SantorumBlog

He could really go either way right now. Let’s hope that Bob Casey chooses to follow in his father’s footsteps and doesn’t end up like this, if only for the sake of Pennsylvania:

The message to the Republican Party is clear - reclaim your conservative roots or be condemned to minority status for decades.

The Republicans must immediately begin to convincingly work for the conservative principles which they promised to support when they got elected. As Michael Savage says, Borders, Language, Culture. Republicans had four years to secure the borders - they didn’t do it. Republicans had four years to make English America’s official language - they didn’t do it. Republicans had four years to get the garbage in the media out of our children’s faces - they didn’t do it. Republicans had four years to cut government spending - they didn’t do it.

The result of these failures, combined with the failure to fight back against liberal partisanship and lies, was the bloodbath we saw on Tuesday. President Bush is called every despicable name imaginable every single day, and what does he do about it? He laughs it off. That’s all well and good for Bush, but when he doesn’t go out and explain how he is being slandered, people start to believe those lies. It’s exactly the same with Senator Santorum.

I am optimistic that most Republicans will get the message and clean up their acts. They have two years starting now to prove to America that they’re sorry for breaking their promises, and that they’re now serious about supporting conservative values - which are American values.

I hate to break it to the moonbats who inexplicably continue to troll on this blog and post asinine comments, but America didn’t reject conservatism on Tuesday. America’s conservatives rejected the non-conservative actions of the Republican Party by sitting this election out.

Most Americans want lower taxes. Most Americans want to cut government spending. Most Americans want restrictions on abortion. Most Americans want to secure the borders. As George Will wrote, this election was a defeat for Republicans - not a defeat for conservatism.

Be honest with yourselves, moonbats. You just elected Bob Casey, a man who says he’s pro-life, anti-gay marriage, anti-embryonic stem cell research and pro-gun. Does it sound like you just voted against the “Christian fascists”?

Seven states voted to ban gay marriage on Tuesday. Only one state in which a ban was proposed did it fail - Arizona - and it failed by the slimmest margin. And that’s with the Republicans staying home! So much for the “AmTaliban” being repudiated.

Democrats win elections by pretending to be conservative. Republicans lost this election by not being conservative enough. The Republican Party must embrace conservatism for victory in 2008!

Five Reasons to Vote for Rick Santorum:

1 - The Republican tax cuts supported by Senator Rick Santorum have led the Dow Jones Industrial Average to increase by 2,000 points since the 2004 presidential election. The Dow has been propelled to an all-time high. Unemployment is at its lowest rate in five years. The budget deficit for 2006 is $248 billion - down from $412 billion in 2004. Why is it important to remember the 2004 numbers? Because it shows what progress we’ve made since America went out in force to elect conservative Republican leaders two years ago. It shows that we must do it again, and re-elect Rick Santorum.

2 - The war against Islamic fascism could very well be the most important issue of our time. Senator Santorum has shown that he understands this conflict more than any other Senator. He recognizes that we must secure the borders to prevent Islamic fascists from bringing deadly substances into America. He recognizes that we must encourage the people of Iran to fight for their freedom and put an end to the tyranny in their country, not only for their own sake, but for the sake of the world. He recognizes that we must finish the job in Iraq, because if we allow the Islamic fascists to defeat us there, they will be emboldened like never before.

3 - Senator Santorum is a conservative, no doubt about it, but he is also willing to challenge his conservative colleagues when he disagrees with them, and work with liberals when they agree on an issue. He has worked with Democrats to help fight poverty and AIDS. He has stood up and opposed President Bush’s immigration and Iran policies. While he is a conservative and therefore agrees with the President often, he is not a “rubber stamp” for anyone.

4 - We only need one more originalist Justice on the Supreme Court to undo decades of ideological decisions made by left-wing Justices who abused their power and became judicial activists. Senator Santorum has been a fighter to get originalist judges on all courts - judges who will not make decisions based on their own personal opinions, but rather based on the law. In 2004, Rick Santorum supported the re-election of Senator Arlen Specter, and many conservatives were upset - upset that Specter would block originalists from the Supreme Court. Yet thanks to the influence of his Republican colleagues like Rick Santorum, Senator Specter not only allowed a vote on John Roberts and Sam Alito - he voted in favor of their nominations. Senator Santorum and Senator Specter voted together to put Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Sam Alito on the Supreme Court, two solid originalists who will remain on the Court for decades. We only need one more originalist Justice to have a majority of originalists on the Supreme Court, and that’s why we need to re-elect Rick Santorum.

