‘Witch’ lashes out at ‘Marxist’

Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell responds to Democratic candidate Chris Coons (L) during a televised Delaware Senate debate at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, October 13, 2010. REUERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell responds to Democratic candidate Chris Coons (L) during a televised Delaware Senate debate at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware, October 13, 2010. REUERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS)

Published Oct 14, 2010

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‘Witch’ lashes out at ‘Marxist’

New York - Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate for Senator who has endured taunts about her dabbling in witchcraft, found a way to hit back at her Democratic opponent Wednesday: by calling him a Marxist.

“There are more people who support my Catholic faith than his Marxist belief,” O'Donnell jabbed at Chris Coons in an insult-laden televised debate between the rivals for the seat in Delaware formerly held by Vice President Joe Biden in the November 2 election.

Coons, a balding local official in Delaware, said his past references to having admired Marxism had been a youthful joke.

He said he had never “been anything but a clean-shaven capitalist”.

The exchange set the tone for a nasty debate aired on CNN that was seen as a chance for O'Donnell to prove she is not a political lightweight with somewhat bizarre personal baggage - and for Coons to persuade angry voters that he understands their difficulties.

O'Donnell comes from the right of the Republican Party and is a protege of Sarah Palin, the former Republican candidate for vice president, current Tea Party icon, and possibly 2012 challenger to President Barack Obama.

Prior to Wednesday's debate she has had to battle against a slew of lurid revelations about her private life, most embarrassingly that she once experimented with witchcraft.

“I'm not a witch. I'm nothing you've heard. I'm you,'“ she says in one of her campaign ads.

In the debate, she went for Coons' jugular, trying to portray him as one of the big-spending, debt-loving Democrats that the Tea Party movement says control Washington.

“A vote for my opponent will cost the average Delaware family $10 000 dollars,” she said.

“Miss O'Donnell, we're going to try to have a conversation this evening instead of a diatribe,” Coons shot back, calling the statistics she used “untrue” and sometimes “flat out lies.” - Sapa-AFP

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