Did Bob Casey Just Commit Political Hara-Kiri?

By Bill Pascoe | September 15, 2009 5:37 PM | | Comments (1)

Last night, by a vote of 83-7, the Senate voted to deny funding to ACORN through the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In the wake of recent investigations -- notwithstanding the fact that ABC's Charlie Gibson appears never to have heard of them -- Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns' amendment was, as we say in the business, a no-brainer.

The roll call is quite illuminating -- the seven who voted against the amendment (in effect, voting to allow ACORN to continue receiving taxpayer funds through HUD) were, not surprisingly, all Democrats: Roland W. Burris and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois; Pat Leahy and Bernie Sanders of Vermont; Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania.

Burris will retire at the end of his current term without ever facing the voters, so his vote cannot be used against him.

Durbin is absolutely safe in Illinois, as are Leahy and Sanders in Vermont.

Whitehouse must feel pretty safe in Rhode Island.

Gillibrand has to build up some liberal street cred in New York.

But Casey? In Pennsylvania? He feels safe enough in the middle of his term (he's up for reelection in 2012) that he feels he can afford to cast a vote in favor of using taxpayer funds to support an organization under investigation all over the country?

Wow.

Let's hope the research team at the National Republican Senatorial Committee keeps good files.

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Categories: Senate

Tags: Burris, Casey, Curbin, Gillibrand, Leahy, Sanders, Whitehouse

    Comments

  1. Bob Casey is a Progressive Pro-life Democrat from a state that hasn't gone Republican since 1992. The state itself is very centrist, and is a union stronghold that supports Centrist Democrats like Casey, or Rendell. Heck, even Pat Toomey the alledge Rightwing Republican Candidate is trying to move to the middle in order to win next year. So why should Casey worry? Unless Tom Ridge runs....but he won't.

    Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Election 2006
    Democratic Bob Casey, Jr. 58.7% +15.2
    Republican Rick Santorum 41.3% -17.4

    Posted by: Eisenhower Author Profile Page | September 19, 2009 10:41 AM

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