5 - Agree or disagree with him, you always know where Senator Santorum stands on the issues. Everyone knows that Rick Santorum is pro-life, against euthanasia, and against government funding for emergency contraception and embryonic stem cell research. As a social conservative, I applaud Santorum for his positions on these vital issues. But maybe you’re not a social conservative, so you disagree with Santorum on these issues. Still, you must recognize that he is a man of integrity who stands up for what he believes in and always tells us what he thinks, and that’s exactly the kind of leader we need to represent us in Washington.

Five Reasons Not to Vote for Bob Casey:

1 - Bob Casey wants to ‘roll back the tax cuts’ (in other words, raise taxes) which have been responsible for the improvement in our economy over the past two years. When asked what programs he would cut, Casey couldn’t give a single answer - all he wants to do is raise taxes, and he thinks that will cure all of America’s ills.

2 - Bob Casey is MIA in the war against Islamic fascism. He wants President Bush to replace Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, but that’s about all he wants to change in Iraq. In spite of the fact that he constantly blasts President Bush and Senator Santorum for supporting the Iraq War, Casey tells us that he also would have supported the war and that he opposes leaving Iraq. He has no idea about what to do in Iran, and he is not serious about securing America’s borders.

3 - Bob Casey likes to pretend to be a conservative or moderate Democrat, but he says that he will not lead on any conservative issues. Instead, he says that as a Senator he would push for liberal economic policies. He is supported by all manner of far-left groups, from MoveOn.org to NARAL to Daily Kos. These groups are counting on Casey to be a pawn of Chuck Schumer and the Democrat Party leadership.

4 - Bob Casey says that he would have voted to filibuster some originalist justices branded as “extreme” by Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy. Casey is once again MIA on the issue of judicial activism, and frankly doesn’t seem to understand it. Many Americans have voted in favor of State Constitutional amendments to protect traditional marriage, understanding that such amendments are the only way to stop judicial activists from redefining marriage on their own whim. When it comes to the issue of judges, Bob Casey is out of touch with the people of Pennsylvania.

5 - Does anyone know what Bob Casey really believes? Does Bob Casey himself know? He says he is pro-life, yet he is supported by NARAL and Planned Parenthood and he denies the scientific fact that the morning-after pill can have an abortifacient effect prior to implantation. He says he’s against gay marriage, yet he is supported by all manner of radical homosexual groups. He says he wants strong borders, yet he supports Amnesty. He says that we need a new direction in Iraq, yet he provides no such new direction. He never gave a straight answer to a question in any of the debates he was involved in. When asked to appear on numerous news and talk shows to discuss his views, he didn’t show up, claiming that he was too busy doing something else to talk to the people of Pennsylvania. We Pennsylvanians must not send a man to Washington when that man absolutely refuses to take a clear and consistent position on any issue. Pennsylvania deserves better representation than someone who will not even tell us what he believes.

*Updated - see below*

“Education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

-John Kerry, October 30, 2006

“My statement yesterday — and the White House knows this full well — was a botched joke about the president and the president’s people, not about the troops. The White House’s attempt to distort my true statement is a remarkable testament to their abject failure in making America safe.”

-John Kerry, October 31, 2006

“I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended.”

-John Kerry, November 1, 2006

-On John Kerry’s website since November 3, 2006

Does Bob Casey agree that “Kerry was right either way“? Does Bob Casey agree with an editorial which John Kerry has up on his website - an editorial which agrees with the idea that our troops are stupid and uneducated? We’ll never know, because Casey doesn’t answer hard questions.

Updated at 5PM November 4th

John Kerry has just updated the front page of his website. Can you spot the difference? Click for larger images:

Did you see it? One of the editorials is missing. Yesterday there were four editorials on the front page of his site. Now there are only three; and the one that’s missing is the one which calls our troops stupid. Kerry’s people left up a link to it on the right side of the page (Kerry’s Remark: Right either way), but the large picture of it which I posted earlier is gone.

John Kerry continues to insult our intelligence. He thinks we’re all stupid.

Update Welcome HotAir,Ace of Spades and RiehlWorldView readers.

A couple stories of interest.

Bobby Casey takes black voters for granted.

Bobby Casey works for labor’s vote by telling a stupid lie.

The Towanda Daily & Sunday Review tells us to vote for Bob Casey for a “new direction”. The paper has no clue exactly what that direction is, and it also doesn’t seem to care. This really says it all:

“Here’s how it was put by G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Public Affairs and Politics at Franklin & Marshall College, director of the Keystone Poll, and one of Pennsylvania’s most astute political analysts:

“In Pennsylvania, as nationally, it’s the unpopularity of the war in Iraq and the president’s low approval ratings that are the short-term problem (for Republicans). But longer term, it is the reaction of the suburban Republican voters to the activism of the social conservatives in their party that is at the root of Republican problems.” ”

“It is time for a change. The country needs a new direction.”

