It's far from irrelevant that Casey didn't even lend moral support to the Alito filibuster. The merits of hold-your-nose, lesser-of-two-evils voting aside, that's a pretty good indicator that he's not a strong Democrat.
Come on, if we needed the treasurer of Pennsylvania to lend moral support to a fillibuster of Alito, we Dems are in a lot more trouble than we care to admit.
The fact remains Bob Casey had no, none, nada, zip influence, moral or otherwise, on what happened with Alito.
The other fact is Santorum's campaign goaded Casey into taking a position on Alito expressly to open up conflict within the Democratic voting community. You and others took the bait, hook, line and sinker.
You've got that backwards. Casey Jr. took Santorum's bait. He should not have undercut his party in the middle of that fight. Symbolism matters else why would Casey feel he needed to say anything at all? He was speaking to someone yet you tell us to just ignore what he said.
Can't.
We don't ignore Joe Lieberman and we aren't going to ignore Bob Casey if he decides to be the GOPs favorite talking Democrat.
"Casey, Jr took Santorum's bait" is exactly the same as "Santorum goaded Casey".
I happen to agree Casey should have stonewalled the issue since he had NO influence whatsoever on the outcome. To his credit, Casey did say he did not agree with Alito's rulings on corporate and economic and employee rights issues.
Get over what Casey said, it's as irrelevent now as it was at the time. Bob Casey did not "undercut" his party. He did not have a vote on Alito and I'm pretty sure GW Bush never called him to ask his opinion on who he should nominate.
And, tell me, since you claim Casey is going to be the "GOP's favorite talking Democrat", what evidence you have to support that? Has Bob Casey ever campaigned for a Republican in Pennsylvania? Not that I recall.
Casey is the one who bears fault for inappropriately responding to Santorum's pressure by coming out against his party while many were still trying to derail Alito. Yet you implied that Casey detractors were at fault for reacting to Casey. Nope. Casey is the one that rose to Santorum's bait. The left just reacted to Casey. Of course, that reaction was entirely predictable yet Casey decided to forge ahead and support Alito. That's point one in comparing him to Lieberman. He felt it necessary to speak up on Alito in response to the goading of a Republican. You call it meaningless ... I call it a predictor of future behavior.
By endorsing Alito's confirmation Casey put himself to the right of all but four Democratic Senators currently serving in the Senate. His timing undermined the Democratic position. He knew it wouldn't play well with the left but did it anyway. That shows his disregard for us yet you want us to not criticize him for it? It's not the first time he's dissed the left. Check out this article by Tim Tagaris, then of the Swing State Project:
War in Iraq Casey faces his own challenges, among them finding a position that portrays him as neither an antiwar defeatist nor a passive war supporter. On the major Iraq votes - authorizing force and funding the operation - Casey said he would have supported those measures, just as Santorum did. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Terry Schiavo "I think you should err on the side of life. I think some kind of congressional review was appropriate." (Philadelphia Inquirer)
After getting his for his MoveOn Endorsement "They (Move On) endorsed him... He didn't endorse them." -- Bob Casey's Campaign Manager
Nuclear Option The campaign manager for Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., who is running against Santorum in next year's Senate contest, said Casey welcomed the deal. "Bob Casey is relieved that reasonable people in the Senate were able to find a bipartisan solution," Jay Reiff said.
Sure, I want Casey to beat Santorum. But don't expect him to be popular among liberals.
I'll go right out and say it, Casey detractors ARE at fault for taking Casey's comment on Alito all together too seriously.
I agree Casey should not have taken Santorum's bait, but he did. That leaves it up to Democrats not to overreact, but to ask themselves what could Casey do about Alito. The answer is nothing. Bob Casey did not undercut a fillibuster. To the best of my knowledge no current Democratic senator came out and said he or she was now going to vote for cloture because of Bob Casey's position. But Casey's comment did achieve what Santorum's camp likely wanted - Dems forming a circular firing squad among themselves.
As for Schaivo, I prefer to look at what the Casey family did when Casey, Sr was dying. They did not try to artifically extend his life. (http://www.post-gazette.com/regionstate/ 20000531casey1.asp)
