RINO in Delaware

Here is a nauseating comment by Mike Castle (RINO) about the proposal to raise the minimum wage...

"Whether people like it or not, we need to go ahead with it," said Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., who supports the idea. "There's a general agreement among Republicans (opposing the raise) that "maybe we don't like it much, but we need to move forward with it just for political reasons."

This comment alone explains why the Republican party in Washington is completely out of touch with the conservative base and may lose seats this Fall, not to mention jeopardizing the presidency in '08.

It seems the trappings of power have afflicted the Republicans to the point that they are more concerned with getting re-elected and preserving their hold on political power than doing the right thing.

If the Republicans would stick to the party ideals of conservatism (securing the borders, passing effective immigration legislation, clearly outlining the plan in Iraq, establishing a resultant national energy plan, balancing the federal budget, and not raising the minimum wage because it's politically pragmatic to do so), the nation-wide Republican base would be so energized that their Congressional majority would be likely to expand rather than be in jeopardy of disappearing.

It is astonishing to me that these guys get a grasp on political power and immediately forget what got them elected in the first place. The sad irony is that this idiot Castle thinks that playing nice with the Democrats by voting for a disastrous minimum wage hike will make him popular with voters. It won't. The Democratic voters in Delaware will never vote for a Republican and the Republican voters will likely vote Libertarian if at all, because Castle has abandoned the very ideals which won him office in the first place.

Tell me, how does a politician forthrightly admit that he will cast a vote for something in which he does not believe, purely for craven political reasons, this close to an election, and expect to win the votes of his party?