Delaware Senate Race: T-24 Hours

We're a little less than a day away from another round of primaries. Of course, the one that's caught all our attention and become a somewhat greater symbol than would ordinarily be the case (Really? Delaware?) is Castle vs. O'Donnell.

For some, the race is about pragmatism: "do we take a sure thing in a blue state and take back the Senate?" We've been arguing a lot of that here at the HQ. For some, the race is about sending a message: "what kind of GOP do we want to be a part of?"

Those are absolutely appropriate questions to be asking in a primary. That's the whole point. But tomorrow evening the primary will be over. And, no matter who wins, Republicans will have to pull together to keep this senate seat out of Democratic hands.

Some have already stated that they won't do that; that they'd rather a Democrat win the seat than Mike Castle. That's exactly the sort of self-induced injury the GOP doesn't need. (Not to mention, the O'Donnell supporters are going to be pretty butt-hurt if they receive anything less than full-throated support from the former Castle supporters were she to become our candidate.)

Tomorrow, the GOP picks a candidate and the questions change. After tomorrow, it's not about pragmatism or purity. The only questions that matter: "do you vote for an (R) or do you vote for a (D) or do you sit out and let the (D) win?" No names in there. It doesn't really matter who the (R) is or who the (D) is.

And it doesn't really matter which side of the primary battle lines you were on. Or, it shouldn't. But I would excuse a little venom in some cases. The loudest mouths on the O'Donnell side engage in so many personal attacks, it's not clear to me that they even care what happens after the primary. And the targets of their attacks can probably be excused for saying "to hell with it."

This morning, Mark Levin, in the space of less than 300 words, calls Patterico "jackass", "idiot", "the ass", and "loser with a keyboard, part of the circle nerds." He also attacks Patterico's competency to do his job -- his real job, not his blogging hobby. With personal attacks like that, I wouldn't be surprised if Patterico declined to lend his support to Levin's candidates in this race or any other in the future. And that's another self-induced injury that the GOP doesn't really need.

By the way, here's the post Levin is "responding" to by calling Patterico names and impugning his livelihood. Please read it. You'll note a remarkable lack of namecalling.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 11:02 AM

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