September 18, 2010

Christine O'Donnell: " I dabbled into witchcraft — I never joined a coven. But I did, I did. … I dabbled into witchcraft."

She said that in 1999. I don't know when the dabbling itself took place. It bugs me more that she says "dabbled into" than that she actually did it (or claimed to). It's "dabbled in." Here's the clip, from Bill Maher's show:



1. Maher obviously knows her well and likes her. "She's nice," he says. She was on his show a lot, and he's just exploiting the clips he has, which, he tells us, he's going to keep doing until she comes on his show. He's blackmailing her and giggling about what he's doing to this nice person he likes.

2. It's a good attention-getting ploy by Maher. He's got the video and he's taking clips out of context for the maximum shock/comic effect. It's perfectly okay to do that with video, right? Remember when Andrew Breitbart did something like that to Shirley Sherrod, and all the liberals got all righteous about taking things out of context?

3. Did O'Donnell ever practice witchcraft? I doubt it. Even in the out-of-context clip, I'm seeing a young woman trying to get the hipper kids to believe she isn't really a complete square. In the story she tells, she went out with someone who, she thought, was into Satanism, and they had a picnic. A picnic! Even when she's straining to sound cool, she's square.

4. But she "dabbled into" witchcraft — doesn't that mean she did some witchcraft things? Frankly, I don't think she knows what "dabbled" means. The use of the wrong preposition is a hint. I think she means something more like she stumbled into witchcraft. She knew some people who did such things, and I'll bet the point she was making was that she was able to be friends with them, that she hasn't spent her whole life cocooned in squeaky clean conservative religion and she's able to relate to a wide variety of people.

5. Even if she had participated in some witchcraft, she'd only be like thousands of other young people who dabble in such nonsense. Do you want to string them all up? It's typical pop culture junk these days.

104 comments:

chickelit said...

I'd like to hear what Chris Coons thinks about her.

Rose said...

Expelliarmus!

Chase said...

It's not that O'Donnell is unqualified by all of this stuff - Wrestler and Conspiracy Theorist Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota, for pete's sake - it's that there's so much of it, who has the time to sort it all out?

If sometimes odd behavior is a disqualifier, then why is Michael Bloomberg mayor of New York, Harry Reid in the United States Senate, and Rachel Maddow anywhere near a Television studio?

Of course, we could all listen to idiots like this tell us what our standards for choosing elected officials should be.

tim maguire said...

The more I hear about Christine O'Donnell, the clearer it becomes that she did not spend her entire life preparing for a career in politics. Which in and of itself is a good thing. Do we really want someone who did nothing embarrassing in her entire life? Who took no chances, made no mistakes, had no experiences?

One quibble--no, Breitbart did not do any such thing to Shirley Sherrod. That was liberal spin that successfully changed the subject from the very damaging thing that Breitbart did do, which was expose the hypocrisy and racism of the NAACP.

marklewin said...

It's perfectly okay to do that with video, right? Remember when Andrew Breitbart did something like that to Shirley Sherrod, and all the liberals got all righteous about taking things out of context?

I could be missing something here, but I think that there are some contextual variables that, for me, do not equate the two.

dbp said...

Maybe she combined two different expressions: Dabbled with, stumbled into or was into together and came up with dabbled into.

Kind of a refudiate type thing.

Unknown said...

She would have been 30 or so. People haven't gotten out of their weird phase by then, in many cases.

Hell, The Blonde has all kinds of books on Wicca, so it could be said she dabbles, too, but I've yet to see her with a cauldron or dancing naked around a bonfire by the full moon at the Solstice...

Ann Althouse said...

5. Even if she had participated in some witchcraft, she'd only be like thousands of other young people who dabble in such nonsense. Do you want to string them all up?

If they're the Opposition, those tolerant, non-judgmental Lefties will all turn into Cotton Mather.

lucid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jason (the commenter) said...

She seems to have had real-life experiences that sound genuine; not like the manufactured ones most politicians do.

Liberals should be excited about voting for her. Can this hurt in Delaware?

Ann Althouse said...

"She would have been 30 or so. People haven't gotten out of their weird phase by then, in many cases."

You mean 30 when she said it. She's talking about the past.

Jason (the commenter) said...

lucid: Congratulations to the Republican tea party voters of Delaware for giving us so much to laugh about and to entertain us.

