A few days ago after Bob Casey felt the need to jump up to support Alito, Kos felt the need to jump up to defend Casey. After a post in which he staggered around reaching for any argument that could explain Casey's indefensible endorsement of Alito and only being able to decide that the decision was "bizarre," Kos finally settled on familiar ground:
(And no, his two primary challengers aren't viable alternatives. PA Dems will have to do better than them if they want a serious challenger to Casey who can also win in November. Like it or not, Casey has the clearest path to victory of any Dem Senate challenger this cycle. And we need this seat to have Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and subpoena power.)
Viability! Viability! We all must bow to the great gods of viability as described to us by the wise and angry Markos. We need that supoena power.
Excuse me? I'm supposed to be throwing away my values on a vote for Casey (who, in addition to being politically loathesome is also guaranteed to loose) because I'm keeping my eye on the Supoena Power prize? Supoena power for an impeachment that will never happen. Supoena power for investigations that will never happen. All that stuff takes powder and these guys like to keep their power dry. You can hear it now: Why rock the boat so close to election time? We have strategic reasons to avoid confrontation. And the media won't help us get our message out so we'd better lay low until the convention. Then we'll show'em. We Can Do Better!
I guess we all can't be super stratagmagists like Markos and the strategic class. Here I was thinking that I want to be represented by someone who represents me. Here I was thinking that while the party may be bigger than me (a favorite knock on issues voters*), it isn't big enough to include radical Republicans. They have a candidate already.
It looks like I'm not alone - not that I ever thought I was. OpEd News commissioned a Zogby poll that tells us Pennsylvanians what we already knew: Casey's Me-Too strategy is a losing bet. Conviction Wins and Chuck Pennacchio is the guy in the race with conviction. From Op-Ed: (emph mine)
The poll is the first to ask about all five PA US senate race candidates and provide positions each holds.
When people find out about candidate positions on key issues, Casey plummets from a twelve point lead to a dead heat, with a non-significant two point lead.
Santorum loses when matched with any of the democratic candidates. Both of the self identified progressive democratic candidates draw higher percentages than Casey, with Pennacchio having the largest percentage of votes against Santorum, at a not quite significant 4.4 points higher than Casey. Casey, at non-significant levels, actually gets MORE votes from Republicans once they find out more about him and Santorum.
Casey refused to respond, so we constructed his positions from media and speeches.
OpEdNews.com's conclusion on this race-- Santorum wants Casey as his opponent because he wins the demographic game. Casey loses massively in some categories, when voters find out about Casey, which Santorum will sure insure (sic). For example, Casy's support among 18-24 year olds drops from 63% to 40%, with Protestants, it drops from 47.3% to 30%, with liberals, from 95.4% to 68%, with moderates, from 64% to 53%, but Casey actually gains support from conservates, going from 3.9% to 5%, a non-significant, but interesting finding.
I have a feeling that that Republican number is what Casey's strategists are hanging their hats on. The campaign must have "No Choice" posters hanging on every wall. They're counting on the Dems waking up on May 17th to find that they have no choice but to vote for Casey and then following along like good sheeple. That explains the "bizarre" jump to endorse Alito. That explains Casey's craven refusal to debate the issues with Sandals and Pennacchio and his refusal to take part in this poll. He's actually running a Democratic campaign courting Republicans. We Dems can sit down and shut up until Daddy's done talking business. And he's doing this in Pennsylvania, a blue state.
Well, I'm no sheep. I don't like to sit down and shut up while yet another "grown up" sells my interests out in some cross-party corporate borgy of assimilation. No thank you.
You can give Chuck a big post-poll boost at his donation site. Comment at his blog. Let him know you've heard about the results. Remember: Chuck not only can win, he's winning.
* I'm not opposed to Casey because of his anti-choice policy alone. I'm opposed to his pro-war, anti-science, anti-choice, corporate Me-Too policies. And once he supported Alito, I knew that all his talk about being good on labor was a bunch of bologna too.
Yep. Electing Casey does NOTHING about stopping the confirmation of Bush nominations like Alito. So I don't really understand how much good it does to have him on board.
Posted by: PSoTD | January 27, 2006 at 04:07 PM
It advances the corporate Dem agenda and futher solidifies single-party rule, which is why all the money is behind him.
Posted by: eRobin | January 27, 2006 at 04:20 PM
No, you're not alone. I am sick to death of this party selling us down the river.
(BTW, my e-mail is brilliantatbreakfast at gmail ....you know how to put it together, I think....I'm just making sure that the bots don't find it.)
Posted by: Jill | January 27, 2006 at 04:28 PM
May 16!
Posted by: albert | January 27, 2006 at 04:55 PM
I put the 17th because it's the day after the primary. Casey is just praying to be able to get through the primary. Then he feels like the Dems will really have no choice but to vote for him. I hope it doesn't come to that but if it does, he's in for a big surprise.
Posted by: eRobin | January 27, 2006 at 05:04 PM
This whole post is right on the money and my favorite line is "I don't like to sit down and shut up while yet another "grown up" sells my interests out in some cross-party corporate borgy of assimilation."
Me neither. Go Chuck Pennacchio!
Posted by: Davey D | January 27, 2006 at 06:14 PM
What's really depressing is that when you compare the positions that were used to base the poll on Casey is almost identical to Man-on-Dog and less liberal than the other Republican.
In short there will be two Republican candidates to choose from and they will both be extremists, not even a choice of a moderate Republican.
So how come Kos seems unaware of these figures?
Posted by: DavidByron | January 27, 2006 at 08:14 PM
very good post, thanks...
;)
Posted by: Marisacat | January 27, 2006 at 09:21 PM
Kos' position is that Chuck and Sandals aren't "viable." He's bought into that magic fairy tale about the moderate Republicans and Conservative Dems who want to vote to get rid of Roe but find Santorum to wacko. Casey is quite literally Santorum-lite.
The worst part of the that strategy is that the big thinkers are taking my vote for granted to the most extreme degree and nothing makes me - and hundreds of thousands like me - angrier than that.
Posted by: eRobin | January 27, 2006 at 11:17 PM
Saw the good news on Booman so jumped over here. Thought I'd find a happy blog. I'm from Ohio (where we've got enough problems of our own) but donated again to Chuck just yesterday. Keep up the good work! Kos will eat his words. He needs a little reality orientation.
Posted by: Psyche | January 27, 2006 at 11:34 PM
Happy blog indeed, Psyche! Glad you bopped over :)
Posted by: eRobin | January 27, 2006 at 11:53 PM
While I appreciate the community that Kos has created, some of his views tend to be a little too "inside the beltway" for my tastes. Ironic, since I'm the one inside the beltway.
I'll add that I met Chuck at the Philly Drinking Liberally. Great guy, and I'm going to go slip him a few bucks.
Posted by: AltHippo | January 28, 2006 at 02:48 PM
Hey Hippo, glad to hear it. I think his fundraising got a fair boost from the poll results. Nothing succeeds like success.
Posted by: eRobin | January 28, 2006 at 03:44 PM