Mike Castle is the new Christine O’Donnell?

 

Here’s something I never thought I’d write in a million years – Christine O’Donnell is right.

No, I don’t agree with her that masturbation equals adultery, and I still haven’t found any evidence that scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals in an attempt to create “mice with fully functioning human brains.”

O’Donnell may have been the most embarrassing Senate candidate in the history of Delaware, but at least she got one thing right – she won’t back Donald Trump for president.

Although, to be fair, she repudiated Trump in the most Christine O’Donnell way possible on CNN recently: “He did nothing to liberate the middle class from political correctness until he decided to run for president, and then it’s only giving voice – he’s not actually doing anything except inciting riots and… well, loosely I say that because I don’t blame him for the violence, but at the same time, your words will have consequences.”

It was an awkward interview (we’ll forget about O’Donnell attempting to paraphrase French Revolution leader Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin), but at the core of her 2 minutes of nationally televised airtime O’Donnell made it clear that not only could she not back Trump, she might even consider voting for Hillary Clinton instead.

“Clinton, if you look at some of her policies, she’s a moderate. She’s not a far-left liberal,” O’Donnell said. “I’m going to get in so much trouble for saying that. I’m not saying I would vote for Hillary Clinton by any chance. I’m saying I don’t know what I would do if Trump became the nominee.”

So now that we know where O’Donnell stands on Mein Trumpf, what about about the candidate she defeated, former Republican governor, congressman and consensus common-sense politician Mike Castle?

“Donald Trump has emerged as the victor, and I think as Republicans we have the responsibility to support him,” Castle told WDEL last week.

That’s right, Delaware’s favorite moderate, who backed Ohio governor John Kasich during the primary, thinks it’s the duty of every card-carrying Republican to back the greedy, misogynistic fear-mongering orangutan masquerading as an actual candidate.

It reminds me of the time back in 2010 during his primary against O’Donnell when Castle allowed a birther to bully him about President Obama’s birth certificate and forced him to repeat the Pledge of Allegiance before a rabid, booing southern Delaware audience.

Castle didn’t stand up to the knuckle-dragging right-wingers then, and it appears he isn’t going to do so now, even though Trump seems to represent everything he fought against during his long career as a public servant.

Sadly, this former Delaware “leader” is just the latest in a long line of Republicans who have thrown their support behind a toupee-wearing huckster whose three marriages fail to outnumber his four bankruptcies.

It’s a sad testament to the current state of Delaware politics that the best option at the moment for Republicans looking for leadership appears to be the candidate who proudly declared “I’m not a witch.”

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Rob Tornoe is a cartoonist and WHYY contributor. Follow Rob on Twitter @RobTornoe