Washington Can Hear You Now

Politics Daily:

Karl Rove Says Christine O'Donnell Needs to Explain Witchcraft 'Dabbling' to Voters

Karl Rove, political mastermind for former President George W. Bush, said Sunday that Christine O'Donnell, the Tea Party insurgent who won an upset victory in Delaware for the GOP Senate nomination, "can't simply ignore" the controversy stirred over the disclosure that she "dabbled in witchcraft" and has to find a way to "explain it and put it in its most sympathetic light and move on."

"In southern Delaware, where there are a lot of church-going people, they're probably going to want to know what was that all about," Rove said on "Fox News Sunday." "And again, she said it on television when she went on the ... the Bill Maher show."

Rove was referring to an October 1999 appearance O'Donnell made on Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show where she said," I dabbled into witchcraft -- I never joined a coven. ... One of my first dates with a witch was on a satanic altar, and I didn't know it." O'Donnell had been on Maher's show frequently in the 1990s, and Maher has said he is going to show an O'Donnell clip each week until she agrees to appear again.

Rove said that in whatever way O'Donnell deals with the quote from her past, she can't say, "These are unfactual and not true and ... go to my website and ignore them."

"I don't think the people of Delaware have or are accepting that as a reasonable explanation," Rove said. "And until they do, they're going to be resistant to hearing the bigger, broader, more important message."

the rest >



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Doug Ross:

Great Dabblers Throughout History

You say Christine O'Donnell dabbled into high school witchcraft? Really?

Oh, yes. The naysayers are right. She's unelectable.

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Instapundit

Murkowski’s OK, but O’Donnell is a Villainess?
Posted by Lexington Green on September 19th, 2010 (All posts by Lexington Green)

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Let’s get this straight. Christine O’Donnell actually won her primary. But Karl Rove began actively campaigning for the Democrat in Delaware the day after O’Donnell won, when there was no other GOP candidate to back, when the voters had already decided, and blaming her for supposedly squandering a GOP Senate majority.

Lisa Murkowski lost her primary. Yet she is running as a write-in candidate, for no reason she can publicly justify. She is a spoiler who is likely to cause the loss of a GOP Senate seat.

Yet where is the full-throated assault on Lisa Murkowski by the GOP leadership?

You will never hear it. She has since then been reaching out to lobbyists and telling Alaskans that she will keep her committee positions, which means she is colluding with the GOP Senate leadership. They would prefer Murkowski, but they would rather have a Democrat than have Joe Miller.

The Combine wants to stop anyone who threatens the game.

UPDATE: A very knowledgeable friend admonished me, saying I was unfair to Karl Rove, and that he had not yet spoken about Murkowski, and would probably oppose her write-in campaign. This turned out to be correct. Even more, Rove has indeed spoken on it, and has called the Murkowski effort “sad and sorry,” and opposed it forcefully. OK. Credit where it is due on this one. Subotai, whose comment I previously quoted, and I both got it wrong about Rove re: Murkowski.

Let’s see how the GOP leadership handles the next few weeks. They do not have the trust of many people who should be their base. George Bush lost me with his second inaugural speech, in January 2005, which was totally detached from reality. But I did not project that onto the entire GOP. For all its (serious) defects, it was my party, if push came to shove. But in the last few months I have lost 47 years of thinking of the GOP as “us” and started thinking of it as “them.”

I hope that changes.

UPDATE II: Karl Rove should have said, “well, the voters have spoken, and the Republicans have a candidate and I support that candidate. This is an unusual election year, and people are very energized, and they decided to bet on a long shot, and do things the hard way. We’ll see how it works out. Ms. O’Donnell has a steep hill to climb, but I wish her well. I have worked on a few campaigns myself, and I would be happy to chat with her.”

How the Hell hard would that have been?

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The Hill:

Palin to O'Donnell: National media is 'seeking ur destruction'
By Elise Viebeck - 09/19/10 01:32 PM ET

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) went to bat for Christine O'Donnell Sunday after the Delaware GOP Senate candidate canceled her appearances on two Sunday morning shows.

"C[hristine] O'Donnell strategy: time's limited;use it 2 connect w/local voters whom you'll be serving vs appeasing nat'l media seeking ur destruction," Palin tweeted.

O'Donnell's cancellation prompted criticism that she was unprepared to defend the string of controversial statements from her past — like that she had "dabbled into" witchcraft — which has emerged throughout the week.

Some wondered upon host Bob Schieffer's initial Saturday announcement that she wouldn't appear on CBS's "Face the Nation" whether she was following Palin's advice — given during an appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor" last week — to "speak through Fox News" instead of other networks.

O'Donnell then canceled on "Fox News Sunday" Friday night saying that she wanted to rest and focus on her state campaign.

Schieffer addressed O'Donnell's cancellation Sunday morning on "Face the Nation," questioning whether she canceled via e-mail because of the witchcraft remarks which surfaced in a video released by Bill Maher on Friday night.

"After we became aware of this, we e-mailed the campaign again and asked them if, in fact, was that the reason that she decided to cancel the appearance?" Schieffer said. "We got back an e-mail that said, 'No, that is not the reason. We weren't aware that he had released this tape until yesterday afternoon.'"

"As for dabbling in witchcraft, whatever that is, her campaign spokesman said 'Campaigns about what she did as a teen is hardly a worry to her or the people of Delaware,'" he added.

Palin's choice Sunday to advise O'Donnell via Twitter, in full view of her 256,000 followers, suggests the same lack of hesitation that prompted her to cut radio ads and a robocall for the political novice in the days leading up to last Tuesday's primary.

Many credit Palin for O'Donnell's surprise upset over centrist Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.), but also note that her involvement may be a liability to O'Donnell — now branded as heavily conservative — in the general election.

The Democrat in the race, Chris Coons, currently leads by 11 points.
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Jim DeMint at The Washington Post:

Washington can hear you now

By Jim DeMint
Sunday, September 19, 2010; A19

Christine O'Donnell's win on Tuesday may have shocked establishment politicians and the media, but it was no surprise for everyday Americans who have been struggling to get Washington's attention.

On Sept. 12, 2009, millions of citizens rallied across the country. They gathered in the nation's capital and other cities to convey a clear message: You work for us; we don't work for you. Stop the bailouts, the takeovers, the debt and dependence.

For years, conservatives have been told that the only way to create a big-tent party was to support big-government candidates who were "electable," rather than principled. History suggests otherwise. Majorities are built on principles, not the other way around.

When that big tent came to Washington last September, everyone in it was yelling that they wanted less government, not more. Democrats mocked these voters and tuned them out, but liberty-minded Republican candidates tuned them in. As a result, races that were once considered unwinnable have flipped from "safe Democrat" to "lean Republican" this election cycle.

Thanks to the grass roots, Republicans have a slate of candidates who believe in constitutional, limited government. We will balance the budget, repeal the unconstitutional health-care takeover, create a predictable tax and regulatory environment in which businesses can create jobs, and restore a sense of fairness to the economy. This platform stands in stark contrast to the Democrats' record. They have racked up trillions in debt on bad legislative bets, picking winners and losers in almost every major market sector. Their policies created turmoil and uncertainty, not prosperity.

In 2006 and 2008, bailouts, bipartisan support for earmarks and big spending bills no one had read blurred the lines between the Republicans and Democrats. But after Barack Obama was elected president, Washington's economic policies went from bad to worse. In a short time the Obama White House and the Pelosi-Reid Congress have made clear that they intend to push America to the left of Europe.

Americans quickly realized that if this country was going to survive, they needed to elect people who would respect, not ignore, the limits of government prescribed by the Constitution. I vowed to do all I could to help. The Senate Conservatives Fund, which I chair, was designed to do just that. I knew in my heart that the Republican Party could save this country if it could recruit more members to stand up for the principles of freedom.

It took a rough-and-tumble primary cycle to find enough people willing do it. Now it's time to give the Democrats a heartbreaker election in November.

Obama's honeymoon is over. None of his so-called legislative achievements lives up to its label. The trillion-dollar stimulus plan produced massive debt but few jobs. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act hasn't made health care affordable. Instead, health insurance rates are rising. And the financial reform bill didn't touch Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae -- the government-controlled culprits of the financial meltdown that have tallied hundreds of billions in losses for taxpayers.

All of these programs were built on the flawed idea that the government, not the free market, could fix the economy. Democrats and their allies thought these programs would be so popular they would seal their lock on Washington for years to come. But Republicans who dared to challenge the policies are ahead in the polls.

Now the Senate's most powerful Democrat is neck and neck with conservative Sharron Angle. Incumbent senators in the reliably Democratic states of Washington and Wisconsin are struggling to compete with common-sense candidates Dino Rossi and Ron Johnson, respectively. Folks such as Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania and Marco Rubio in Florida are headed to victory because they stood with the people against career politicians. This is happening across the country, from Alaska to Delaware.

These men and women are coming to Washington to join the fight, not the club. Their principles are clear: free-enterprise economics, limited government and individual liberty. These views are based on 200 years of American history and written into our founding documents.

Democrats have desperately called these new leaders "radical," but Americans know what "radical" means after watching the Democrats run Washington.

Creating an entitlement program while the nation is $13 trillion in debt is radical. So is raising taxes while millions of Americans struggle to pay bills and find work. So is taking over the banks, auto companies, mortgage companies, the health-care system and the financial sector.

Americans have rallied against out-of-control government for two years. "Can you hear me now?" they yelled. Thankfully, a crop of common-sense conservative Republican candidates listened.

I'm praying for an earthquake election in November that will shake Washington to its core. I'm doing all I can to make it happen. And everyone who has been working toward this goal can be sure: All of Washington can hear you now.