And in this case we can do it in the spirit of fun. She was on a comedy show and shared funny life-experiences. So much better than the sarcastic humor you need to use in able to stand the existence of most politicians.

William said...

I thought liberals were against witch hunts.

lucid said...

Congratulations to the Republican tea party voters of Delaware for giving us so much to laugh about and to entertain us.

Otherwise, we might be paying attention to depressing problems like the Obama administration's anti-business, anti-capitalism, anti-individual liberty policies.

Or the appointment of a new and extremist anti-business czar, Elizabeth Warren, to help trample entrepreneurship and big business alike, while unemployment hovers near 10%. (Good work, Barack!)

Or Obama's and Pelosi's view that our money and property actually belong to them, not us, and it is for them to do with what THEY (NOT WE) think it should be used for.

Or the fact that 40% of the value of the stock market (health care, energy, financial institutions) are now under regulatory threat by the Obama administration. And that is before Elizabeth Warren gets to work.

Or that Maxine Waters and Barney Frank, regulators in chief of the banks, created special deals for a bank in which Waters' family had a large financial stake, even though the bank did not qualify. And now the Maxine Waters-Barney Frank bank is one of only seven that have not paid back the TARP funds they were given.

No, it's much better that the tea party in Delaware has given us some comic relief in the person of Christine O'Donnell. Certainly the comic relief is worth the loss of the Senate to the Democrats.

Jason (the commenter) said...

lucid: Certainly the comic relief is worth the loss of the Senate to the Democrats.

If you think winning the Senate is so important, then why don't you defend O'Donnell? You're acting like a spoiled brat who's mad because they didn't get their own way. Move on and deal with what you have.

Trooper York said...

What's the big deal?

Being a witch has never hurt Nancy Pelosi's career.

Fred4Pres said...

I remember Chrstine on PI. Yes, this campaign will be definitely entertaining. Politically Incorrect was a good show. Real Time is unwatchable.

DKWalser said...

Does playing with a ouija board count as dabbling into witchcraft? I suspect that it does.

As for what Bill Maher is doing, sure he has the right to do it. That doesn't make it right. If he's purposely taking what she's said out of context he's intentionally misleading the voting public. I doubt he'd be doing this if O'Donnell shared his political beliefs.

Hagar said...

I think I agree with a quite square young woman trying to be entertaining and justifying whatever Maher was paying her to be on the show.

BTW, does anyone know what eventually happened to the $11-13 million that Pat Buchanan supposedly hijacked from Ross Perot's party?

Wv: Unwizero - a male non-wizard?

chickelit said...

Why is nigh impossible fro Chris Coons to get a tag around here?

Known Unknown said...

In related news, I once played Dungeons & Dragons

MayBee said...

Interesting.

The Pentagon in 2007 agreed to put a Wiccan symbol on the gravestone of Wiccan soldiers. Pushing for this was a big cause for many on the left. I remember reading about it often on DailyKos.

Is witchcraft something we can even make fun of anymore? Or do we get stern reminders about the First Amendment right?

Unknown said...

So who among us can honestly say they've never enjoyed a yummy sammich or two at a bloody satanic alter?

Anonymous said...

Is she shaved?

Peter

Sprezzatura said...

Hager has an aspect I hadn't considered.

a) Maher said that he has twenty two shows w/ O'Donnell on it.

b) I think I read, somewhere, that O'Donnell made less than six grand last year.

c) I know that O'Donnell's staff say she paid herself (and family members) out of campaign funds rather than using this money to pay non-family expenses.

So, it could be that she's been scraping by for a long time. Maybe her twenty two appearances on Maher's show were an important (perhaps the most important) part of her income.

So, it is possible that she wasn't exaggerating in order to avoid being square, as Althouse put it [btw Daddy-O (or Mommy-O?) isn't using the word 'square' whack in 2010?] Maybe she was just doing her job by giving Maher an easy target.

bagoh20 said...

A lot of women do exactly that when they are young - they dabble in it. In the same way, most young men dabble in martial arts.

Nothing about this woman's is especially interesting or new, unless you are a desperate Democrat looking for the old worn out bogeymen to trot out again. Every conservative is a racist, homophobe, hypocrite, blah, blah, blah.

