http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041500798.htmlDUQUESNE, Pa. -- Everything was in place for the photo op. Sen. Rick Santorum joined an assembly line of volunteers boxing up dry goods at a warehouse that distributes food to thousands of low-income Pennsylvanians.
But the Pittsburgh television news crew that was supposed to capture the recent campaign event for that evening's broadcast was nowhere in sight. The two-term Republican appeared unfazed, diligently packing his corrugated boxes with exactly 20 pounds of cereal, crackers and cookies as though he wanted to master the task, not bothering to chat with the people at his side.
Democrats hope the photo mix-up will be a metaphor for Santorum's campaign against state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. in this fall's Senate race, the most fiercely contested in the country. Since 1990, Santorum, 47, has proven to be a canny, come-from-behind campaigner who has risen to the Senate GOP's third-highest leadership post. But this year, Democrats say, his charmed political life may end as he faces an unusually imposing set of challenges.
They start with the sagging, 38 percent approval rating of President Bush, to whom Santorum is closely tied. Pennsylvanians also say Santorum has suffered self-inflicted wounds since 2000, when he won reelection despite the belief of some that he is too conservative for this centrist state. He published a book that seemed to slight public schools and mothers who work outside the home. He endured widespread criticism when it was learned in 2004 that Pennsylvania paid about $70,000 through an online program to educate his children at their home in Leesburg.
Duquesne - Interesting metaphors here for Santorum. The food bank stands on land that was once the massive Duquesne Works (Steel Mill) of United States Steel (now USX). They are finally going to tearing down the last of the massive ghostly furnaces on that land. Duquesne is now one of the most impoverished areas of Western PA. Mostly African-American, where the schools are in shoddy shape and are being shutdown, and whose students are finding that no neighboring school district wants them. Figures that Ricky who doesn't really give a damn would try to do a photo-op acting like he's a "compassionate conservative".
My great grandfather worked in that mill - I heard tales of the brutal 24 hour changeover shift. My great-uncle lost both his arms in an electrical accident in that mill. Many of my cousins worked there. The son of my great-uncle lost his job there when he had just started a family and scrambled for many years just to get back on a decent financial track. This is why both parents in a family are forced to work, sometimes more than 1 job.
Duquesne is a metaphor on how this whole damn country betrayed the poor and working class of this country under the Repukes and Corporatists!
Duquesne Works circa 1920.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/dec2004/duqu-d18.shtml
May 2001
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