I thought I had been following the Casey stuff pretty closely, and maybe the "Casey is the worst aspects of Lieberman" has examples outside the Alito nomination, but his Alito statement seemed more like Ben Nelson's--he's qualified, even if Casey doesn't agree with the totality of Alito's political philosophy.

A pro-choice Republican can get repeatedly elected in Pennsylvania but the Democratic leadership nevertheless anoints from on high an anti-choice candidate. To add insult to injury, this candidate, who is on the very rightward fringes of the Democratic Party, then speaks out against the bulk of the membership of his party at a crucial time.

We've heard why he did it. He had to answer Santorum's attempts to draw him out. Boiled down, he went against his party on Samuel Alito to score political points for his own career.

Disgusting.

Ed Rendell will face the wrath of Western PA if he fucks up the slots thing for the Pens by giving it to some crony company of his. He is already suspected of someone favoring Eastern PA over Western PA.

The state bailed out Philly in the past. It's Pittsburgh's turn to get some help from the state.

Isn't voting for Faux Democrats doing us more harm than good?

The key thing that Democrats need to be doing right now is debunking the cultural myth that "the two parties are the same."  That myth, and the intellectual laziness that accompanies it, is what's really killing us in elections all over the place.  People see Republican corruption, and they believe that the Democrats must be corrupt too, because of the myth.  People see Republicans sucking up to corporate interests, and they assume that Democrats must be sucking up too, because of the myth.

The big problem with these Faux Democrats is that they validate the myth.  I think we need to repudiate them, even if it costs us some power in the short run.

When Rendell was chairman, he went on Fox to insist Al Gore concede the 2000 presidential election. Rendell is a turd, and not in the complimentary sense of the term. He is an Ed Koch Democrat, which is indistinguishable from a Brit Hume Democrat or a Francisco Franco Democrat. Fuck Ed Rendell, and in his next life may he be a female staffer for Joe Scarborough.

I'm a committeeperson in a tiny twp in the red central area, and I'm going with what Robert P said. Where's Paul Hackett when we need him?

Rendell has consistently sold out the rural areas. He's made the same mistake that Kerry did in the national campaign, assuming that the red areas were so red that he wouldn't bother with them. And so he's used our interests as a pawn when he's dealmaking. Hence the ACRE act, which overrides any local ordinance against corporate farming. (It's being challenged in court, but still--thanks, Ed).

The rural folk who are not impressed by the Republicans are even less impressed with the Dem Lite version. It's like they're thumbing their noses at us, saying, "What are you going to do about it? We're what you've got, so too bad."

I feel like a fool campaigning for either Casey or Rendell. Sorry.

The GOP deferred to our wishes on Ginsburg and Breyer -- who have both been absolutely as unacceptable to the right as Alito is claimed to be to the left.

If we think we have such a goddamned say in who makes the Court, we should start winning elections.

If you don't accept that fact, then it really is time to start reviewing your stance on the Second Amendment, because that's the realistic alternative.

Likewise, the GOP has an awful track record on picking judges.  Between Roberts and Alito, at least one will turn out to be a moderate.

Consider that 7 of the current 9 justices are GOP picks.  Now, how piss poor of a job have they done for things to get to this point?

The court should have been stacked conservative by the time Reagan put O'Connor on the bench.

At some point, no matter how much we want to start the real-life equivalent of a flame war, it simply isn't fair or right given the precedent set by both parties since the confirmation process was implemented in its current form in the 1920s.

Perhaps we could hire some 16-yr old C++ programmers as consultants, since they probably know how to conduct a flame war better than any of the consultants we currently employ know how to conduct a goddamned political campaign.

At the end of the day, the country has to run.  That means that if Samuel Alito is qualified (which he is, by a mile) he gets confirmed.

He's no more offensive to left than Breyer and Ginsburg were to the right.  Does anyoe care to dredge up what the votes were for those two?  Hint: better than what Roberts got.

Midge Rendell (Ed's Wife) and Sam Alito have been serving on the 3rd circuit for about 10 years.  This is a personal endorsement. He knows the guy....

Why must everyone engage in these stupid fu#king ideological purity tests.  I was never a big fan of Gov Casey (mostly because of his socially conservative positions) until I went to work for Wofford (several CAsey staffers worked for Wofford as well)  It wasn't just his pro-labor, pro-education and pro- health care stances, it was the amount of fight he put into remaining a Democrats and fighting for economic progress.

If Santorum is against us 85% of the time and Casey will be with us 80% of the time ---- the choice seems clear

I live in Pennsylvania during the academic year, and I must confess that one of the great pleasures of my life thus far will be to cast my vote this November against Rick "man-on-dog" Santorum and his delusions of neo-Napoleonic conservative conquest of not only the public sphere, but the private as well.

However, I have become more and more disheartened of late with the increased voicing of rightist-sounding ideas by Mr. Casey. Of course simply booting Mr. Santorum off the Hill would be delightful, but it is a shame that we cannot seem to do better than Mr. Casey. Pennsylvania may not be the absolute bluest state on the map, but it is certainly not analogous to Nebraska where a person of the ilk of Ben Nelson is the only opportunity the Democrats might have. After all, the state did send Ed Rendell to Harrisburg, and he certainly was more a product of the liberal bastion of Philadelphia than of Pennsylvania as a whole.

Although Joe Hoeffel could not seem to muster enough support statewide to beat Arlen Specter in '04, he still brought many excellent ideas to the table and seemed to be an affable enough chap to appeal a wide range of voters. It is a shame that Mr. Hoeffel did not try to win the Democratic nomination again this year, especially given Mr. Santorum's vulnerability....c'est la vie, I suppose.