Frankly, I'd vote for Mao, if I thought he would help move toward a smaller, cheaper, less intrusive government. I give up looking for great human beings to elect; that is rarely one of the options. Now, it's all about smaller government for me. You either move the ball that direction or you don't.

I'm currently, trying to buy a business to save over sixty manufacturing jobs. The government has been an obstacle at every turn. It's as if we are trying to put people out of work. Trying or not, we are succeeding at it spectacularly.

AllenS said...

How many people watch Bill Maher? I didn't even know he was still on tv.

MayBee said...

How did Bill Maher know about this woman from Delaware?
It interests me that she was on his show so often.

Sprezzatura said...

Allen,

He's on HBO.

The first show of the new "season" was last night.

Unknown said...

Frankly, I don't think she knows what "dabbled" means. The use of the wrong preposition is a hint.

There you go, dabbling with mind reading again.

Hint to you - when people speak, they aren't being overly concerned with the correct preposition. What you're implying is she doesn't even have the verbal awareness of a ten year old. Bullshit.

Robert Cook said...

There's a great article on Salon today by David Sirota on the ubiquity of "pseudo events" in our current political and media landscape, diverting our attention from what's real and urgent to that which is trivial and false:

http://www.salon.com/news/media_criticism/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/09/17/sirota_synthetic_reality

Given our focus on Ms. O'Donnell's views on masturbation or her past as a dabbler in witchraft, or on the "offense" that Muslims might build a community center a few blocks from the former site of the World Trade Center, or on the trace of semen left by Bill Clinton on Monica Lewinsky's dress, or on any other of the endless flood of sheer nonsense that fills up our public conversation, we are all well served being reminded that such "controversies" are lies and serve to conceal from our attention the real ongoing crimes of our times.

Anonymous said...

You have to remember that here was a time in America when it was hip to be square.

I was more focused on the trouble every day.

Beth said...

I dabbled; I didn't inhale; I experimented...

I'd be so disappointed if we didn't get our full measure of entertainment from politics.

But liberals in Delaware are stupid if they keep pounding O'D as a lunatic (even if she is). They have the lead, in a liberal state. Run on the issues and let O'D beat herself. Don't make her sympathetic.

I doubt he'd be doing this if O'Donnell shared his political beliefs.

I'm not sure I could sum up Maher's political beliefs. He's good at providing a stage for political theater, and sometimes actual debate, but he doesn't always make much sense, imo.

marklewin said...

I am in the Jack Nicholson "You can't handle th truth" mode - With Miss O'Donnell I am doing my very best to ignore or avoid all the red flags but it ain't easy. I mean, a mild to moderate personality disorder is probably not a detriment to a politician and may even be an asset, however a malignant pd can prove to be a real problem.

jr565 said...

A witch! Burn her!
Seriously, since when did the left care that someone was a wiccan. You're telling me that an association with a known terrorist and a twenty year association with a preacher who says Amerikkka is evil is irrelevant but someone dabbling in witchcraft is somehow out of bounds?
Note, she is not a practiciing witch, she dabbled. This is like someone being into goth in highschool. Even the stupid movie with Dane Cook, Good Luck Chuck has a 9 year old girl dabbling in witchcraft) and I'm sure any teenager really into Harry Potter could say they dabble in witch craft.
Give me a break. You know this is not being brought up to dissuage liberals, this is being brought up to dissuade republicans who, for example, think playing D&D leads to satanism or something. But clearly liberals can't have a problem with this, since some of their own, I'm sure dabbled in witchcraft, or satanism while also dabbling in LSD etc. Wiccanism is one of those alternative lifestyles libs are always promoting. How could THEY possibly have a problem with someone dabbling in witchcraft?

Scott M said...

She obviously got the cute and spunky spells before quitting. The question is...what did she pay for them?

Jon said...

Notice how Maher didn’t release this stuff until after she had won the primary- he didn’t want to do anything that might hurt the Tea Party’s efforts to hand this seat to the Dems.

Scott M said...

Oh...and the best way to settle this whole matter is to see if she weighs the same as a duck.

She did turn me into a newt, but I got better.

Pilgrim in Progress said...

Hah! I must have fallen into a Monty Python sketch!

Peasant: "We have found a witch, may we burn her?"

Lady: "I am not a witch"

Sir Bedemir: "But you are dressed like one"

Lady: "They dressed me up like this"

Peasant: "She turned me into a newt - burn her!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_l5ntikaU

jr565 said...