So they’re saying that Rick Santorum has to go because of his social conservative activism. Wait a second - doesn’t Bob Casey claim to be socially conservative as well? Doesn’t Bob Casey say that he’s pro-life, and that he’s against euthanasia and federal funding for embryonic stem cell research? How would voting for him give us a new direction on such issues?

Consider their other point as well - Iraq. Bob Casey’s incoherent Iraq policy just seems to involve wanting President Bush to replace the Secretary of Defense. In other words, he supports the war, and he does not want us to leave Iraq now. So again, how is that a new direction?

They’re grasping at straws here. No, in reality, they’re just making it up as they go along. They don’t like Senator Santorum for whatever reason, so they’re actually making up reasons why you should vote for his opponent. Every year, the mainstream media becomes more and more blatantly partisan. We can only hope that a majority of Americans come to understand this eventually.

But seriously, in his ad, Casey promises to work together with Republicans.

Really? The same Bob Casey who doesn’t show up to work is going to “work” with Republicans? The same Bob Casey who uses President Bush’s name as a curse word is going to be a uniter?

Senator Rick Santorum has a real record of working together with Democrats on many issues. It’s more than the empty, contradictory rhetoric from Casey:

I just saw this new ad on Fox News Channel:

BobCasey.com gives us a video of Casey telling us what he would do as Senator. From the horse’s mouth:

-Casey would try to reduce the deficit

-Casey would try to get health care for kids

-Casey would try to make the economy stronger

Of course, NONE of those are actual plans or ideas. They’re things which EVERYBODY wants. Santorum is currently working to reduce the deficit, increase health care for kids, and improve the economy. And we already know that unlike Casey, Santorum actually does work.

Casey might as well have told us that he’s in favor of puppies, or that he wants to fight for more sunny days. He had his big shot to tell us what he’s going to do, and his website trumpets this video as “what you can expect from Bob Casey in Washington.” And he tells us nothing!

So I guess what we can expect if Bob Casey is elected is a whole lot of nothing, combined with higher taxes.

Lancaster Online

“He just doesn’t understand,” Santorum said. “He has a real problem understanding real basic things.”

One example Santorum cited was Casey’s responses earlier this month to questions from the Philadelphia Inquirer about wiretap surveillance. Santorum said Casey, by declining to give a firm position on the matter during the interview, failed to grasp the issue of whether the president, without judicial oversight, can order secret eavesdropping on the phone calls of suspected terrorists.

“He either doesn’t understand or he can’t make up his mind about a question posed to him,” Santorum said.

“He has no thoughts. This is a big job. You have to understand the important and complex issues.”

Santorum also slammed his critics and Casey for misrepresenting Santorum’s views on women in the work force and birth control.

Many critics targeted the senator for things he wrote in 2005’s “It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good.” Critics say in the book Santorum advocated that women stay at home to raise children.

That’s inaccurate, Santorum said, because his position is that if parents, not just mothers, can afford to stay home and raise their children, it’s an option they should seriously consider.

“Look,” the Santorum pointed to his campaign press secretary, Virginia Davis. “The idea I don’t want women to work is bizarre,” he said.

Michael Ledeen thinks that Bobby Casey is embarking on a drooling campaign.

“I don’t think we should ever use a fictional fairy tale or any kind of fiction to describe the gravity” of the war in Iraq, Mr. Casey said. Well, so much for Tolstoy, Hemingway and Stephen Crane. Casey doesn’t even understand literature, let alone geopolitics.

“(Santorum) should tell us what he’s going to do as a U.S. senator if he were to be re-elected. He’s not telling us. He’s pretending that he’s some kind of professor and that he’s got to teach the American people about this. We don’t need any teaching lessons, and I certainly don’t, from Rick Santorum. He’s been lecturing too long,” Mr. Casey said.

Whenever Casey is asked to answer a serious question, he blames Santorum for having given a straight answer. He can’t give straight answers. He even contradicts himself in a prepared statement to the press.

First he says that Santorum should tell the people what he wants done to confront the threat. (Neglecting, of course, the Syrian Freedom Act and the Iran Freedom Act, two landmark laws enacted over protests from the negotiate-at-all-costs Democrats and diplomats in State and the White House). And then he turns around and says Santorum says too much about it.

Casey calls that “lecturing,” It isn’t.

It’s called leadership through legislation.

Casey is so bad that when the very friendly Philadelphia Inquirer asked him about his position on listening to terrorists’ telephone conversations, he infuriated the interviewer because he couldn’t string together two coherent sentences.

