Never Mind

Kate Michelman has bailed out of the PA Senate race. From the Inquirer: (emph mine)

"Despite profound and fundamental differences, I have decided that Pennsylvania will be better served by electing Bob Casey to the U.S. Senate than giving his opponent another term," Michelman wrote in an op-ed to be published in The Inquirer on Sunday. "I do this knowing that I may forever regret not responding one more time to the clarion call of principle."

Nothing like quoting Thomas Paine, model of bravery, in an op-ed about how you have none. But I can't criticize her decision. It would take a person of extraordinary courage to run in this race to make the point that the Dems can't get away with running people like Casey in states like PA when all it would mean is a world of pain for her personally and professionally. And, since Casey will not win a race against Santorum, there's really no need for her to suffer like that.

What bugs me is that she mucked up the works at all if she wasn't planning on doing the full Nader because now we're getting analysis like this: (emph mine)

Michelman, 63, considered entering the race after Casey said he would have voted to confirm Samuel Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court. Her decision, one political observer said, could indicate a willingness among some Democrats to compromise on the abortion issue in favor of winning a Senate seat.

"The political calculation outweighed the issue calculation," said G. Terry Madonna, a political science professor at Franklin and Marshall College. "She would badly divide the Democratic vote, particularly in the Southeast, where I think the election will be won or lost."

It's Casey's candidacy which has badly divided the party. It's Casey's candidacy that will guarantee Man-on-Dog another six years of power, not anything Michelman did of, for that matter, didn't do.

It's easy to see the writing on the wall though. Michelman may have gotten the message that she was about to become the whipping boy when Casey loses, but her withdrawal won't save the rest of the women of PA from being blamed when Golden Boy comes up short yet again. Those stories have already been written, I'm sure. If she wants to be useful, she should start now putting together a rapid response effort that looks at exactly why Casey lost so that when the inevitable happens, she'll have proof that at least as many people were voting against his stunning lack of character as they were his opposition to reproductive health rights for women.

We can avoid all this, of course, by making sure that Casey isn't allowed to lead Democrats to another Senate defeat in PA. Chuck Pennacchio is the alternative to that. Read about him here. Donate here.

CHUCK PENNACCHIO MUST BE ELECTED.

Comments

[DavidByron]

Wonder why she pulled out at this point. Did she win any concession at all?

[eRobin]

I think it's why I said. Casey will lose on his own. Why should she set herself up as the scapegoat?

[DavidByron]

And she claimed the reason was that she didn't want to help Santorum win...... but both of these reasons were always evident. She would have known all that when she announced she was running. I wonder what prompted the change of mind.

[eRobin]

I'm not being clear. Someone told her that she would be PA's Nader when Casey lost, which was always obvious. What probably wasn't obvious to her was that Casey will lose. Not everyone sees that coming as clearly as I do. Once she realized that, she figured screw'em. Why should she climb up on that cross?

Her whole escapade has a sort of brilliant component to it because now she can say, on behalf of all women voting in PA, that we didn't lose it for him. Casey lost it all by himself. That will, of course, be the truth.

Then the whining Dems will be reduced to claiming that we didn't work hard enough for Casey. Count on it.