Beth wrote:
But liberals in Delaware are stupid if they keep pounding O'D as a lunatic (even if she is). They have the lead, in a liberal state. Run on the issues and let O'D beat herself. Don't make her sympathetic.


Wouldn't calling her a crazy for dabbling in witchcraft only alienate real wiccans who might vote for democrats? Wiccans, this is what democrats really think of you. That you're batshit crazy for believing in witchcraft, as opposed to simply dabbling in it.
What about astrology. How many people in this country are believers or dabble with astrology and their astrological sign? OR throw salt over their shoulder or are supersticious? Do LBERALS of all people really want to go down the road of calling people bat shit crazy?

Jon said...

Now if she pulls off a miracle upset and wins the general election, we will have to wonder if she made a deal with Satan.

jr565 said...

But liberals in Delaware are stupid if they keep pounding O'D as a lunatic (even if she is). They have the lead, in a liberal state. Run on the issues and let O'D beat herself. Don't make her sympathetic.


What else floats in water?
Peasant 1: Bread.
Peasant 2: Apples.
Peasant 3: Very small rocks.
Peasant 1: Cider.
Peasant 2: Gravy.
Peasant 3: Cherries.
Peasant 1: Mud.
Peasant 2: Churches.
Peasant 3: Lead! Lead!
King Arthur: A Duck!

FZ said...

Nice job, Ann. First your sound like an Ivy League smug elitist by correcting her grammar, and then you morph into a 60's hippie by referring to her as "square."

Yeah, God forbid she try to lead a moral and righteous life instead of blindly following fads and embracing whatever the crowd thinks is 'cool.' Personally, I care about a persons ethics and kindness to others, not whether they meet some kind of idiots arbitrary standard of "hipness."

The "hip" and "square" labeling should be left to kids and to idiot adults.

Second, I find the 'cocooned' part offensive. Just because someone likes to hang out with a certain group of people and is comfortable within a certain framework of life doesn't make them cocooned. It makes you like many others who have found a niche in life and enjoy it. Personally I have better things to do with my life then spend every waking moment finding and meeting every type of person. You sound like one of the liberals who call Americans "insular" because they don't visit every corner of the globe or eat a different food every day.

bgates said...

Frankly, I don't think she knows what "dabbled" means. The use of the wrong preposition is a hint.

Frankly, I don't think Obama knows what a corpsman is. The use of the wrong pronunciation was a hint.

Do you think Obama's (repeated) misstep (while reading a speech) was no reason to doubt his intellectual prowess, while O'Donnell's use of the wrong word is proof that she is slow? Then please just be honest and say you're choosing to be a big old hypocrite. Own it.

Unknown said...

Ann Althouse said...

"She would have been 30 or so. People haven't gotten out of their weird phase by then, in many cases."

You mean 30 when she said it. She's talking about the past


A lot of people a bit older wouldn't have brought it up. Technically, it applies both ways, but you are correct, Madame.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Aw, she just thought it was about dressing in black, wearing a pointy hat, riding a flying broomstick and playing the role of a cool Halloween or Wizard of Oz character.

ricpic said...

Maher's not a good guy? What a surprise.

Big Mike said...

The trouble with closely examining O'Donnell's background is that Chris Coons has said some -- and done! -- things that are every bit as crazy.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Yes. Clearly being a "good guy" is about giving strange extremists who lust for power the lack of accountability that they crave.

The term you meant was "good old boy".

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

The difference is, of course, Jesse Ventura (and, I assume, Chris Coons) are not intimidated by the idea of appearing before an interviewer and explaining what they mean by what they say.

sakredkow said...

I wonder what else she did at the Black Mass?

virgil xenophon said...

"Do you now read, or have you ever been, a reader of 'Harry Potter' books?"

Zachary Sire said...

Althouse hasn't mentioned (yet) that O'Donnell believes in and promotes "pray the gay away" therapy. Guess it must not be a big deal to her.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Maher said that he has great fondness for O’Donnell, adding, “She does not have a mean bone in her body, or any other bone in her body.”

Peter Hoh said...

I don't think it's fair to use video clips out of context in order to make someone look bad, no matter who the target.

Maher is the original liberaltarian, isn't he?

