Delaware's Irrelevant "columnist" Attacks TEA Party and O'Donnell

Delaware's lone statewide newspaper employs some rather strange people.  One such individual, the often drunk (rumor has it he spends about 75% of his time in his favorite bar in a state close to a coma) Ron Williams falls into fits of rage and his drunken state keeps his stupid filter from working properly (read: at all).
I only bring this up now because Ron has gone and done it again.  Perhaps the oddest part about this, is that the News Journal editors (yes I'm aware Ron is an assistant editor of the opinion pages...but someone should review his work), presumably sober and rational, actually print his drivel.  Maybe more surprising, is that anyone still reads his column. 

Well someone does, and that's why the record must now be set straight.  The people of Delaware are being sold a bill of goods by an evil and corrupting old fart with a drinking problem and a lack of class.  In his column called "Are Republicans just going to hand over the keys to the newbies" back on Feb. 26th our own "Uncle Ronnie" once again waded into the waters of insanity and took his readers with him.  Maybe it plays to the target audience of the News Journal, mindless liberal progressive zombies but those of us with a few brain cells left are wondering about JUST a few things...

First, Ron opens his column with a couple of rather insulting remarks, one aimed at the thousands and thousands of Delawareans who have turned out for TEA Party rallies and the tens of thousands of Delaware Republicans who bucked the trend and supported O'Donnell in the 2010 Primary against RINO Mike Castle.

"I've been trying to pin down a Delaware Republican or two on the question of how the party is going to deal with the tea party faction, especially in Sussex County, and the likes of dear little Miss Christine O'Donnell."

Mr. Williams, the Delaware Republican Party isn't going to "deal" with the TEA Party faction...oh it's TRYING to...but the reality is that the TEA Party is a non-partisan effort to fight the kind of corruption that leads someone like Ron Williams to suggest that the Delaware GOP is going to "deal" with anything.  You see Ron, for those TEA Party folks who are registered Republicans, they ARE "Delaware Republicans" meaning that THEY will determine who runs the party, not a few elites.  You see, the TEA Party has awakened the GOP electorate to the fact that the party has been controlled by a small and elite few who have incestuously kept the power of the party consolidated within their ranks.  These same people have watched their fundraising base dwindle and have continuously thrust forward RINO Mike Castle despite the fact that he voted with the Democrats more often than with Republicans and despite some very odd votes (he voted to impeach President Bush and for Cap and Trade).
Further, your "dear little Miss..." statement is both condescending and ignorant.  Christine O'Donnell ran back to back TOUGH races against two opponents who used the large Democrat registration advantage and every nasty, dirty and disgusting  trick they could against her.  They attacked her for being a woman, called her stupid and worse yet not a peep out of the so-called "women's rights" defenders.  Some sources on the far left even dug up complete and total lies about Christine's "sex life".  These are things you would NEVER hear about male candidates.  Despite the nationwide smear campaign and millions of dollars spent trashing her, despite the fact that her own party leadership undermined her campaign at every turn and despite the fact that your paper, the News Journal, assigned their very own personal smear artist to the race, she STILL beat Mike Castle in the Primary and scared the CRAP out of Coons in the general.  For that alone she deserves more respect than what you've given her.  Of course, it could just be the whiskey talking...

Just a few paragraphs later, after attacking O'Donnell for the idea that she might be as rhythmically challenged as she suggests, Williams again insert his foot into his drinking hole:

"I don't completely understand how Christine O'Donnell, who lost a U.S. Senate race in Delaware by one of the widest margins in modern times, is considered a "star" by television producers. But that's why I'm not a television producer and they are."

As usual, Mr. Williams is playing fast and loose with the truth...well ok, he's pretty much completely wrong.  O'Donnell lost the 2010 General election by 14 points.  Now that is larger than the campaign would like but not insurmountable, it's really only a 7 point swing.  With that said, the loss remains at 14% so, is Mr. Williams right?  Is this one of the widest margins in modern times?
2008: Markell defeats Lee by 15% 
2006: Tom Carper (D) defeats Jan Ting (R) 70.2% - 28.7% (42% GOP loss)
2004: Carney defeats Ursomarso by 26%
2002: Biden defeats Clatworthy 58.2% - 40.2% (18% GOP loss) - keep in mind that if you speak to GOP insiders like Priscilla Rakestraw...she claims that this was a tight race...
2000: Minner defeats Burris by 20%
Not to mention there are a HOST of local and state rep races with similar defeats.  In fact, O'Donnell's 7 point swing in the face of overwhelming odds is rather impressive.  Perhaps Ron forgot these, whiskey has a tendency to make me that way too.

