primary: Ruling Class vs Country Class

"Yes, that’s Christine O’Donnell beside the pool at the fabulous Venetian Resort Hotel. And, no, she wasn’t wearing a bikini. She did, however, agree to wear the famous fedora I borrowed from Da Tech Guy," Stacy McCain captioned the video of his interview last summer with the tea party favorite vying for Delaware's "Biden Seat" in a primary battle that has pitched Republican against Republican in a bitter clash of Ruling Class vs Country Class, establishment vs outsider (see below).

"This has been a complete out-of-state operation … It's not been a local campaign. It's not had local donations," keened Delaware Rep. Mike Castle as it began to dawn upon him that someone had changed the rules in the "closer-than-expected GOP Senate primary he's locked in against tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell": 

Castle, who last faced a primary election challenger in 1992, said the six-figure sums pumped into the state by the Tea Party Express, and the recent endorsements of O'Donnell by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, prove that his opposition is being powered by out-of-state forces.

And he's right. The usual suspects among the Northeast Corridor fuddy-duddy community were tut-tutting, The Right Scoop had the video, and 140-or-fewer-character reports like Rich Lowry's tweet about Charles Krauthammer's latest oracular pronouncement on Special Report were lighting up the 'sphere late afternoon:

charles k on palin and demint endorsements of o'donnell: "destructive, capricious, irresponsible"

Either you were for the party-sanctioned left-leaning candidate or you were flaunting (thanks to ms docweasel in the comments at RWV for the usage correction) flouting Bill Buckley's caveat about electability. The old-boys network's narrative of choice: A limited-government conservative could never win the general in deep-blue Delaware. How then to explain the fact that presumably limited-government candidate O'Donnell had been good enough for the GOP establishment in previous elections? Again, electability was the excuse for rewarding the faithful soldier and throwing the less-seasoned candidate under the bus with their "Nuts and Sluts" offensive. But the tea partiers weren't buying. We'd begun sending our dollars not to the RNC or NRSC or NRCC but to strategic small-government candidates both here in Taxachusetts and beyond, including Christine O'Donnell. Now, with lessons learned and skills acquired in earlier skirmishes of what we like to call The Brown Revolution, political outsiders were once again disintermediating the powers that be on the ground and via the internet. The poor old fuddy-duddies didn't know what hit them. As Steve Schippert twittered metaphorically:

The Republican Establishment has dug a protective moat around Castle. The problem is, we can swim.

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[goomp]

There is always the danger that Tea Party support will split the Republican vote, but electing Rinos may destroy our liberty. Freedom is the most important issue. Party is secondary.

[KingShamus]

To paraphrase Malkin, you can't fight entrenched out of touch incumbents by electing entrenched out of touch incumbents that happen to have an (R) by their name.

Politics is too important to leave to the party hacks. These midterm elections are too important to let a dweeb like Mike Castle waltz into the Senate.

[Gayle Miller]

We need to be careful, however, not to throw out the baby with the bath water. Voters need to be rigorous in checking the bona fides of their preferred candidates and not just accept the assurances of others regarding a candidate's worthiness.

[Charles]

You have to only look north to Maine to see what happens when all you vote for is an R. Bumper sticker seen recently in Maine. "Snowe removal in 2012".

[M. Simon]

We can do better than swim. We have bridging material.

[M. Simon]

Two rounds for range.

Murkowski
Bennett

Then fire for effect.

Castle

Time on target MOFOs.

BTW I picked up a nice comment at Hot Air:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2010/09/clearing-decks.html

[Gayle Miller]

Looks like the geriatric leadership of the GOP is getting their bloomers in a bunch - and not a moment too soon. Their collective turgid stupidity has put this entire nation at risk and those of us who allowed them to get away with it for so long ought to have our fannies tanned!

Thank goodness for the fresh breath of air from Alaska and the Young Guns, one of whom is Virginia's own Rep. Cantor. My personal favorite, however, of the Congresscritters is my own representative Rob Wittmann - who is an absolute doll of a representative who responds intelligently to his constituents' concerns.