"It's class warfare and my class is winning." Warren Buffett

The value of any commodity, ... to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations Book 1, chapter V.)

The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works....(Barack Obama)


Sunday, January 17, 2010

Mike Castle and the “C” Word

It seems that the News Journal is trying its best to display Rep. Mike Castle as a moderate. Almost certainly this effort is a prelude to the News Journal endorsing Mike Castle campaign for the US Senate. Here is the News Journal's logic for characterizing Castle as a moderate:

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. (link)

Voting with President Obama 56% of the time, voted less often for former President Bush's position, out of sync with his fellow House Republicans who have only sided with President Obama 26% of the time. At first blush it sounds impressive. It creates the impression that Castle is a moderate and Delaware could safely send this Republican back to Washington as its next Senator. But notice this statement which gets short shrift in the News Journal article, one made earlier in the article before the discussion of Castle's voting record:

Democrats say Castle has voted against the interests of Delaware's residents on the most important pieces of legislation, including health care reform, job creation, stimulus money, and financial regulatory reform. They note that his party-line votes increased almost 11 percent, when comparing last year with his average voting record from 1993-2008. (link) (emphasis mine)

In other words, when it comes to the most important legislation—legislation that will help most Delawareans during the current ailing economy—Mike Castle can be relied upon by the GOP to toe the conservative line. He can be counted on to side with big finance and the health care industry, part of the GOP's historic moneyed constituency.

Except for one vote on global warming, Castle will side with President Obama when it matters least, not when it matters most. That makes Castle a moderate only on the margins but a hard core conservative at the center. That should be too conservative for Delaware.

Posted by Delaware Watch at Sunday, January 17, 2010