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From the diaries. This is crazy stuff -- kos)
On Saturday September 23rd Congressman Michael Castle suffered two strokes.
Since then the local media has worked to cover-up the severity of the congressman's medical condition in an attempt to help Castle run out the clock.
- The Castle campaign initially lied about the stroke, and made the doctor say that rumors of a stroke were `premature.' A local conservative blogger scooped the newspapers here with news of the stroke - but retracted the story. When word leaked out that Castle technically had multiple strokes the conservative blogger was forced decided to retract his retraction. [The blogger is a decent guy (for an R) who says that Castle's people did not contact him to make the first retraction.]
- The Castle campaign told the press that he was ok and drove himself to the hospital, but later admitted that his wife needed to take him and then he was airlifted to a bigger Delaware hospital (something that doesn't normally happen unless something is drastically wrong).
- Another local blogger, Mike Matthews reported on all the questions surrounding this and the public's right to know. He had three sources confirm that Castle was worse than the public reports indicated. He reported that Castle was on a ventilator for quite some time - even though his people said that on the DAY OF THE STROKE, Castle was up and walking around, asking his staff about the Phillies game. (This was an outright lie.)
- The Castle campaign said initially that he'd be out Sunday night or Monday. He wasn't released until Weds or Thurs, and his release it was done out the back door and no one saw him. The release was much more complicated than reported int he press. It took hours for Castle to get out of the hospital. So long infact that a car battery in went dead when the lights were left on.
- Now, no one has seen Castle for over two weeks. He had a conference call with reporters where no one asked him the ventilator question, no one asked how serious it was. And to my knowledge, no one has asked ANY of his people that question.
- The conference call was reported in the local papers but without a byline. Nobody knows who participated int he conference call but the story was later atributed to a politcal reporter.
NOW FOR THE KICKER
-Despite a steady stream of "happy-talk" stories - Castle canceled his appearances through election day and STILL THE LOCAL PAPERS ARE MUM.
- Prior to the cancelations the News Journal printed a picture of Castle shaking hands with someone along with an article that he was feeling better. The picture caption failed to note that the picture was from two weeks prior to the stroke.
- Today the News Journal printed a story which left the impression that a statement from Castle's spokesperson was a statement from Castle himself.
This really hurts the Democratic challeneger Dennis Spivack. The News Journal canceled their debate for Spivack/Castle, not scheduled until later this month, because Castle said he can't go.
While I hope Mr. Castle is fine and makes a full recovery, I have to wonder why none of this raising any red flags?
Here is Spivack's Act Blue Link
Here is his campaign link.