And while I support some of the same positions Maher supports, he is first and foremost an entertainer. He's not a political philosopher. He's not intellectually serious.

sakredkow said...

Even if she had participated in some witchcraft, she'd only be like thousands of other young people who dabble in such nonsense. Do you want to string them all up?

Well, jeez, does it really have to be either we string them up or we elect them to the Senate?

Peter Hoh said...

I was wondering how long it would take the other Peter (ironrails) to raise that question.

Talk about your single-issue voter.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Peter is channeling the producers of CNN's Crossfire before Jon Stewart brought them down.

The Crack Emcee said...

Damn - nobody screamed "Crack Bait" for this?

I must be slippin',...

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Hot Damn! If anyone thinks that the bullshit wedge issues and culture war material that the RNC/Fox News obsessively churn out constitute serious political philosophy, then America's in as much trouble as the republic that executed Socrates.

4rc said...

remember they tried to do this on Palin as well. Some witches blessed Palin and that somehow that makes Palin weird. She was just being polite with ppl and not be so judgemental

cf said...

Let's see.On one side there's someone who'll vote to repeal Obamacare and for budget cutting. Once upon a time she went out with a guy who she found out was into witchcraft and as a kid she wasn't into masturbation.


On the other hand we have a tax and spend self-described Marxist who is Reid's personal "pet".

Decisions Decisions.

dbp said...

Zachary Paul Sire said...
Althouse hasn't mentioned (yet) that O'Donnell believes in and promotes "pray the gay away" therapy. Guess it must not be a big deal to her.

Why should anyone care about that? It is not as if it works. Right?

wv lyhomba
wv excxu It made me try twice ;(

somefeller said...

Wait a minute. How do we know she's still not a secret Wiccan? I know she says she is a Christian and has been going to a Christian church for years, but how do we know that's not all a fake? Maybe she is practicing a Wiccan version of Taqiyya. I mean, how can we know? I want to see her baptismal certificate!

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Zachary Paul Sire said...
Althouse hasn't mentioned (yet) that O'Donnell believes in and promotes "pray the gay away" therapy. Guess it must not be a big deal to her.

Why should anyone care about that? It is not as if it works. Right?


Nope. It just causes a lot of pain to the families conventional enough to believe it.

Not that we can expect certain people to give a damn about that. Or about the unnecessary difficulties caused by any other misinformation campaign.

Fred4Pres said...

"But the national electoral dynamic this year isn’t about O’Donnell; it’s about changing course. And in making their choice, the Republican voters in Delaware showed a perfect comprehension many senior conservatives haven’t. A vote for Mike Castle was, in fact, a vote for the status quo. The voters knew what they were voting for — and many of them would have said that the kind of strategic voting urged on them by pundits and political professionals is exactly what has produced the status quo."

What O'Donnell really represents

We have seen this before, with Ron Paul, with Ross Perot. And because Christine is not in a presidential race, she has a shot.

dbp said...

Ritmo Brasileiro said...

Nope. It just causes a lot of pain to the families conventional enough to believe it.

Not to nitpick since I was just trying to have some fun with ZPS anyway, but your use of conventional implies that most people think it is fine and works. Unless by conventional, you meant the opposite, which is radical. Anyway, if it is conventional, then O'Donnell is just part of the mainstream--hardly fertile ground for criticism.

jamboree said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
narciso said...

But you see what Kvin Jennings does with our tax funds, and our imprimatur is perfectly legitimate, nay obligatory

madhenmom said...

"If they're the Opposition, those tolerant, non-judgmental Lefties will all turn into Cotton Mather."

Ha! I read that as 'Cotton Maher'

ndspinelli said...

Maher is not very bright, and incredibly smug. He should have gone to law school.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

So Don,

Is Sarah Palin's use of the epithet "mainstream media" really not a criticism of complacency so much as it is a sign of approval for what is conventional?

I get the impression that I should feel strangely confused.

I don't think ZPS is the best person to joke with about these things.

Palladian said...

Zachary Paul Sire said: "Althouse hasn't mentioned (yet) that O'Donnell believes in and promotes "pray the gay away" therapy. Guess it must not be a big deal to her."

dbp said: "Why should anyone care about that? It is not as if it works. Right?"

Well I prayed and prayed and then Zach went away for a good long time, so there must be something to it. Of course, he came back, so I don't put too much stock in the long-term effectiveness of the strategy.

