Uphold the Constitution of the United States, Mr. Castle

The following statements were attributed to Mike Castle, the U.S. Congressman from Delaware who is running in the republican primary for the U.S. Senate, yesterday morning in hotair.com:

“Some of the things [tea partiers] seem to advocate go beyond the norm,” says Castle. “I have trouble distinguishing sometimes between the factions out there that are in this ultra-conservative mode. You know—be it the patriots, or this Tea Party Express, or the different factions of the Tea Party. I’ve seen advocacy for eliminating the Department of Education, for example.”…
“There are a lot of things that the federal government does that, you know, might not be explicitly in the Constitution per se,” says Castle. “There are a lot of things that the states do, too. And they’ve been doing it in some cases since the 18th century.” He shrugs. “I do suppose it is a good question to ask.”

If these statements are true, Castle should be rejected summarily by republicans on his statement alone. My question is has Mr. Castle ever read the U.S. Constitution? He obviously understands that the power to address education is nowhere addressed in the Constitution. But does he realize the Constitution is a document which grants from States to the federal government only explicitly listed powers? Does he understand the Constitution does not address the authority of the States except in limited circumstances, such as the 14th Amendment? Does he understand the States are governments of general power and the federal government is a government of limited power? His comments do not indicate that he has the slightest clue about the meaning of the document which is the subject of the oath he took as a U.S. Congressman, the Constitution of the United States. How can he fulfill his oath in good conscience? How can he take the oath in good conscience? This attitude violates the oath he took to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Any candidate so woefully qualified to speak to the subject matter of the job he has and one he professes to seek should be summarily dismissed. And any official so callus to the meaning of the U.S. Constitution should also be summarily dismissed. Unfortunately, I think many of our federal elected officials are similarly qualified.