In Delaware, the winner is….
….wingnut right-wing crazy Christine O’Donnell, fresh from endorsements by Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint, whose most high-profile political position is her suggestion that the government should ban masturbation. (UPDATE: a couple of readers object to this, pointing out that she has never explicitly said this. Okay; they have a point. So: she has spoken out against masturbation and said “abstinence is not enough”; she said that age-appropriate sex education would teach children that strangers with candy are “not so creepy”; she helped market The Passion of the Christ; she thinks that stem cell research is human cloning; and she repeatedly made anti-gay slurs against Castle and questioned his sexuality. That’s bad enough).
In this election cycle, one GOP Senate nominee (Joe Miller) thinks unemployment insurance is unconstitutional; another thinks that major parts of the Civil Rights Act are unconstitutional (Rand Paul); and a third thinks that citizens should resort to “Second Amendment remedies” if they don’t like the federal government and sponsored a bill based upon the ideas of L. Ron Hubbard (Sharron Angle). And they all are mainstream in comparison to Christine O’Donnell.
Fortunately for the country, Delaware is still a blue state, and the Democrats have an outstanding candidate: New Castle County Executive Chris Coons, about whom I have blogged before. I’ve known him for 20 years. He is extremely intelligent, dynamic, and committed to public service. (He also has a wicked sense of humor that he will probably keep concealed on the campaign trail, unfortunately).
When he announced for this race, no one gave Chris much of a chance; Mike Castle has it in the bag, they said. But they didn’t count on the GOP’s immolation at the hands of its Frankenstein Tea Party.
Chris hasn’t gotten much help from the national Democratic Party. That will change, of course, but we should make sure we don’t blow this great opportunity to get a great Senator. Help out Chris here.
Um…can you substantiate that O’Donnell said that the government should ban masturbation? Because it’s not in that story you linked to.
Nice try. She has called for government regulation of sex, and has said that it shouldn’t stop at abstinence. As I said, it’s a suggestion. Keep clapping louder, though.
I second angel eyes’s request. Can you substantiate that she had “called for government regulation of sex”, even? Again, not in the linked article.
And what precisely do you think angel eyes “nice try” was “trying” to do, and what evidence do you have that she is clapping her hands at anything? I read the same story, and do not see the suggested “suggestion.” For all I know, angel eyes would love to be able to substantiate that O’Donnell wants the government to ban masturbation, the better to clobber her in November.
Guys, this is getting a little silly. This is deconstruction gone amok: she has spoken out against it. She repeatedly used anti-gay slurs against her primary opponent. She thinks that stem cell research is human cloning. She did marketing consulting for The Passion of the Christ. I’m not sure you can have a sharper dog whistle there. But I’ll update.
I am in no way disputing that she is a crazy homophobe. And I am aware that she has spoken out against masturbation. But that is not the same thing as advocating that the government ban masturbation, and it isn’t “deconstruction” to point that out.
Yikes, Jonathan, you’re better than that. Thinking something is immoral isn’t the same thing as saying it should be illegal. In fact, that understanding used to be at the heart of liberalism. So sad to see that it’s such an alien idea now that a modern left-liberal like yourself believes that it’s some form of extremism.
I want to hear more from Christine O’Donnell about masturbation before I make up my mind. Laws against it, or masturbation w/ the aid of a device, do still exist in some jurisdictions. Is she an abolitionist or not? In her lawsuit against the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, she (reluctantly) refers to “artificial male sexual organ[s] used by some females in order to act like a male in sexual acts.” Would she ban them? My understanding is that she both supports state-funded advocacy of abstinence & holds that abstinence properly includes abstinence from masturbation. Would she support government training on the subject?
Thomas, I think the point is that O’Donnell isn’t any kind of liberal, & comes from a tradition that views the distinction between private disapproval & public intolerance differently than liberals do. Zasloff didn’t say she thinks masturbation is immoral but shouldn’t be illegal, & is an extremist for making the distinction. He thinks she’s an extremist because she authentically is one, as has also been widely noted in the conservative press. Give up.
Thus far Christine O’Donnell makes Sara Palin look normal,,,, and that scares the “H” out of me. I did not like the “put your Man Pants on” comment Christine made, or the “Hootig” that followed,,,,,, and it appears after the Karl Rove Epiphany, told to us at a higher and more trembling Pitch,,,he took “got the message”.
The face of the Ladies of the GOP has changed from June Cleaver to a to a group of straight shooting Lorena Bobbitt pitbulls in lipstick that have put fear into the hearts and other vital parts of all Republican Men. From what I have seen from O’Donnell supporters,,,, I would worry more about their views on Castration than Masterbation.