Beau said...

I'm not sure I could sum up Maher's political beliefs. He's good at providing a stage for political theater, and sometimes actual debate, but he doesn't always make much sense, imo.

He bashes Obama as much as he bashed Bush and has a couple of Rep Congressmen as guests a couple of times each season (Issa, I think) I like the mix of ppl but he's a terrible interviewer. Too many interruptions and smart ass comments when guests are seriously trying to convey their message.

He appears to genuinely like O'Donnell and what he's doing now is more that of affection teasing.

JAL said...

Just like Chris Coons dabbled in communism.

Or did somebody already mention that?

JAL said...

Only my guess is that Coons is more connected to his communist experience than O'Donnell is to her "witchcraft."

Which was that white silly neo-pagan type if I read it right. (Sorry neo-pagans -- you all know about those dabbling wannabees.)

Terrye said...

This is what happens when people are not vetted. Of course Obama was not vetted either and we know how that turned out.


In and of itself, it is not that big a deal, but if you put it together with the fact that she lied about how many counties she won {none} in the 2008 race against Biden, and the lawsuit that had inaccuracies concerning her education and the fact that she does not always pay bills and owes people money she accused Biden of bugging her phone and she accused Castle's people of watching her from the bushes...I don't know all of it together makes her seem a little strange..

Terrye said...

cf:

Castle, for all his faults, cosponsored the bill to repeal Obamacare and he was sent packing. In his place the primary voters put a candidate who was given virtually no chance of winning and who has a lot of baggage..so I guess that repealing Obamacare was not all that important to those people, if it were I doubt they would have taken a risk on someone like O'Donnell.

Automatic_Wing said...

At least she never dabbled in global warmism.

Which is more than you can say for some people.

chickelit said...

Only my guess is that Coons is more connected to his communist experience than O'Donnell is to her "witchcraft."

Imagine how silly DE will look if they elect Coons.

Alex said...

Castle voted to impeach Bush, right?

chickelit said...

Play it!

wv = "onnarke" Masturbatory snark.

chickelit said...

Prediction: Tina Fey will mock Christine O'Donnell on SNL within a month.

Cedarford said...

lucid: Certainly the comic relief is worth the loss of the Senate to the Democrats.

Jay: If you think winning the Senate is so important, then why don't you defend O'Donnell? You're acting like a spoiled brat who's mad because they didn't get their own way. Move on and deal with what you have.
====================
I think lucid's point is you lost Delaware when O'Donnell got the conservative true believer activist vote in the Primary. This is a state that isn't even "purple" but still pale blue and true, to moderate Dem or Reagan Dem sorts. You have a loser now that no amount of "fighting" will fix.
Voters want people that will fix things. In Delaware, that means something entirely different than in Goddess Palin country in rural Alabama, Alaska. Even if O'Donnell was running somewhere more conducive, you still have a "cute n' spunky" professional B-List media pundit who has never run anything or held office.

Republican wingnuts snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Mike Castle was a lock to win, a deficit Hawk and someone out to fight Obamacare and create jobs. Except while he was 3/4ths a conservative Republican loaf, he was 1/4th moderate. (inc. a lame cap and tax carbon stance).
It is far easier for a rightwing media pundit to claim to be 100% true to Red State purity given they have no responsibility or accountability than a sitting Congressman in a bluestate.

The Tea Party gave "wishy-washy" Scott Brown, well to the Left of Goddess Palin, a pass in Massachusetts. Because they really wanted to help win the Teddy Kennedy seat. Brown now votes sometimes with the "Maine lady traitors", and the "appeasing" moderates in other States - but got a productive Repubican Senator who will be with them 75-80% of the time instead of Martha Coakley who would be against them 100% of the time.

In Delaware, they applied a purity test, and proudly can claim credit for helping a Democrat Marxist get his Senate seat.
Part of the rage is the Delaware Tea Party looks stupid putting an unqualified loser in as nominee...they know they look stupid...and all they can do is try and defend O'Donnell as best as they can.

Big Mike said...

@Cedarford, as I've mentioned in other threads, Mike Castle had to make his own case to the Republican voters that that he was the right person for the job. He could have made a positive case for himself, but chose instead to go negative on O'Donnell. The voters punished him, and rightly so.

