James Nagy – 5/25/06

This page was last updated on May 27, 2006.

Who’s a ‘thug?’; James Nagy; Beaver County Times; May 25, 2006.

You probably recall most of Mr. Nagy’s letters are simply vehicles to bash Republicans in general and President Bush in particular. This letter continues the trend.

For most of my information regarding the NSA terrorist surveillance program, see my critique of the editorial entitled “The rule of law.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“An eastern Pennsylvania newspaper recently carried a story titled: ‘Santorum calls Casey a ‘thug’ in residency flap.’

“The irony is that the alleged thuggish action was really a breach of privacy. It is highly unlikely that Santorum’s children were residing in the Penn Hills property at the time a ‘thug’ looked in the window for signs of life.

“Santorum’s charge that the thug worked for Casey’s campaign has no credible proof. The charge that the ‘thug’ terrorized his children is about as self-serving as Bush using the troops as back droops for photo opportunities.”

[RWC] There’s no question Mr. Santorum has overblown the alleged incident. As I noted on a local Republican blog earlier this week, the evidence cited by the Santorum campaign does not say what the campaign claims it does.

“I want to thank Santorum for helping us define thug.

“Now tell us, please, if President Bush was to use the NSA and their acquired phone records to reveal the truth about his Penn Hills residency, would he also be a thug? If Bush would use these tools to investigate Bob Casey’s residency, would he be any less a thug?”

[RWC] As I’ve written several times before, this residency thing is a bogus issue. If you accept Mr. Nagy’s argument, elected representatives must be separated from their families for a major portion of the year.

I wonder what Mr. Nagy’s position is regarding the governor. After all, Ed Rendell lives in Harrisburg but lists his residence as Philadelphia and votes there. The same is true for presidents of the United States; they live in Washington, DC, but vote in their home states.

“Casey, for his part, must not distance himself from holding Santorum accountable to residency rules. Frankly, I wish it could be proved that Casey and Santorum are both from out of state. Perhaps then a true Pennsylvanian like Chuck Pennacchio would get a chance to serve.”

[RWC] FYI, Mr. Pennacchio received only 9% of the votes in the Democrat primary. Mr. Casey received about 84%. I know nothing about Mr. Pennacchio, but it’s not saying much about a candidate if his supporters believe the only way for him to win is if the other candidates were disqualified.