Casey's Stage Presence

So with all this talk about candidate Casey, I decided to watch the first extended clip of him on live TV. I had seen teensy clips of him and heard him on the "conference call" last week, but never saw him on live TV. I watched this clip of then Treasurer-elect Casey on PA Newsmakers hosted by pollster Terry Madonna. It was the 11.28.04 show, a few weeks after the election. It's about a three or four part interview with Casey with a runtime of about fourteen minutes [the whole clip is twenty-three minutes, but Casey isn't on the last nine minutes of the show].

One of the very first things Casey spoke about were the six debates he had. Yes, this was during the general election, but he lauded the fact that they had so many, he [or Madonna] said that he thinks it was a record. Why not set another record and flush out all the details in this all too important primary we have now? Chuck Pennacchio and Alan Sandals would love to debate him. I think Pennacchio would trounce all of them in a big debate. But Bob Casey is scared to open his mouth in fear that his ever shrinking lead over Sen. $antorum will shink some more with each word spouted from his lips. So he stays at home. And as far as I can tell, he never leaves home; he doesn't have a calendar/events page up on his site to show for.

Madonna asked Casey for his thoughts on the growing culture gap in the Democratic party, the gap between the elites and everyone else. He said that they needed to change the [paraphrased] "same old thing" way of going about things. If that "same old thing" way of going things is being pro-choice, pro-privacy, pro-balanced budget, pro-environment, pro-healthcare for all, I'd be all for it. But Casey doesn't stand for all of those things. Chuck Pennacchio is a pro-choice candidate who believes in the rights of the private citizen. He stands firmly against the Alito nomination whereas Casey has backed the nomination [I got my eye on you too Hoagiemaster Rendell].

Casey then went onto suggesting that we need a bigger tent in the Democratic party; I'm assuming so that he'll feel more comfortable since he's almost out the door anyways. He said that if the Dems had a candidate who had all of the same stances on the issues as Kerry has, including being pro-choice, but got up to the podium and said that s/he agreed with the anti-choicers that "we should ban partial birth abortion, that alone would be progress" [he used that phrase which is a fallacy, it's a late term abortion]. Casey wants to ban third trimester abortions without regard for the life of the mother, as inferred from that comment. That is not progress, that is regression. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. As stated in this Inky article:

It would seem obvious: Democratic Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr., who opposes abortion, believes Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

"You can't say you have the position I have and not believe that," Casey said in a recent interview about the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that made legal abortions available nationwide.

And that's that. With his backing of Chief Justice Roberts the last time around and his backing of Judge Alito this time, I see that it is crystal clear that it is on his agenda.

It's actually quite hard to concentrate on him while he speaks. Monotonous. Phlegmatic. Snoozefest. But I got through it, I felt I needed to. If you're trying to fall asleep late at night, I suggest clicking on the video of this interview.

Supporting Chuck Pennacchio, the Progressive chioce for a Progressive Pennsylvania, is what I've been doing for months now. The rest of the blogosphere turned their heads after the word got out on his backing Alito. I hope that the pressure is kept on. We don't want another Joe "Alf's Dad" Lieberman on our hands. Well, even Alf's Dad may vote against Alito. Only Sen. Ben Nelson (D-ND) as of right now would vote to confirm. Casey would further weaken the Democrat's efforts to can this nomination.

So, in the end, I'd have to agree with Chris' assessment of Casey's presence:

a sandwich bag filled with lukewarm Vaseline and crushed Valium

And how.