If you'd take your eyes off O'Donnell for a moment and look at Coons, both are a couple sigma from the norm. (Okay, I admit that O'Donnell is easier on the eyes than the balding supercilious Coons.)

Yes, O'Donnell is a long shot versus the "sure thing" Castle who can't even win his own primary. On the other hand, I'll be watching that race, along with Gillibrand in New York, Connecticut, and West Virginia. If Republicans win any of those four then it will be a long night for Democrats.

damikesc said...

So, at the age Christine dabbled in witchcraft, the President was using cocaine.

Let's just keep that in mind.

Certainly the comic relief is worth the loss of the Senate to the Democrats.

That the possibility even exists is due to the Tea Partiers alone.

I'll forgive them picking a terrible candidate to tell the establishment party to shut up.

Moneyrunner said...

Here’s an interesting factoid, Chris Coons recently lent his campaign $250,000. Christine O’Donnell just raised about $2 million since winning the nomination.
Before Coons starts ordering this Senate stationery we may just want to wait for the election. If anyone want to contribute to Christine, here’s her website.

http://christine2010.com/

TW: wraiton, pronounced "right on."

lucid said...

@Cedarford

Yes, you nailed it.

David said...

Does this dabbling have anything to do with putting that human brain in a mouse?

This woman does think out of the box, eh?

David said...

"I might just be the lunatic you're looking for."

LonewackoDotCom said...

Lots of upstanding pillars of society have dabbled in things, before realizing they weren't on the right path. They pulled themselves out of it, as did O'Donnell. Hers sounds more like a story of salvation than of something to chuckle about.

Note: I'm saying that as someone who really, really, really dislikes the teapartiers, as can be seen in my many dozens of posts about them here.

In fact, this whole incident is an example of one of the reasons why I castigate the teapartiers: if they were smarter and saner they could have struck back against those smearing her. No on in the teaparties is smart and sane enough to rise to her defense in effective ways. All they're good at is waving signs and playing dress-up games like little children.

They are capable of one thing: smearing those who might be able to help them and in general lying. In fact, it's difficult to find a teapartier who can tell the truth; any response to this comment will be full of lies. In case anyone response to this comment, ask them to account for their whereabouts during the Bush administration.

LonewackoDotCom said...

Darn Google Chrome strikes again.

Ask any lying teapartiers (i.e., all of them) to account for their whereabouts during the Bush administration.

Titus said...

I think her dyke sister mentions in her facebook page that she actually did "dabble" in wican shit.

That's cool.

Synova said...

She's really cute.

BTW... People had better figure out how to deal with this because the generation coming up has all of their stupid 20somethings forever recorded on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.

Anonymous said...

"remember they tried to do this on Palin as well. Some witches blessed Palin and that somehow that makes Palin weird."

No, Palin was blessed by a kooky (and likely dangerous) African witch *hunter*.

Considering what evil is done to innocent African children absurdly accused of being 'witches', this is not a minor thing.

Synova said...

"Castle, for all his faults, cosponsored the bill to repeal Obamacare and he was sent packing. In his place the primary voters put a candidate who was given virtually no chance of winning and who has a lot of baggage..so I guess that repealing Obamacare was not all that important to those people, if it were I doubt they would have taken a risk on someone like O'Donnell."

I have a question for those who might know.

I thought I heard that Castle refused to meet O'Donnell in primary debates. Is that true?

Did they never get up in public and stand side by side and answer questions?

I know that here in New Mexico the new thing seems to be the challenger asking for public debates, lots and lots of public debates, and the person who is established simply refusing. It happens in primaries between people in the same party and between the candidates for the actual election. I forget, it may have been a Senate race, but there was an important seat opened up a few election cycles ago and the *only* debate was supposed to be unrecorded. Unrecorded! (Someone took personal footage of the Dem candidate saying that pay-offs were only for *access*, she'd never actually let someone buy her vote.)

I suppose the idea is that the established person sees any appearance as a risk, a chance to make a mistake, so if they think they can win without it they refuse.

So I thought I heard that Castle refused.

IF that is true, then I really do think that "all this" is his fault. Would he really have come across so badly side by side with her? Was he afraid of making a mistake and blowing a sure thing? Did he think that he'd legitimize her by appearing to take her seriously? IF he actually did refuse to meet for a debate and stand side by side and answer questions, did voters interpret it as the disconnected behavior of an elitist?

