Weigel

I have a piece out today on the GOP's U.S. Senate primary in Delaware, where I spent the weekend and conclude that frontrunner Mike Castle has given tea party activists a tone of openings that tea party candidate Christine O'Donnell might not be able to take advantage of. Witness: Castle on the tea party movement.

"Some of the things they seem to advocate go beyond the norm," saysCastle. "I have trouble distinguishing sometimes between the factionsout there that are in this ultra-conservative mode. You know—be it thepatriots, or this Tea Party Express, or the different factions of theTea Party. I've seen advocacy for eliminating the Department ofEducation, for example."

He's interrupted again—"Hi, Debbie!"—butkeeps musing on how Tea Party activists shout down legislation bysaying it's unconstitutional.

"There are a lot of things that the federal government does that, you know, might not be explicitly in the Constitution per se ," says Castle. "There are a lot of things that the states do, too. And they've been doing it in some cases since the 18 ^th century." He shrugs. "I do suppose it is a good question to ask."

When's the last time you heard a Republican congressman talk like that? But read the piece and see whether you think O'Donnell can upset him.