BCT Editorial – 11/10/06

This page was last updated on November 11, 2006.

Middle man; Editorial; Beaver County Times; November 10, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Bob Casey Jr. won on Tuesday night, and so did Bob Casey Democrats. That was good for the candidate, the party and the country.

“Casey’s wide margin of victory over U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum can’t be attributed solely to the incumbent’s personality, blunders or ties to President Bush.

“To do so would be to diminish Casey’s hard work on the campaign trail and his appeal to moderates and conservatives on social issues and liberals and moderates on economic and labor matters - the voters who supported his father, the late Gov. Bob Casey Sr.”

[RWC] This is a nice theory, but I saw quite a few Casey ads and none told me what he stood for. Every one was either the equivalent of saying Casey was for apple pie and motherhood or an attack ad. The same was true of his interviews. Essentially, Casey ran on the “I’m not Santorum” platform.

“The U.S. Senate and the nation need principled men and women in the middle like Casey, people who forsake the all-or-nothing approach to politics today and who understand the importance of compromise, moderation and civility.”

[RWC] I’d like to get a copy of the dictionary used by outlets like the Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Why? Using my definition, I couldn’t use “principled” to refer to a state treasurer who approved checks for a payjacking he later admitted was unconstitutional.

This “in the middle” stuff is hogwash because you need to look at individual issues, not a group of them. For example, what’s the “middle” position when it comes to abortion? What’s the “middle” position when it comes to interpreting the Constitution? Quoting Justice Scalia, “What in the world is a moderate interpretation of a constitutional text? Halfway between what it says and what we’d like it to say?”

“The senator-elect very well could turn out to be the right man at the right place at the right time.”

[RWC] Translation: Mr. Casey is not a Republican.