It should come as no surprise that Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's position on masturbation - she's against it - is the source for much teasing from liberals. On the night she won her party's nomination in an upset primary win over Rep. Mike Castle, Rachel Maddow made much hay of O'Donnell's position.
Like the revelations that she claims to have "dabbled in witchcraft" when she was younger, however, I have to wonder why anyone really cares. So, she's against masturbation. Big deal. So, she claims to have spent time playing around with something teenagers call witchcraft. OK. What is far more important, to me, is that she has no ideas, no sense of public service, merely voices typical right-wing nonsense on all sorts of issues, and would be an embarrassment to the Senate, which can't afford too much more embarrassment, considering the members of the body from Oklahoma.
My guess is that Maddow aired the clips about masturbation for shock value, as well as an adolescent joy at pricking the pretensions of TV viewers. After all, isn't there a Beavis & Butthead quality to the whole, "She said 'masturbation'," thing? It would get Maddow ratings points, draw attention to a non-issue that indicates, if nothing else, an obsession with individual sexual ethics that is far outside most people's concern, and ensure that liberals, entranced by Maddow's show, would bring up this particular obsession throughout the campaign.
Our nation is in crisis and some liberals are going after one hapless Republican candidate because she sees stamping out masturbation as a positive moral crusade.
It is at moments like this I despair for the United States.
