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Everyone involved seems to be trying to put the best face on it, but Barack Obama went so far as to suggest senior Democrats like Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), who take a hard line on Iran, are doing so purely to appease their donors. Obama said that as a former senator himself, he understood how outside forces — like special interests and donors — can influence senators to act, one of the senators recounted.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A heated exchanged between President Barack Obama and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) broke out Thursday over whether the U.S. should reimpose sanctions on Iran amid ongoing negotiations over the country's nuclear program, according to two senators who were in the room. Menendez, the leading Democrat pushing for additional sanctions against Iran, forcefully pressed Obama on the need for additional sanctions during a meeting in which Obama urged Menendez and other senators to drop their efforts to pass sanctions legislation. Additional sanctions, Obama argued, could torpedo ongoing negotiations over Iran's nuclear program. The unusually sharp exchange, between...

Menendez: Obama Admin Statements on Iran 'Sound like Talking Points Straight out of Tehran'

The preponderance of conservative attention this year has quite understandably been focused on realizing the categorical imperative to defeat Barack Obama. But also important is the defeat of the president’s enablers in the United States Senate, that enough votes might be secured there to undo some of the damage they, together, have done. An opportunity to unseat one such enabler has emerged in an unlikely place — Pennsylvania — where first-term incumbent Bob Casey now finds himself in a fight he did not expect. Pennsylvania has long been in danger of becoming a vestigial swing state, blushing red before settling...

If you’re Senator Bob Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, an embattled incumbent with a shrinking lead over a little-known opponent, you generally don’t want the former governor of your state, Ed Rendell, and your chief media consultant, Saul Shorr, getting into a public spat. You really don’t want that former governor griping to the press that you “haven’t run a campaign” and that you’ve run only “one ad, a stupid tea-party ad.” You don’t want your own staffer — Shorr — in turn accusing Rendell of “ignorance” and of being “the governor of Philadelphia.” Things may be going wrong for Senator...

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey likened the Senate's passage Thursday of landmark health care reform legislation to the first chapter of a book. The next, much shorter chapter will be completed possibly as early as January, after Senate and House conferees work out the differences between each chamber's version of the bill and the final legislation is signed into law by President Barack Obama. But the succeeding chapters of health care reform, much like the history of the Social Security and Medicare programs, could take years, even decades to write, Mr. Casey said. "Some of the things we thought would work...

Senator Bob Casey Jr. (D - PA), who came to office as a pro-life Democrat in 2006 under the banner that he would continue his father's fight in pro-life causes has turned out to be pretty disappointing. When asked by the Washington Times on Tuesday what he thought his father, the late Bob Casey Sr., former governor of Pennsylvania from 1987 to 1995, would think of the abortion issue in the health care bill.: "I have no way of knowing. We’re dealing with something here which is unusual and unprecedented. We’ve had year to year appropriation bills where the Hyde...

Senator Casey's Wife Exclaims: "He [Senator Casey] has prayed about it, and has already made up his mind, and is not going to change it!" Diana Roccograndi asks: "What spirit is Mr. Casey listening to that would tell him to vote for a bill that would ensure the death of millions of babies?" SCRANTON, Pa., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- outside Senator Casey's home -- The following was released today by Randall Terry, Insurrecta Nex. -- Contact: Diana Roccograndi. To interview Diana Roccograndi, Andrew Beacham, or Ron Brock, call 904-687-9804 Also Below: See video of first night at their home. The...

Bob Casey for president. Sounds crazy, right? Yep, sounds crazy. Except that former Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum is thinking about running for president, and Mr. Casey clobbered him in 2006. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is running for president - she's pretending she's not - and she never finished her term as governor. Mr. Casey finished eight years as auditor general, though he didn't finish his term as treasurer because he won the Senate seat. So she's not the only one who can run for the highest office in the land without finishing a term. Ha-ha. Nothing points to...

As the U.S. Senate debates health care reform this week, the state's senators are pursuing amendments to bolster children's health insurance and toughen the Medicare fraud law. Sen. Bob Casey's amendment would ensure the future of the Children's Health Insurance Program by keeping it separate from a national health insurance exchange proposed under the Senate's reform bill. "No matter what anyone says, we've got to figure out a way to do this," he said. "And if it costs more money, then it costs more money. I think it's essential that we have all of the protections that we can in...

