Posted on 09/04/2006 7:59:28 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Closing in on his front-runner opponent in the polls, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., came out swinging in the first and probably the only public debate with Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob Casey.
He may have delivered a knockout blow to Casey, who appeared confused and inarticulate during his encounter with the fast-talking Santorum during their weekend debate on NBC's "Meet the Press" with host Tim Russert.
Writing at SantorumBlog, contributor Rich Talbert observed: "Casey was a dead stick when discussing Iraq ... was absolutely clueless about Social Security ... bombed with Catholics with the abortion pill ... dropped the ball on the pay raise ... but did a good job coming across as sophomoric and being awfully smug and sarcastic.”
Meanwhile, Santorum lived up to what the Washington Post called "his reputation as a feisty, unapologetic conservative,” energetically voicing his support of President Bush despite suggestions that he has sought to distance himself from the president.
"I think he's been a terrific president, absolutely," Santorum said during the debate. He added that "there is no question that the Iraq war should have commenced."
During the debate, which lasted for just short of a full hour, Casey bobbed and weaved when questioned about such issues as how he would balance the budget, and whether he would have voted to support the invasion of Iraq.
Asked whether he still believes he would have voted to support the Iraq invasion in light of Saddam Hussein's lack of unconventional weapons, Casey said his vote would have been no. "If we knew then what we know now, I think there wouldn't have been a vote.
"If a lot of Americans knew now — if they knew then what they know now, they would, they would have thought that this war was the war that shouldn’t have been fought based upon the misleading of this administration.”
Asked how he would balance the federal budget, Casey replied that he would repeal the recent tax cuts for people making more than $200,000 a year, the very tax cut that gave the U.S. the world’s fastest growing and strongest economy, and retain a tax on very large estates. He refused however, to cite any federal programs he would be willing to cut.
His responses provoked Santorum to observe: "What you heard from Mr. Casey is what you hear all the time. No specifics, no answer."
When pressed as to the specific actions he would take in Iraq, Casey mentioned increasing the number of Special Forces, leading Santorum to say: My opponent has no plan. The idea — all he’s suggested is his plan is special--”
Interrupted Casey: "I just gave a plan. Where’s yours?
Santorum repeated his allegation and then went for the jugular, asking Casey: "Do you support more intelligence gathering because your party has been out there trying to undermine our surveillance programs? You’re the one who’s gone out and said that you have serious questions about our intelligence surveillance programs. What do you think has kept our people safe? What do you think stopped the British, the British attack? You folks have been the party, as you have been the party, of making sure that we don’t have the intelligence gathering capabilities that we need, and, and, and have, have joined in making sure...”
Casey interjected: "Rick, you’re not debating the party, you’re debating me right here.”
Said Santorum: "I’m debating you. And I’ve looked at your comments saying that you have serious concerns about our surveillance programs.”
Said Casey: "No, we should, we should, we should keep the programs and keep the wiretaps...”
Santorum countered: "Well, my point is that we need to have strong surveillance programs. You mentioned Special Forces. We have lots of Special Forces out there, but they need intelligence if they’re going to be able to do their jobs. And as far as that being a plan to solve this problem, I think you just fundamentally misunderstand the problem. You’re saying that somehow or another the language and terminology doesn’t matter. You believe that we’re going to win or lose this war on the battlefield in Iraq and the battlefield in Afghanistan. I don’t. I think we’ll win or lose this war right here in America.”
Responding to Casey’s recipe for handling Social Security’s looming crisis -- merely growing the economy -- Santorum said: "He wants to grow the economy by increasing taxes. That’s what he says. So here he’s saying we have to grow the economy so we’re going to take more out of it. That’s a great way to grow the economy. In fact, what we’ve seen is that, in fact, when we give people their money, let them keep the money that they’ve worked hard to earn, they reinvest it, they create jobs, and they grow the economy just like you suggested. He provided absolutely no answer, again. And he’s not only has not provided an answer for how he’s going to reduce the deficit, in fact his proposals are well over a trillion dollars ... just go through his Web site and see all the things he wants to fully fund ...
"We passed a Medicaid bill earlier this year, cut $40 billion out of the growth of Medicare. He was against it. In another entitlement, welfare reform. 1996, the most successful social policy legislation in history, took illegal immigrants off welfare, took, took prisoners off of welfare, took fugitive felons off of welfare. He was against it. It would have saved billions of dollars over the last 10 years.
He was against it. He’s against anything that cuts government or the budget. That’s just a joke.
