Delaware GOP Ousts Official Over Antisemitic Remarks

Nelly Jordan, Vice-Chairwoman of the Sussex County (Delaware) GOP, has been ousted from her position after she blamed "Jews" for orchestrating Trump's impeachment and said that they were "going against God's will". Quick thoughts:

• It's good they did this. I've noted before that the GOP has proven incredibly resistant to implementing any accountability for antisemitism in its party, and this is a welcome break from that trend.
• That said, the vote was apparently razor-thin, with large numbers of people showing up to back Jordan and rail against "political correctness" and in support of "free speech". So there was significant division in the ranks on this.
• Quoth one local Republican: "If we were to throw everybody out here who made a racial/ethnic remark, this place would be totally empty." Hey, you said it, not me!
• Jordan did apologize for her remarks, and -- in what I consider to be an unbelievable upset -- she did not say "I am a strong supporter of Israel". Not once! I wish I wasn't shocked, but I was. Well done, Ms. Jordan!

In other Delaware news, a different GOP official, New Castle GOP Chairman Chris Rowe, resigned after referring to ideological opponents as "faggots" in a social media post. Though he resigned, he wants you to know that:

The Disgrace was not mine, but displayed how weak & timid society has devolved by allowing itself to be injured & offended by viewing a printed word. The words uttered by the Left are words employed by the mentally weak to push shame upon those with which they disagree. They assume because they would be offended, so would their targeted individual or group. Then again, being mentally strong, I do not get offended by words as is your aim.

Kudos to Rowe for showing how mentally strong he is (he proceeded to text the local newspaper and inform them that "The Cancel Culture are now attacking me and causing me hurt.")

March on Washington

Governor O'Malley announces that Maryland will take back what's rightfully ours. Next stop, Delaware.

Remember the Massachusetts!

While Christine O'Donnell's upset victory over Rep. Mike Castle does turn a likely Democratic loss into a likely Democratic hold, my recollection of Scott Brown prevent me from crowing too hard. I do think Chris Coons will win this seat, but I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch.

That being said, Jonathan Chait is undoubtedly correct that the victories of (among others) O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, and (we just found out) Carl Paladino over establishment-backed favorites is going to make it pretty hard for Republicans to recruit their preferred candidates into races next time around. Castle, for example, gave up a locked-down House seat for a race he never seemed that interested in running for, and which was not a sure shot (particularly when Beau Biden was considering the race). Now he's rewarded with an ignoble end to his political career. The national party simply can't be relied upon the clear the field for even its highest-profile recruits anymore.

Will this sink the GOP ship in 2010? Perhaps not -- the fundamentals are entirely in their favor, and they will still see significant gains in the House and the Senate. But in 2012 -- when, presumably, this wave will have crested -- that's when the pain will emerge, because that's when you very well could see a surprisingly large number of dangerous Republican candidates passing on competitive races for fear of being bounced in the primary season. And while they may be able to skate by on the fundamentals alone in 2010, I think in 2012 -- with the Democratic Party in full swing to promoting President Obama's reelection fight -- being stuck with a ton of subpar, far-right candidates will really come back to haunt them.

North to the Future Roundup

Flying to Minnesota tomorrow -- I may or may not be posting tomorrow and Thursday. I also may or may not give an election update with the primary results tonight.

* * *

The Tea Party begins its Jewish outreach project as part of a broader diversification campaign. Why Jews first? "I think that there is a more open debate to be had (in the Jewish community), but there is no genius behind that. I had to start somewhere." Don't tell Karol de Gucht.

A few days old, but James Fallows regrets the harsh things he didn't say to Marty Peretz.

Like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Matt Yglesias, I find it strange that resisting British colonialism is now a slur. If you're African (if you're White, it's a Tea Party!).

Meanwhile, Adam Serwer's post on how this whole "Kenyan anticolonialism" thing is a blatant racial dog-whistle is excellent.

No link, but a conservative friend of just cried out over Facebook: "Why don't Delaware Republicans want to win the Senate?"

American support for Israel is up following the relaunch of peace talks.

Engage lists its greatest hits.

