> So most of what we know about Casey is that he's against
> abortion. What else about him?
He's better than the common run of Democrats on just about everything else.
A lot of the MoveOn-type liberals were pissed that Rendell and the "party regulars" did not endorse Barbara Hafer -- a Rendell-style, business-oriented former Republican who is also pro-choice. I probably don't need to make the obvious points about the class location of most MoveOn types. But unfortunately that is who you would have heard from about the Pennsylvania primary a few months ago when Hafer decided not to run -- all of them whining about how there wasn't going to be a primary because the "party establishment" had somehow spurned Hafer, as if she were some kind of grassroots candidate and not the creature of upwardly-mobile suburban privilege that she is. They don't give a shit about the working class, so Hafer looks "good" to them, and they interpreted the Casey endorsement as a "move to the right," which it most certainly is not.
If Bush decides to look for Democrats to support some sort of "compromise" on Social Security, for instance, Barbara Hafer is just the kind of Democrat to do that. Casey is not. He will vote with workers and poor people straight down the line, and more -- he's the kind of guy where you can call his office and they can actually be allies, help develop strategy, etc. Ideologically, he's basically an old-style "social justice" Catholic Democrat, both genuinely religious (which I don't consider praise, just a statement of fact) and genuinely concerned with "standing up for the little guy."
It's true he's backward on abortion, and I won't make excuses for that. It's also true that he's running against Santorum, who is worse on that and on everything else under the sun. To the extent that other Democrats vote against Bush's judges, Casey will vote with them, and the Republicans will use that against him to shore up the fetus-fetish vote for Santorum in the "T."
- - - - - - - - - - John Lacny http://www.johnlacny.com
Tell no lies, claim no easy victories