Tonight, CNN invited Rick Santorum and Bob Casey to appear for a short, five minute debate at 10:15PM ET. As expected, Casey turned down the offer. Here’s my paraphrasing of what was said, a lot of which is word for word transcription:

CNN Sunday Night Anchor Carol Lin: (Shows part of Santorum’s “Wrestling” ad) That is the latest from US Senator Rick Santorum is his fight to keep his job. He has the wrestling metaphor right; Democrats only need six seats to take the Senate, and the latest poll shows Santorum down 16 percentage points (?! I must have missed that one) against his opponent Bob Casey. We invited Mr. Casey on for a debate but his campaign manager said that his schedule would not permit (haha!). So joining me now is Senator Santorum. Senator, good to have you.

Senator Rick Santorum: Thank you Carol, it’s great to be on. I wish I could have had my opponent on, but that’s a pretty common occurrence, he doesn’t show up for many appearances.

Lin: That’s what I understand. A kind of low key but interesting strategy. Let’s talk about the wrester ad. Very interesting metaphor; perhaps even more blatant, linking yourself with Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman but not President Bush; why is that?

Santorum: I think my opponent does a pretty good linking me with President Bush. He only says two or three sentences: “New Direction”, “98% of the time he votes with George Bush” and “We need change”.

Lin: Is that true (that you vote with Bush 98% of the time)?

Santorum: He looks at 21% of the votes I cast last year, and of those, 60% were nominations. It’s a pretty selective view. Sure I support the president, but for the record, I was in Washington before the president was in Washington, so I like to think that the president supports me that percentage of the time (heh).

Lin: As well he might should, since you were in charge of getting him the key votes back in 2004 in the presidential race. Political analyst Larry Sabato says that this race now is more about a vote against Rick Santorum is a vote against President Bush. Do you feel that the Bush administration’s policies are working against you as you’re running for re-election?

Santorum: Well, I don’t know. I’ve tried to run a campaign that talks about what I’ve accomplished, like in this ad. My opponent hasn’t run a single positive campaign in this election; he has run all negative. As Larry, your analyst, said, he’s trying to link me to the president whose numbers are not particularly popular here. What I’ve tried to do is talk about how I fight hard to keep Pennsylvania’s families safer, against Islamic fascists, internet predators, gang violence, and other threats. I’ve talked about positive things, how I’m going to make things different, and my opponent has said nothing.

Lin: But I’m trying to figure out where you stand here with the current Republican majority and with the president. Newt Gingrich tonight released an email calling for the party faithful to rally. The political director at the White House, Sarah Taylor, says that the president is loved by his base, and that they support him. Do you believe that to be true?

Santorum: The president has a very solid base of support without question, and I think we do to, and it’s a substantial one here in Pennsylvania. I heard you talk about that poll, 16 points down. The majority of polls that are out have us within single digits, as close as 5 points, and we know this race is very close. We have a lot of energy here, our base is energized, because they understand that the choice is between someone who understands the threats that face us and understands how to keep this economy going, and someone who simply is not prepared to do this job, who is hiding from the people of Pennsylvania, who is not answering questions, and who does two campaign appearances a week. This guy is trying to inherit the job, while I am working for the job as I have for the last 12 years.

Lin: Some have said that that is a specific strategy because your reputation and your affinity for the president is ammunition enough.

Santorum: Well, I think the people of Pennsylvania are smart enough to figure out that they want someone who is going to be a fighter, someone who is going to be honest with them. They may not agree with everything I say, but they know that I’m going to tell them from the heart exactly what I’m going to do. But Bob Casey, I challenge the people of Pennsylvania, what have you heard Bob Casey say in the last year plus that he’s been a candidate that gives you any idea what he wants to do as US Senator except give you a quote “New Direction”. A new direction on the economy is bad; the economy is doing well, and this is a guy who gives us no specifics.

Lin: Alright, well, it appears that the war is on many people’s minds. Senator Santorum, I want to let our audience know that Bob Casey’s people said that there was a scheduling conflict (Bobby needs his beauty sleep, after all).

Santorum: Yeah. I think you offered to do a taped recording.

Lin: A tape, and he could not be here at this time slot.

Santorum: Yeah, well, he had a scheduling conflict this morning, he has scheduling conflicts every day. He doesn’t want to talk to the people of Pennsylvania.

Lin: Alright. Well, the vote is scheduled for November 7th (I wonder if Casey will have a scheduling conflict then), and we’ll see what the outcome of this race is. Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

Santorum: Thank you, Carol, appreciate the time. Thank you.