In addition to mischaracterizing O'Donnell's performance in the General Election, Williams goes right for an "objective source" when he reaches out to Tom Ross, the Delaware State GOP Chair who publicly said that O'Donnell could not be elected dogcatcher, made up a story about a fake death threat in a desperate 11th hour ploy (he's done this before in tight primaries to sway public opinion) and filed a frivolous lawsuit against the campaign which remained an active stain on the campaign throughout the entire general election season.  Tom Ross and the "Republican Party leadership" consistently undermined Christine and fabricated stories.  Pardon me if I question whether or not Mr. Ross even RECIEVED phone calls from other GOP chairs.  Much less that they used the term "that wacko from Delaware" (in the event that it did happen, how sad is it that these other state GOP parties are so weak that they rely on the smallest state in the union to get their candidates elected?)

"Because of the national publicity, state Republican Party Chairman Tom Ross was getting telephone calls from several fellow state chairs, including those in Connecticut and New Mexico, who were seeing a drop in the polls for Republican candidates in their state. They attributed it to that "wacko from Delaware" who's making all Republicans look like goofballs.

Ross also told me recently that the chances of newcomers to Delaware joining the state Republican Party had been undermined by her. People with political convictions, and money to contribute, don't want to join a party with people like her."

O'Donnell raised $7 million from all over the country in the face severe odds.  Most of it was raised in just 6 weeks.  From February through September, Delaware supporters were discouraged and viciously threatened for showing public support for or donating to Miss. O'Donnell.  For the sake of argument, let's pretend that Tom Ross isn't a lying, conniving snake in the grass capable of selling his own mother to his father and give him the benefit of the doubt that these calls actually came in.  Are these claims accurate?  Let's start with the raw figures:

There were more registered Democrats in 2010 than there were in 2008 in fact, since 2002, the Democrat registration has jumped 31% and just since 2006 it has increased 19%.  Some of that is due to Republicans who became Democrats to vote in the primary that elected Jack Markell (how's that working out for us?) as Governor.  Most of it is due to an influx of NJ, PA and NY liberals who left the states they helped destroy for the relative safety of Delaware and have begun to destroy THIS state.  In addition, only 81% of Republicans supported their own nominee in 2010.  This is of course because the nominee was NOT Mike Castle because had O'Donnell not won, the party faithful would be EXPECTED to fall in line.

Further numbers bare an even more incredible reality for the Delaware GOP.  Since Christine O'Donnell has been a U.S. Senate nominee, the percentages have increased:

28.7% - 2006 - Jan Ting vs Tom Carper
35.3% - 2008 - O'Donnell vs Biden (other notables this year: Judge Bill Lee (Governor) 32%, John McCain 37%, Copeland 38%)
40% - 2010 - O'Donnell vs Coons

Remember, Jan Ting was SO liberal that he actually switched to the Democrat Party after he lost handily to Carper.  And lest ye think that despite the numbers above, O'Donnell caused a drop in Republican voters:
In the 2006 midterm elections, 90,176 Republicans voted.  In the 2010 midterm elections,  102,225 Republicans voted.  In addition, a third party firm, Viae Consulting found the following:

• Christine O’Donnell’s candidacy did not drive Democrats to the polls
• Christine O’Donnell drove more Republicans to the polls to vote
• New Castle County Republicans jumped the party line to vote for the Democratic opponent
• New Castle County Republican registration was lower in 2010, than in 2008.

O'Donnell was not the only person to recieve criticism.  After Ron felt that he had sufficiently attacked the Republican Senate nominee he turned his ire on the Republican Congressional nominee and those who chose him over Michele Rollins.

"The congressional candidacy of Glen Urquhart, whose campaign was run by a renegade, off-the-reservation Vance Phillips, current member and former president of Sussex County Council, was also not conducive to raising legitimate money. Why in the world would Republicans not vote for an attractive, independently wealthy, and brainy lawyer like Michele Rollins, they would ask.

Well, good question. You'll have to ask the tea partiers and right-wing extremists like Vance Phillips and his ilk."

