Nigeria Content Online

American politics
has a photogenic new face with a troubled past of bad finances,
potential fraud and a flirtation with witchcraft.

A previously
unknown conservative activist named Christine O’Donnell is a sudden
political sensation and Washington is trying to figure out what to make
of her.

“Certainly she has some explaining to do,” Republican Congressman Mike Pence said this week.

O’Donnell is a new
Republican Party nominee for November’s Senate election. She defeated a
better-known career politician for the nomination with support from the
Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party,
which draws its name from an 18th-century uprising which helped set off
the American revolution, isn’t really a political party. It’s a fast
growing insurgency within the Republican Party, pushing some lawmakers
further right and driving others from office.

As people learn more about O’Donnell, they’re wondering if she is the best kind of candidate to replace them.

For years, she led
a Christian campaign against sexual promiscuity and decried a diverse
range of evils from masturbation to shared bathrooms for male and
female students. Before that, she says she once “dabbled into
witchcraft.” She also reportedly dabbled into paying her taxes and home
loan late enough to face legal proceedings. She has very little
declared income and is facing a new complaint that she illegally spent
more than $20,000 of campaign donations on her own living expenses.

O’Donnell denied the allegations and denounced them as the work of her opponents.

“Will they lie
about us? Harass our families? Name call and try to intimidate us? They
will.” Many Republicans are nervous about candidates like O’Donnell, as
undeserving of the party’s nomination and unlikely to win.

George Bush’s
former campaign manager, Karl Rove, questioned her honesty and called
some of her remarks ‘nutty.’ But after a barrage of criticism from
party ranks, he endorsed her anyway.

That signals just
how popular the anti-tax, anti-incumbent Tea Party has become with
American voters and how powerful at the polls.

Tea Party
personalities are taking a growing role inside the Republican Party
despite opposition from many established Republican leaders.

The leadership may yet fight for control of the party. Or despite
their reservations, they can support newcomers like O’Donnell. The Tea
Party is winning a lot lately and the Republicans like to win.