And the pundits pounce!

So it turns out Christine O'Donnell, who has pissed everyone off by winning in Delaware (except some optimistic Democrats), was on Bill Maher's show saying she had dabbled in the occult. Now, for my two cents, the only thing that bothers me about that is her being on Bill Maher's show. If anything ever suggested gross lapse in judgement, it would be that. But I'm in the minority, for it appears everyone is saying this shows her lack of qualifications. Upon the revelation, she canceled her planned appearances on Sunday Morning talk, giving even more ammunition to her critics. Karl Rove pounced, CNN pounced, I'm sure come tomorrow there will be a gathering not unlike hungry hyenas hovering around a corpse on the Serengeti.

But why? All she said was she had dabbled in the occult. That was then. When she was young. Oh, that's right. The one thing we learned during the Clinton Years was that every nook and cranny of a politician's life, all the way back to childhood, was fodder for political attacks. Well, actually no. What we learned was that no one had any business looking at the past of any (Democrat) politicians, and things like Character, Truth, Values didn't matter.

So why is it all that important now? Because there are two groups royally ticked off about O'Donnell and what she represents. The social liberals who, of course, hate social and religious conservatism. They are the ones that made calling Sarah Palin a bitch, whore, slut, bimbo, milf, and any one of a thousand sexist terms all the rage in the 2008 election. Not to mention calling her daughter the same, and giving nods to those who attacked her special needs baby. But what of the conservatives? Ah, there's the rub. For people have confused 'Republican' and 'Conservative' for decades. Particularly social conservative. And therein lies the problem.

Karl Rove, and many others, made a career of promising social and religious conservatives the moon and delivering nothing for almost twenty years. Now, having realized winning gets you nothing, those same voters are more than happy to hamstring the Republicans by voting for candidates who may not have a ghost of a chance. Why not? Voting for candidates who won gave them nothing all these years. Why not at least vote their conscience? If the Republican establishment wants to learn, they had better learn fast. Their 'Money above God' list of priorities does little for most people. Their only hope is in that mass of humanity increasingly worried about the tyranny of progressive secularism that they see gathering on the horizon. But the values voters are saying loud and clear they will rather go down with a clean conscience that continue throwing their principles out the window for candidates who will do nothing to help them win their most important battles. Mr. Rove, pay attention!