Christine O'Donnell rival: Is he Delaware's 'bearded Marxist'?
Christine O鈥橠onnell is not hiding from the fact that she dabbled in witchcraft in her youth. She鈥檚 making light of it, instead. On Sean Hannity鈥檚 Fox News show Tuesday night, the Delaware Republican Senate candidate described her witch period as an episode of teenage rebellion.
鈥淲ho didn鈥檛 do some questionable things in high school, and who doesn鈥檛 regret the 鈥�80s to some extent?鈥� she told Mr. Hannity.
(Who doesn鈥檛 regret the 鈥�80s? People born before the 鈥�60s, that鈥檚 who. We had hair then, and it wasn鈥檛 gray. Also, GOP icon Ronald Reagan was president for pretty much that entire decade, wasn鈥檛 he?)
Then Ms. O鈥橠onnell made the point that if she was going to be held responsible for things she did before she knew better, the media also should look at her opponent Chris Coons. The student-age Coons may have expressed interest in something like witchcraft, only worse: communism.
鈥淗e made some very anti-American statements apologizing for America and calling himself a 鈥榖earded Marxist,鈥� 鈥� said O鈥橠onnell on Fox.
Is O鈥橠onnell right about this?
Well, as a student at Amherst College in Massachusetts in the mid-1980s, Mr. Coons did write a story for the student paper titled 鈥�.鈥�
The photo accompanying the article shows him clean-shaven, so the 鈥渂earded鈥� reference may be metaphoric, or something like that.
The story talks about how Coons entered college as a firm believer in the GOP. He campaigned for Reagan in 1980 and helped found the Amherst Young Republicans.
Then, as a sophomore, he took Cultural Anthropology, and learned to question the moral superiority of the West. He took a class on the Vietnam War, which, he writes, painted in vivid detail 鈥渁 picture of the horrible failures made possible by American hubris and dogmatism.鈥�
Then came the final blow: Coons spent spring of his junior year in Kenya on a study program. He lived with a poor family, then heard the Kenyan elites describe the poor as too lazy to get ahead, which bugged him because he didn鈥檛 think that was true.
鈥淓xperiences like this warned me that my own favorite beliefs in the miracles of free enterprise and the boundless opportunities to be had in America might be largely untrue,鈥� Coons wrote in 1985.
Nowhere in the story does Coons actually call himself a Marxist, a communist, or any "ist" of any kind. However, he does say that he 鈥渟tudied under a bright and eloquent Marxist professor at the University of Nairobi.鈥�
(Also, there are no references to pentagrams or worshiping at a satanic altar, just in case you were wondering.)
Coons today says the 鈥渂earded Marxist鈥� reference was tongue-in-cheek.
鈥淚 am not now, nor have I ever been, a Marxist or an enemy of the people of the United States,鈥� he said Tuesday night on CNN鈥檚 鈥淪tate of the Union.鈥�
Well, we鈥檒l get to hear this hashed out between the Delaware Senate opponents in mid-October. University of Delaware officials said Wednesday that O鈥橠onnell and Coons have agreed to a 90-minute debate at U of D campus on Oct. 13.
