Santorum: "it's not easy being me"

[dajoki]

NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/05/politics/05penn.html?ex=1299214800&en=f068d29beeea5765&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Big Race
To Democrats Hungry for Senate, a Pennsylvania Seat Looks Ripe

By ROBIN TONER
Published: March 5, 2006

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the third-ranking Republican in the Senate leadership, sums up his race for re-election this year with a paradoxical pride: "The other side of the aisle wants to beat me more than anything you can possibly imagine," he told the Greater Lehigh Valley Auto Dealers Association not long ago.

Mr. Santorum is almost certainly right. No other race in the nation has so focused the Democratic Party's energy, resources or raw hunger to return to power on Capitol Hill. No other race so captures the Republican Party's vulnerabilities this year, with some public opinion polls consistently showing Mr. Santorum trailing his Democratic opponent, State Treasurer Bob Casey Jr.

Mr. Santorum, 47, has been a brash symbol of the conservative ascendancy since his election to the Senate in 1994, leading the charge on issues like the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act and the partial privatization of Social Security — enraging liberals all the while. He says he relishes a come-from-behind fight against Mr. Casey, but acknowledges that "it's not easy being me" in the current political climate, with a president whose approval ratings are stuck in the 30's.

Mr. Casey, 45, is an experienced statewide candidate, the son of a popular former governor, and in some ways the symbol of a new pragmatism in the Democratic Party. National party leaders heavily recruited Mr. Casey to enter this race, despite his long opposition to abortion rights, because, quite simply, they thought he could win.

[Warpy]

1. New pragmatism = antichoice, anti woman

Women are always the first to have their rights sold out by leftist men being "pragmatic."

Haven't you noticed?

[dajoki]

2. yes i have...

but santorum must go!!

[radio4progressives]

3. Anti-Choice is NO Leftist! C'mon!

What the hell happened to that pennochio guy? sorry about the wrong spelling - isn't he the popular progressive?

looks like dems are going conservative everywhere, more conservative than ever before in history - this is just sickening.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. And this woman is sick and tired of it!

Stupid white men like him make me so mad! :mad:

[Hippo_Tron]

9. Santorum is dangerous to abortion rights

Casey may be anti-choice but he's going to be an anti-choice backbencher who will not sit on the judiciary committee where he can do harm.

Santorum is an incredibly powerful voice to the anti-abortion conservatives and also has presidential ambitions. We need to get this fucker out of the senate before he gets a chance at the presidency.

[election_2004]

4. Aw, poor Ricky....

You reap what you sow. Maybe you should have thought twice before publicly comparing homosexuals to dogs, Senator...

[SongOfTheRayne]

5. Defeating the Republicans isn't enough

The Democrats already in Senate are being pushovers. We could be doing so much more in the way of opposition...

[dajoki]

7. and will continue to be...

unless we can win the majority back. that's why every race is important.

[SongOfTheRayne]

8. i know.....but the Democrats who are already IN Congress and Senate...

They didn't have to O.K. the patriot act....not that it would have made that much of a difference, but really...

[ReadTomPaine]

10. Like many freshman GOP senators, Rick had no problem ignoring...

Senate decorum rules implied or otherwise and boldly pushing the debate to the right as far as he could back when he was the new guy on the street. It seems it's just Democratic Senate freshman, with rare notable exceptions, who don't want to "rock the boat" or upset their "friends across the aisle". They seem to find all sorts of new ways to compromise themselves, the party and the platform. Many are quite up front about saying they don't want to hurt their careers, as if careerism is either an option for new Democrats or a worthwhile pursuit even if it was available to them.

And yet, good old Rick is better connected, more powerful and better financed than almost every one of them, despite the fact he's done everything we've been told a Senator shouldn't or couldn't do. Hardly being rebuffed by his colleagues, he's often mentioned as one of the most influential members of the Senate. Once again, the rules don't matter for a Republican. When, I wonder, will Democrats also start to write their own rules? We won't take back the government until we want it more than they do. Not one minute before. And it's pretty clear - most Dems clearly don't want to win as much as the GOP. They are happy with a hill soapbox to yell from, a check in the mail every two weeks and a seat in the back of the bus.


Here's an appropriate shot of Rick: