A recent post written by Eric Erickson on RedState has caused quite a stir. In his post Eric contends that, if elected senator in a special election in Delaware this November, forty year RINO Mike Castle would switch parties, resign, and allow Beau Biden, the current Delaware A.G. and son of Vice President Joe Biden, to be appointed senator. Even discounting the fact that a large number of the comments to that post were made by Mike Castle’s army of paid campaign workers, it is easy to see that the fat, arthritic GOP establishment has truly blown a gasket over this one. But why? The post is criticized as not being “fact based.” Eric’s post is a prediction. A prediction, by it’s very nature cannot be fact based. This prediction is a rumor. However, for those of us in Delaware who have known Mike Castle for years, it is an extremely credible rumor. Who is Mike Castle? He is a forty year career politician who happens to call himself a Republican, as once did Charlie Crist, Arlen Specter and Jim Jeffords. Mr. Castle is a habitual tax raiser. He is unwaveringly pro abortion and he has earned an F- rating from The NRA. He voted for TARP, Porkulus, the auto and banking industry takeovers, Cash for Clunkers as well as Cap and Trade. Most recently, he co-sponsored the disclose act which is nothing more than an assault on the first amendment designed to muzzle his political opposition.

While on the topic of opposition; Mr. Castle has made it clear that were he elected senator, regardless of his political affiliation, he has no intention of opposing current Democrat policies. This is entirely consistent with Mike Castle’s long liberal record of growing government.

In his forty years as a “public servant” Mike Castle has managed to accumulate for himself an estimated $8 million dollar personal net worth. Now he has decided to make an issue of his conservative primary challenger’s finances. Christine O’Donnell, it seems, was left with a small campaign debt following her 2008 senate campaign. Also, in connection with that challenge to Joe Biden, she was coincidentally audited by The IRS, as were several members of her family. Over the years Christine, at various times, has struggled with her home payments and college loans. I suppose the average American can’t really relate to that, right? In any case, she currently has no personal debt. These factors should be viewed in the context of the multi trillion dollar debt that Mike Castle has placed upon us, our children and grandchildren. Mike Castle, by contrast, has no money challenges. In fact, he has received over $3 million in corporate campaign donations this cycle. But where does Mike Castle really obtain his money? A quick look will reveal the fact that many of the corporations donating to Mr. Castle are, not surprisingly, TARP recipients. What is happening is that Mike Castle has taxed the life out of hard working Americans. He has taken our money and given it to failing corporations in the form of bailouts. These bailed out corporations are now kicking back our hard earned money to support their benefactor. Ain’t Mike Castle’s American great?

When those of us in Delaware first learned that Beau Biden would not run for his father’s former senate seat, but that Mike Castle would, we all naturally assumed that some kind of a deal had been made. This election in Delaware is a special election to fill the remainder of Joe Biden’s term. Most of us simply assumed that Mike Castle, an old man and exhausted from his forty year effort to destroy the country, was simply planning to serve out the remainder of Joe’s term. He could then retire as a senator leaving the seat available to Beau in a more favorable political environment for Democrats. Mike Castle and Joe Biden have always had an openly close relationship. They are both well established members of the ruling elite.

However, if Mike Castle were elected senator in November, what would he really do? Would he switch parties and become a Democrat? It is certainly conceivable, and it is consistent with Mike Castle’s record and his character. To a large extent, it does not really matter. Mike Castle is essentially a socialist. Were he to win in November, he would, based upon his record, continue to support socialist policies. If he remained a Republican, he could perhaps do even more long term damage by giving President Obama the bipartisan cover he would need to continue his radical transformation of this country. In the short term, because this is a special election and the winner will be seated immediately, the new Senator from Delaware will participate in the coming lame duck session. Both Mike Castle and the Democratic candidate Chris Coons have a lifetime commitments to big government and an animosity toward personal liberty. Either of them, based on their records, would certainly support this attempted socialist power grab.

Thankfully, we will never know what Mike Castle would really do were he to become a U.S. Senator. Mike Castle must face a young, attractive and committed conservative in the September, 14th Delaware Republican primary. This is an off year special closed primary in which the turn out will be small. The only ones who count that day will be informed and energized Delaware Republicans. The paid Castle campaign workers now lurking on the internet will be without a voice. Money only buys so much. Paradoxically, the millions of kicked back campaign donations at Mr. Castle’s disposal are worthless in this race. The more money he spends and the more attention he draws to this race, the larger will be the turnout of energized Republicans, the very voters who know Castle the best. This is asymmetric political warfare at it’s best. Unlike his distant ancestor, Ben Franklin; Mike Castle must feel a lot like King George about now. In his retirement, he might reflect upon the fact that Ben Franklin himself disowned his own son when he failed to support the cause of liberty.