My personal feeling when I consider this trend of refusing debates is that anyone who does it should automatically NOT get your vote. But that's just me.

Synova said...

"Considering what evil is done to innocent African children absurdly accused of being 'witches', this is not a minor thing."

There is a lot of true evil done by people claiming to be witches as well. I recall something about killing albino babies? It's there alongside claiming your neighbor made your balls shrivel.

It's probably useful to point out as well that "witchcraft" in this context is neither Satanism nor Wicca nor Paganism.

Synova said...

"At least 26 other albinos, mostly women and children, have been killed in different parts of the east African country over the past year.
(...)
But witch doctors believe they have magical powers to bring fortune, and discrimination against albinos is rife across sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2007, police in Tanzania reported several cases of people digging up the bodies of children to remove organs, in many cases the genitals and eyes, to make potions used in rituals.
"

Yes, African "witch hunters" are evil people.

Egad.

MadisonMan said...

Can this woman be an effective Senator? I guess that's what I'd be asking myself if I lived in Delaware.

What horrible choices the two parties have served up.

Unknown said...

Why is she not getting credit for exposing (on O'Reilly) that evil scientists have created human mouse hybrids with fully functioning human brains? The liberal media obviously doesn't want us to know anything about that.

Andrea said...

Why is everyone always dissing Palin for letting that African guy "bless" her? She was just being polite. He was a guest here; what was she supposed to do, fling off his hand and scream "Don't touch me, you African witch hunter!" Imagine how that would have looked.

This is all part of the deeper issue: does Palin hatred cause stupidity in its sufferers (because I imagine that much hate has to hurt), or does stupidity bring on Palin hatred?

Andrea said...

All you people with daughters who loved The Craft and dressing in black better watch out. They're in the sights of Democrats with an agenda. And I hope none of you read your horoscopes, you dabblers you!

MPH said...

"Do you want to string them all up?"

No, I don't want to string her up -- but I don't want to vote for her, either.

Thorley Winston said...

"Castle, for all his faults, cosponsored the bill to repeal Obamacare and he was sent packing.”

I did a little digging into this and found that Mike Castle was indeed one of 49 co-sponsors of the Reform Americans Can Afford Act of 2010 which would repeal Obamacare and replace it with the Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act. Of course by digging a little deeper I found three other things:

1) Mike Castle doesn’t mention this fact on his website nor when he talks about the issue of Health Care Reform does he say he wants to repeal Obamacare or promote the legislation or any of the specifics of the legislation that this bill would replace Obamacare with.
2) Mike Castle wasn’t a co-sponsor of the Common Sense Health Care Reform and Affordability Act.
3) If you look at when the co-sponsors of the bill to repeal Obamacare signed on, you might notices that Castle was the third to last to sign on and did so on July 30, 2010 – right around the time when he was facing a tough primary challenge.

Based on Castle’s late support of signing on to repeal Obamacare, the fact that he didn’t support free market alternatives at the time Obamacare was voted on, and that he doesn’t even mention that he co-sponsored legislation to repeal Obamacare or express any support for the free market alternatives on his campaign website, I think it very likely that Castle only (reluctantly) signed on as a co-sponsor to give himself political cover in a hotly contested primary. In which case, it’s entirely possible, even probable, that he wouldn’t vote to repeal Obamacare with free market alternatives if he was elected to the Senate.

Joshua said...

I think it's a stretch to suggest that she doesn't know what "dabble" means. The clue you offer, her misuse of "into", is hardly very meaningful considering how often people misuse prepositions and every other part of speech. And there's a better clue that she is claiming to have experimented in some way. She insists that while she "dabbled into witchcraft" she "never joined a coven." If she merely had witchy friends, wouldn't she just say so? I've had evangelical Christian friends, Mormon friends, Muslim friends, and I would never feel the need, in explaining that friendship, to say "but I never got baptized at the ward." Rather, this seems more like something a person might say if she had spoken at length with Mormon missionaries about their religion and the process of converting but had then stopped short of conversion.

And the conversation's context appears to be a discussion of Halloween, in which O'Donnell takes the extreme Christian view that the holiday is Satanic. I don't know that she's trying to appear open to other people's beliefs, she's trying to claim authority to speak on the evils of Halloween because she had been exposed to a romantic picnic on a Satanic altar spotted with blood.