With President Barack Obama still mulling his Afghanistan strategy several weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey wanted an update on the region. His staff called Richard C. Holbrooke, the president's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. "I was thinking it might be the ambassador and maybe one of his staff or two of his staff," Mr. Casey said. "And we got there and it was a roomful of, gosh, it must have been 25 people ... having a briefing for one United States senator about what's happening in Pakistan and Afghanistan." The briefing included intelligence officials, State Department officials, Department...

Bishop Joseph F. Martino is continuing his public lobbying of U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on abortion-related issues. In a new letter to the senator, also e-mailed to The Times-Tribune on Wednesday, the bishop urges Mr. Casey to vote against confirming President Obama’s nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of Health and Human Services. Mrs. Sebelius supports abortion rights for women. “As you must be aware, Gov. Sebelius is one of the most militant pro-abortion politicians in the country,” the bishop wrote. “She has voted several times against her own Legislature in their efforts to prevent late-term abortions. As...

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Noted conservative commentator Sean Hannity will be in Lancaster Saturday to give U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum a boost less than two weeks before the election. Hannity and the two-term senator are scheduled to speak during the public rally starting at 7 p.m. in the Farm & Home Center, 1383 Arcadia Road, Manheim Township. Directions here: http://www.farmandhomecenter.com/directions.php“We are thrilled to have him,” Santorum spokeswoman Virginia Davis said. “Sean Hannity and Sen. Santorum share a very strong commitment to the security of this country.” In his bid for a third term, Santorum faces Democratic state Treasurer Bob Casey...

PITTSBURGH -- When Sen. Rick Santorum was first elected to Congress 16 years ago, he was among the firebrand conservatives who mapped out the Republican Revolution to slash government spending and end political careerism in Washington. Today, the Pennsylvanian is the third-ranking Republican in the Senate. But the Republican Revolution is over, and he faces one of the toughest re-election campaigns in the country. Typical of his campaigning these days was a stop earlier this month at the Pittsburgh Zoo, where he boasted to local reporters about how he'd fetched $500,000 from federal taxpayers to build one of the most...

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Thanks to the generosity of GOP donors, a Green Party candidate is expected to make it onto the ballot in Pennsylvania's Senate race and siphon votes from Democratic front-runner Bob Casey in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Rick Santorum. While Santorum said Monday that he would welcome another candidate on the ballot, Casey's campaign accused Republicans of "trying to steal the election." Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli, making his first bid for statewide elective office, acknowledged Monday that Republican contributors probably supplied most of the $100,000 that he said he spent gathering signatures to qualify for...

Below are the poll results based on telephone interviews with 1200 likely voters in Pennsylvania, aged 18+, and conducted March 10-12, 2006. The margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.1. Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's overall job performance? Approve 35% Disapprove 58% Undecided 7%2. Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's handling of the economy? Approve 34% Disapprove 59% Undecided 7%3. Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq? Approve 39% Disapprove 50% Undecided 11%4. Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war on terrorism?...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Rick Santorum's leading Democratic challenger, Pennsylvania Treasurer Bob Casey, announced Tuesday that he endorses Judge Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court.For weeks, Republicans have called Casey "Silent Bob" and pressed him to say whether he supports Alito's confirmation. Casey and Alito have a family connection because Alito, who serves on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Philadelphia, sided with Casey's father, the late Gov. Bob Casey, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The case challenged a state law requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses."I do not agree with everything that Judge Samuel...

Santorum: Media, liberals undermine support for Iraq war By The Associated Press, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Friday, January 13, 2006 WAYNE -- Sen. Rick Santorum on Thursday accused the media and liberals of undermining support for the Iraq war at a time when, he said, Islamic fundamentalists pose a serious threat to national security. "The challenge for liberty today, the challenge for our generation is the spread of Islamic fascism," said Santorum, R-Penn Hills. Speaking to more than 300 cadets at the Valley Forge Military Academy, Santorum said public support for the war has been difficult to maintain because of "biased coverage...

Pennsylvania State Treasurer Robert Casey, Jr., has opened a 52 - 34 percent lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in the 2006 Senate race, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.