Will Delaware Teabaggers Hurt Mike Castle-- He Doesn't Think So

Castle, courtesy of our pals at Delaware Liberal

Though he's moved awkwardly to the right, Delaware Congressman Mike Castle, isn't fooling any teabaggers.

Castle ranked among the top 10 House Republicans in his support for Obama, siding with the president nearly 56 percent of the time on votes where Obama took a clear position, a Congressional Quarterly vote study showed. On average, House Republicans supported Obama's position on 26 percent of votes last year.

During President George W. Bush's last year in office, Castle voted with his position less often -- 41 percent of the time.

Castle also ranked 17th among 177 House Republicans in the number of times he voted out of sync with most other members of his party. The study showed he voted against his party 24 percent of the time. In 2008, he ranked 6th, voting against the majority of his party nearly 30 percent of the time.

A more reliable ProgressivePunch look at substantive votes only shows that Castle is the fourth most likely Republican to have crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats-- after Libertarian Ron Paul and former Democrats Rodney Alexander and Ralph Hall. Castle's record is exactly tied with Parker Griffith's, Alabama's freshly minted Republican who was a Democrat two weeks ago.

Castle, who has not exactly endeared himself to the extremists in his own party-- and is absolutely loathed by birthers, deathers, gun-nuts and teabaggers. He's not likely to pass any meaningful purity test being demanded by the right-wing of his party and the Club For Growth is already complaining that he's refusing to sign their latest crazy pledge to repeal healthcare reform. Although Club For Growth has bamboozled 11 Republican candidates in 5 contested primaries-- including another self-proclaimed "moderate," Mark Kirk-- to take their rather extreme pledge, Castle hasn't buckled yet.

The NRSC is doing everything in their power to push his candidacy, despite a spirited primary challenge from Fox News propagandist and anti-choice fanatic Christine O'Donnell (the wing-nut Biden swamped last year). They feel O'Donnell, a teabagger fave, is unelectable, especially in a state Obama took 62-37%. Yesterday the NRSC and NRC gave Castle the opportunity to showcase himself as the Republican tasked with his party's weekly radio address. He talked about how much he supports Obama's war policy in Afghanistan.

It remains to be seen how much of a stink the teabaggers will make over Republicans who have voted against them on all their issues. If they withhold their support from Castle... well, it won't mean much in his primary battle, but without their votes he won't win the general election against Beau Biden.