Anti-Masturbation Candidate Christine O'Donnell Is Tearing Republicans Apart

By Irin Carmon | September 14, 2010 | 7:40pm

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Welcome to primary day, in which we find out if a Mama Grizzly endorsement is enough to make batshit family values conservative Christine O’Donnell the Republican nominee for Delaware Senator. Also, did you know that she’s a woman? Some reminders.

This last nugget of information has been very relevant over the past few days. Over the weekend, conservative organ The Weekly Standard ran a piece about how O’Donnell had sued her former employer, a conservative group, for $6.9 million, alleging gender discrimination.

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O’Donnell alleged in a July 1, 2005 complaint filed in district court that she had been demoted because ISI’s conservative philosophy dictated that women must be subordinate to men. She claimed she was fired when she contacted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding her demotion. ISI told the Delaware News Journal that she had been “terminated for operating a for-profit business.”

Here’s more from the complaint:

“On one occasion during her employment, a co-worker, Mr. Cain, in connection with Ms. O’Donnell’s efforts and work on the Gala, ordered or stated to Ms. O’Donnell to ‘strap it on,’ which was a crude and demeaning reference to an artificial male sexual organ used by some females in order to act like a male in sexual acts,” the complaint alleged. “

We’re not ones to condone sexual harassment, no matter who the target, but it sounds like what truly horrified O’Donnell here is the suggestion that she might have been deviant or “act[ing] like a male.” O’Donnell dropped the case in 2008, for what she said were financial reasons.

Whatever the merits of her case, this presumably makes O’Donnell a bad conservative in the eyes of Weekly Standard readers because 1) What a weakling! If you can’t cut it, honey, stay home, 2) There’s no such thing as gender discrimination, because the best man always gets the job. 3) It’s not the job of the legal system to interfere with the business of manufacturing conservative ideas.

Well, also according to the piece, she lied about a lot of stuff. So she may or may not be a liability in the general election. (History shows us it’s not a deal breaker).

Naturally, O’Donnell’s camp is infuriated, partly because the magazine is edited by Bill Kristol, who helped make Palin:

“Call Bill Kristol and ask him why he’s crossing swords with Governor Palin’s endorsement. And Google Fred Barnes and see about him taking money from Republican leadership,” a frustrated O’Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran told CNN.

They did, in fact, email Kristol, who said, “I know Sarah Palin. I respect Sarah Palin. And with all due respect — Christine O’Donnell is no Sarah Palin.”

Palin herself disagrees, saying in robocalls in Delaware, “I can relate to the vicious personal attacks on Christine and can tell you it’s sad to see the establishment’s desperation in this.”

CNN also asked O’Donnell whether the criticism of her has to do with her gender. She said, “Well whenever a strong pioneering woman comes onto the scene there’s some backlash.”

She may not be Palin, but she’s definitely taking a page from her playbook.

Citing Mental Anguish, Christine O’Donnell Sought $6.9 Million In Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Against Conservative Group [Weekly Standard]
Top Republicans In Open Fight Over O’Donnell [CNN]