So it seems that Mr. Williams just hates conservatives.  Vance Phillips is a respected member of the Sussex County Republican Party, former Sussex County Council President and current Sussex County Council member.  He has a long history of community involvement and in 2007 he was the state Vice Chairman of the Republican Party.  Like his friend Al Mascitti, Williams seems to think that anyone who believes in God, believes in being fiscally responsible or supports a small government is "an extremist".  Ron, Michele lost for a number of reasons, not the least of which is because the people of the Delaware Republican Party are TIRED of being told who to vote for and of supporting candidates like Mike Castle who do not represent them.  Rollins stood with Castle, she aligned herself with him and THAT is why she lost. 

Williams then goes on to attack Mike Protack who is a constant source of ire from the Delaware political establishment. 

"And now you've got Mike Protack, another perennial loser who has never garnered a legitimate party following, running for state party chairman."

It should be pointed out that, as someone who is plugged into Republican politics, Mike Protack has not said he wants to be Party Chairman, he hasn't announced an intention to run for that office.  The only names I have heard officially in the ring for state chair are Tom Ross (the current mistake) and Don Ayotte who is a Sussex County favorite with limited support in Kent and New Castle County.  This is laughably wrong and it serves to show that both the News Journal AND the Delaware GOP leadership are TOTALLY lost when it comes to what is going on within the GOP.  Later in the story Williams mentions John Siglar, the former NRA President who supported Christine O'Donnell as a potential candidate for Republican Party chair.  The problem is that he names Siglar as a party leadership favorite when in reality Siglar is being courted by the conservative wing of the GOP.

"Finally, Ron Williams ends his rather aweful column but before he does he says this:
I finally received an answer that at first I thought was simply flip and sarcastic. But the more I thought about it, it might not be a bad idea, at least in the short run. 'We're just going to give them the keys and let them run the show. See ya later.'"

This might be the best idea I've heard yet.  Under the leadership of Ross, Rakestraw and Castle the Delaware GOP has become irrelevant.  They've resorted to cutting deals with the Democrat Party in order to retain a semblance of power in the state.  Turning over the keys to the "newbies" who were able to rally together and defeat one of the 3 most powerful politicians in Delaware might actually help the cause.  In fact, I can almost guarantee that we would do a better job than the current crop of cronies who gave continuously depleted funds, been ineffective at raising money, have no real message and absolutely no leadership. 

Tom Ross is a an abject failure as Chariman.  I had misplaced hope after the election that he would be able to rally the troops under the banner of freedom and liberty but he's squandered every bit of political capital he had with the majority of Republicans who voted against Mike Castle and the establishment status quo.

Priscilla Rakestraw is a little like legacy computer games.  It's old, doesn't really work right but man it was cool back in the day.  She's the longest serving National Committeewoman in the entire GOP...cool...ok I'm over it.  She's also quite vidictive and as you can see in this video, a little out of touch:

Laird Stabler is a good guy and fortunately he has stayed above the fray.  Unfortunately he has not been able to fight against the other party leaders.

Mike Castle is finally gone as the party figurehead but there is noone who stepped right in to take his place.  That has caused a bit of a problem as the party transitions and the GOP chair flops like a freshly caught fish on the floor of the boat.  Castle has 10 years of service in the Congress to give people an opinion on where the Delaware GOP stands, which is just left of the majority of the country.  Apparently that doesn't play as well in Delaware as they thought.  As the party ideology moved left, their numbers of representation plummeted.  Since the early 80's when Pres Reagan and then Gov. Pete DuPont led America out of the dismal 70's, the Delaware GOP has drifted to the left and moved so far that it has alienated it's base and blurred the lines between the GOP and Democrat Party to the point that people no longer even see a difference.  A fresh conservative approach would actually FIX the Delaware GOP but that isn't Williams' goal.  His only plan here is to demonize conservatives, attack Republicans and assinate the character of everyone in the process.  It's my sincere desire to see Ron Williams unemployed but I hold out no hope of the News Journal doing the right thing and firing this lunatic drunkard.  It's more likely that the Delaware GOP actually hand over the keys to the newbies than the News Journal do the right thing here.

Written by Evan Queitsch - I Evan Queitsch hereby certify that I am stone cold sober and have not touched a drop of alcohol in 24 hours. 

Maybe Williams could end his columns with the above line...naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah