The GOP's Christine O'Donnell dilemma

Christine O&#039;Donnell&#039;s win lacks in GOP support.

(Image credit: Getty)

last updated 8 January 2015

The conservative establishment threw a "temper tantrum" after Christine O'Donnell's victory in Tuesday's Delaware GOP Senate primary, says Edward Morrissey in The Washington Times. Her defeated rival, "liberal" Republican Mike Castle, refused to rally behind her candidacy. Karl Rove tarnished his hard-earned reputation among conservatives by proclaiming her unelectable, spoon-feeding Democrats potentially damaging soundbites. Even the National Republican Senatorial Committee reportedly balked at the Tea Party–endorsed O'Donnell. These naysayers may be trying to "protect their reputations by issuing prophecies of doom and rejecting the GOP nominee, just in case Democrats eventually win Delaware." But all they're really doing, writes Morrissey, is substantiating "the Tea Party distrust of the Republican establishment. ..." Here, an excerpt:

If the Republican Party establishment wants to harness the energy of the Tea Party movement, then they need to show it respect, at the very least by showing the same post-primary unity that they have long demanded from conservative activists when the establishment candidate prevailed in past cycles. Given that the Tea Party owes its existence to the refusal of the Democrat-controlled Congress to listen to the citizens on matters of spending, taxation, and government growth, the GOP establishment's refusal to listen to its own voters in primary elections puts them in great peril of being replaced or bypassed by the Tea Party movement entirely.