Weigel

I ran into Jonathan Krohn, the 15-year old home schooler who has become a sort of conservative star since a break-out CPAC speech in 2009, as he was telling a Norweigian reporter about his problems with Christine O'Donnell. I followed up with him.

"It's clear that she should have been vetted," said Krohn. "Partially, what this shows is that maybe the Limbaugh Rule needs another look. It's not a rule at all, actually -- it hasn't been proven, like the Buckley Rule has been proven."

A quick taxonomy: the Buckley Rule is William F. Buckley's admonition to "vote for the most conservative candidate who can win," while the Limbaugh Rule is Rush Limbaugh's advice to simply back the most conservative candidate in primaries. Krohn backed Castle (insofar as he could, as a resident of Georgia who can't vote until 2013) because he feared that O'Donnell was unelectable. The current cause of his panic was Bill Maher's promise to release a new, embarrassing clip of O'Donnell's appearances on his old show, Politically Incorrect , every week, unless or until O'Donnell appeared on his HBO show. Last night's 1999 clip had O'Donnell admitting she "dabbled into witchcraft" and once dated a Satanist.

"We know a lot about Mike Castle's background," said an exasperated Krohn, "and he was never a witch!"