"And he won’t give you an answer on Social Security. He won’t give you an answer on anything to make any changes. It’s all talking points from the Democratic Senatorial Committee. There’s no specifics.”
It was after Casey said as treasurer he has "been fiscally responsible in my work. You ought to try it,” that Santorum pounced. Noting that Casey as state treasurer had continued to sign paychecks containing a pay a raise he know violated the state Constitution.
The pay raise in which members of the General Assembly on July 7, 2005, awarded themselves a huge pay increase resulted in a massive voter protest tossing state legislators out of office.
Said Santorum: "Bob Casey as treasurer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania refused — absolutely refused - to fight that pay raise. He said nothing for three months, signed the checks that was an unconstitutional pay raise, and then five months afterwards, after the November election, after the people of Pennsylvania said, "We don’t like this pay raise,” Bob Casey comes out and files a legal brief saying that what he did was unconstitutional. That’s not courage, that’s political pandering. That’s not someone who’s going to come to Washington and fight for Pennsylvania. That’s someone who plays games with his old buddies, and when the going got tough, he was nowhere to be seen.”
Responded Casey: "I came out very clearly, long before Election Day in November ‘05 against it.”
Said Santorum: "You didn’t do anything when you could’ve stopped it Why didn’t you try to stop it? Why didn’t you try to stop it? You could’ve stopped it ... You said to your newspaper that you didn’t even ask about it. You didn’t even ask your lawyers what you could do ... That was in the paper. You answered the reporter and the reporter asked you why didn’t you do anything? You said, 'I didn’t think about it. I didn’t even ask about it.'”
Said Casey: "You’re wrong about this. You didn’t take a position on the state pay raise.”
Santorum said: I’m not a state official, you are. You were in a position — you signed the pay raise checks. You had an opportunity to stop this pay raise.”
Casey responded "It’s called following the law. Following the law.”
Said Santorum: "And you said that you were following the law that you say now is unconstitutional ... You filed a brief, you filed a brief saying it was unconstitutional ... You filed a brief saying it was unconstitutional.”
Replied Casey: "Following the law, Rick. It’s a new concept here.
Said Santorum: How can you say it’s following the law if you say it’s unconstitutional?”
I saw the second half of that. I thought Santorum did great.
Of course - the Kwazy Kos Kidz think Casey won!
Now that is a comment from a stuck pig if I ever saw one.
Rick Santorum ping.
Sounds great. Hope it gets wide exposure.
I love this part:
"Casey was a dead stick when discussing Iraq ... was absolutely clueless about Social Security ... bombed with Catholics with the abortion pill ... dropped the ball on the pay raise ... but did a good job coming across as sophomoric and being awfully smug and sarcastic.”
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
I agree. Unfortunately, the debate was on a holiday weekend and I doubt anyone saw it.
OK, he's a liberal, but honestly, as far as liberals go, Casey is not too bad. He's one of the few that I don't despise. He has publicly said that he wouldn't bring most of his party out to meet his constituents, that they're a different breed of Democrat as is he.
It really is sad to me, though, that the Kos kids think that he won. It means that they're not paying any attention at all.
The interesting thing about this story is that many folks who are familiar with Casey predicted that he'd bomb miserably in the debates.
And he did, LOL!
Then, retire to the Old Liberals Home.....in Siberia, or Cuba.
They probably are paying attention...they're just dopey!!!
Either way, dopey or delusional, its a sad thing for the country.
My condolences to your country, too, on the loss of Steve Irwin. I was really surprised by how badly I felt to hear the news and I'm certain it's an immeasurable loss to you. I, among many, am sorry for your loss.
Thank you. We're feeling Steve's loss acutely. Particularly feel sorry for his family. I have a daughter the same age as his...bloody tough.
Whoa, steady now. This is Casey Jr. we're talking about. He ain't his old man. Take it from a Pennsylvanian who has watched Bobby lurch from one campaign to the next. This guy is an empty suit, and I've no doubt that, if he wins, he'll be a good little lap dog for the libs.
He certainly sounds like a lib. First he wants to balance the budget, not by cutting spending but by raising taxes. Then he says, hey, no social security crisis, and even if there is, we'll just grow our way out of it. Not sure how raising taxes can do that, but hey, he is a dim...
Rick pounded little Bobby. Don't be surprised if this turns out to be the turning point...
The ultimate compliment to Irwin are the dozens of wanna bes that are popping up on television around the world. No one can ever be the original though.
AS our PM said, he was one of a kind.
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