Is Donna Edwards really threatened in her primary race (I voted today, but she's not my Congresswoman).

Dismemberment

Welcome to Israel's world, Switzerland!

A Libyan motion calling for the dismemberment of Switzerland was rejected by the United Nations about a month ago, a UN spokesman said on Thursday.
[...]
Gaddafi first mentioned the idea of dismemberment during the G8 summit in Italy in July. Switzerland "is a world mafia and not a state", he said, adding that it was "formed of an Italian community that should return to Italy, another German community that should return to Germany, and a third French community that should return to France".

Robert Farley asks what other countries we should get rid of. He also notes his opposition to the state of Delaware, which I heartily endorse.

Castling Move

Republicans really want Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE) to run for Senate (attempting to secure Joe Biden's old seat). Barring that, they really want him to stay put in the House (he's contemplating retirement). Delaware is fertile territory for Democrats, and Castle, an eight-term incumbent whose district encompasses the entire state, represents far and away their strongest state-wide candidate for any race.

But you got to wonder after this experience whether he really wants any more part of the contemporary GOP. Castle's a lifelong moderate -- it's one of the reasons he's essentially untouchable in what is a solid blue district. But particularly if he ran for Senate, he'd have to come face to face with the fever-swamp that is the GOP base, and I doubt that Castle finds it any less sickening than I do. For a guy already contemplating retirement, this is really the sort of moment that I can imagine pushing him over the edge.

It's not your party anymore, Mike. Let it go.

Waaaa-mbulance

Law professor complaining about too many footnotes in Delaware judicial opinions = least sympathetic claim ever? Discuss.

Burke on the Delaware "Diversity" Controversy

Tim Burke really deserves more links from me than he gets. He consistently writes smart, in-depth pieces on interesting topics. And yet, I continue to ignore him. Not fair of me.

So, to start the long process of repentance, here is a pointer to Burke's thoughts on the University of Delaware's mandatory diversity seminars. I'm not sure if I agree with it 100%, but by and large I'm on board: Delaware's program was a joke. College students have the right to hold a diverse array of opinions, and should not be coerced down the One True Path. Seminars like this distort into unrecognizability serious academic debates on the relevant topics (as someone who wishes to be a scholar on Whiteness, I cringe at their simplistic definition of racism), as well as corrupt those theories in the public eye as nothing more than the sort of PC-leftist theory that, well, would show up in a dumb mandatory program. For sabotaging my future career path, Delaware loses even more points.

Burke, of course, explores these points in much greater detail and with his typical erudition. So go and read him.

Dela-Where?

Okay, I'm back from my trip to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Delaware, for those of you who don't know, is a state so small it actually exists only between high and low tides, thus sucking up prime beach property that rightfully should go to Maryland. Actually, I had a very nice time out there, but for some reason I conceptually object to Delaware. For starters, it's a runt. There are very few states I can pick on size-wise, coming from Maryland, but Delaware is one of them. The fact that Maryland is so small is all the more reason why it should absorb Delaware entirely for efficiency's sake (of course, I still want to go to war with Pennsylvania over the Mason-Dixon line. But that's just me). Second, despite being a solid blue state, it has a Republican Representative (Michael Castle) in its one (at-large) district, which is inexcusable. Third, despite occupying prime real estate in the Washington - Boston corridor, it doesn't have any major cities (no, Wilmington doesn't count). To be fair, I also ding Rhode Island for this (Connecticut gets a pass because the entire state is essentially a New York City suburb). But Rhode Island got rid of its Congressional Republicans. Fourth, it has no sales tax, thus forcing me to shop for clothes while on vacation instead of, you know, vacationing.

So, in sum: Rehoboth has an excellent beach, with a great boardwalk, decent restaurants (although, oddly enough, none of the places we ate at gave us silverware until we requested it. It was very strange), and is conveniently located a mere three hours from Washington, D.C.. But it's in Delaware.

I say that Maryland's eyes ought to look eastward, and reclaim the shores that are our birthright.

Beach Bound

I'm going with the family to Delaware for the next few days (last chance to be together before the younger brother goes to college). Internet access will be spotty, at best. I'll be back at the end of the week, though.