[8mmMauser]

The left frets big time over the race of Santorum and the other guy.

U.S. Senator Rick Santorum is intelligent, articulate, hard- working and passionate. The Pennsylvania Republican is No. 3 in the Senate GOP hierarchy and in a position to move up to No. 2 should he be re-elected. His 12 years in the Senate and his position in leadership have enabled him to deliver important federal dollars for the state, according to no less an authority than Gov. Ed Rendell.

His considerable assets as a politician, however, are bundled with views that are sometimes out of step even by our area's conservative standards. He has increasingly become a divisive figure not only in the state, but in the nation. For many, he is a poster boy for America's right-wing fringe elements. They point to his rushing to the side of Terry Schiavo in her final days, his strong and public endorsement of Intelligent Design, his views on gays in our society as just a few of the reasons why.

Challenger will learn and listen, unlike his incumbent opponent

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[8mmMauser]

And so do the Canadians....

Polls suggest that Democrats have a fairly good chance of winning the 15 seats they need to control the House of Representatives. The Senate, where Democrats need six seats, will be tougher.

"They'll have to do everything right to take the Senate," says Cushman. "But if Santorum loses his seat, it's still a good night for them."

Key Pennsylvania race could deal huge blow to Republicans, Christian right

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[T'wit]

I think we should all take the pledge: "I REFUSE TO BELIEVE ANYTHING IN THE MEDIA UNTIL AFTER THE ELECTIONS."

[T'wit]

This week's flap -- Rush Limbaugh vs. Michael J. Fox -- brings to mind a famous moment in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Veep candidate John Edwards was in the pulpit, in the great tradition of southern Bible thumpers and cemetery plot salesmen. His sermon was about embryonic stem cells. Edwards lifted his eyes piously and preached, "We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases. ... If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to walk, get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."

(Reeve, alas, died that week.)

Charles Krauthammer, a doctor, himself paralyzed, was furious at Edwards's demagogy. By raising false hopes for a cure, as both Edwards and Fox did, you impede future research. If you're not honest, people will stop believing you and your proposals will fall on deaf ears.

"In my 25 years in Washington, I have never seen a more loathsome display of demagoguery. Hope is good. False hope is bad. Deliberately, for personal gain, raising false hope in the catastrophically afflicted is despicable."

Still good reading!

An Edwards Outrage

[T'wit]

I'd reckon this freshman editorialist does not know how lowly is the position of a freshman senator. Rick Santorum already has status in the senate. Casey would have none. So how is Casey going to deliver on any promises to the people of Pennsylvania?