Arms linked, Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell and her conservative backers kick up their heels and clap to the strains of an original song with lyrics befitting a tea party.
"Look out Washington, D.C., 'cause we are on a roll and we're rocking across this country with a message to be told."
It's a tune that's unnerving the Republican establishment in Delaware, which fears being felled by swift kicks from O'Donnell — and tea partiers.
Not longer after tea party-backed Joe Miller stunned Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the Republican establishment is furiously trying to avoid a similar outcome in the Delaware primary on Tuesday. Republican leaders, top strategists and even the Delaware state GOP chairman have taken the unusual step of openly working to defeat O'Donnell and ensure the nomination of their preferred candidate, nine-term Rep. Mike Castle.
Republicans, who have an outside chance of capturing the majority in the Senate in November, see Castle as their best chance of winning the seat long held by Vice President Joe Biden. The moderate Castle is a former governor and has been the state's lone congressman since 1993.
But O'Donnell, who has lost twice in statewide races, won't be cowed.
"We cannot elect any more liberals to Washington, D.C., especially ones who wear the banner of being a Republican. It is an honor to be a Republican," she told supporters.
Establishment Republicans have been relentless, calling O'Donnell unelectable, a fraud and a liar.
"She's not a viable candidate for any office in the state of Delaware," said the state party chairman, Tom Ross, who is backing Castle. "She could not be elected dog catcher."
"It is a shame the party is doing this," O'Donnell said after a rollicking dusk rally across from the Delaware Capitol this past week. "Because I believe that we have the right principles to win this election."
O'Donnell and her supporters eagerly point to Castle's votes in support of the 2008 Wall Street bailouts, which were championed by Republican President George W. Bush, and Castle's support for climate change legislation that has stalled in Congress. Those votes are immensely unpopular with conservative Republican voters.
"He's getting harder and harder to support," said Carl Williams, a retiree from Camden. "Castle should get off the Republican ticket. He says he's a Republican, but he's not a conservative."
State GOP officials have done everything in their power to take down O'Donnell.
"It angers me. I don't think no Republican should really go after any Republican," said Bill Valentine, who's from Hockessin.
He is not alone.
Sarah Palin, whose endorsements have proved beneficial to other conservative candidates, announced Thursday that she is backing O'Donnell, hoping again to thwart insiders' calculations as she did in Alaska with Miller.
"She understands the politics of personal destruction," O'Donnell said of Palin, "and I think that's why she got involved."
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