Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Why Bob Casey would decide to break his moratorium on relevancy by supporting Alito’s confirmation is likely beyond the grasp what a reasonable human being can grapple with without the aid of strong hallucinogens. This is, I suppose, his best effort thus far to lose his campaign to become Pennsylvania’s junior senator. He’ll do worse. Trust me. Two days before the general election in November, I fully expect to see huge front page pictures of Casey bear hugging Dick Cheney atop a pile of human skulls. Casey is dying to lose.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum’s leading Democratic challenger, Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey, announced Tuesday that he endorses Judge Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.

For weeks, Republicans have called Casey “Silent Bob” and pressed him to say whether he supports Alito’s confirmation. Casey and Alito have a family connection because Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia, sided with Casey’s father, the late Gov. Bob Casey, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The case challenged a state law requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.

“I do not agree with everything that Judge Samuel Alito has done or said - particularly many of his rulings which too often result in corporate power prevailing over the interests of consumers and workers,” Casey said in a statement. “However, I agree with The Philadelphia Inquirer and Washington Post editorial boards that the arguments against Judge Alito do not rise to the level that would require a vote denying him a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Santorum’s campaign manager responded with a statement accusing Casey of ducking the issue and then following the lead of Santorum, the No. 3 Senate Republican. Both candidates are generally against abortion. Santorum came out strong in support of Alito at a conservative rally Jan. 8.

I can only assume that the Casey Campaign’s strategy for losing to Santorum is to mirror Santorum’s positions, but present a candidate without Santorum’s charisma (that’s not a joke - he has it). Is Casey really this desperate to ruin his political career? How many Pennsylvanians who might have been willing to hold their nose and pull the lever for Casey in November in order to bring down Santorum, just gave up? Not just a few. He’ll do more of the same over the coming months and more and more of us will give up. If Pennsylvania is going to have a Republican senator, why not have a freak show like Santorum who at least provides a giggle from time to time, rather than a giant hunk of Valium like Casey? Whatever.

Let me get a little more serious for a second. I haven’t made a stink about Alito personally because I haven’t had the time, due to personal circumstance, to really look into all of the relevant issues. When I post about an issue, a candidate or a nominee I do so when I feel I have a decent grasp of the issues involved. I have not come out either way on Alito because what I have to say doesn’t matter a bit and I’m not in an intellectual position to make an argument one way or the other. I have been disturbed by what I have read so far. The nominee appears willing to apply more leniency to the executive than I’m comfortable with.

There is no particular reason for Casey to come out one way or another on Alito’s nomination. It accomplishes nothing positive. It makes his campaign just a little more unpalatable than it already was to the active Democratic base he will very much need if he is to beat Santorum in November. Furthermore, it’s a stab in the back to the majority of Senate Democrats who seem nearly set (they still need some milk) to raise just a little hell over this nominee. Now they face the potential of having to answer hostile and unneeded questions about their potential colleague’s stance on this matter. Thanks Bob.

Whatever. This is why I support real Democrats who aren’t begging to lose.

(Via Albert)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2006 at 1:30 am and is filed under General, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.