The Annointing

It might not be as easy road of a road to Washington for Mr Casey afterall.

Inaction speaks louder than words.

That Sunday’s Lancaster County Democratic convention did not endorse a candidate to unseat U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum suggests the party is not as unified as leaders want it to be.

Here's a quote...

“We’ve got to spread the gospel that he’s not a man of conviction,” Clay Township Supervisor Jon Price said.

I'm pretty sure he meant Senator Santorum. Mr Casey can breathe a little easier.

His views don’t sit well with many rank-and-file Democrats, though. One committee member, in an exchange with [Lancaster County Dem Chairman Bruce] Beardsley, expressed his reservations about Casey.

“Would you rather have someone who you disagree with about two things [abortion and gun control] but agree with about everything else, or one who you disagree with on everything?” Beardsley asked.

“Those two issues are very important to me,” the committeeman responded.

Beardsley and Price downplayed the abortion rights/anti-abortion conflict. “Our view is that abortion should be rare and safe; it’s not the issue the media makes it,” Beardsley said.

Price said 43 percent of Democrats are anti-abortion, and the party wouldn’t run a candidate unable to raise money or speak to the base. “We have to run someone who can win the election,” Price said, but added that “we have to support whoever the nominee is.”

Good news for Pennacchio?

Charlie Crystle, a progressive who ran for U.S. Senate two years ago, has endorsed Pennacchio and welcomes the lack of a county party endorsement. “It’s a victory for Lancaster County Democratic voters, who can choose for themselves the best candidate to represent them in the Senate, without interference from the county party,” Crystle said in an e-mail.

“Many voters are angry with the leadership at the state and national level for shutting down liberal candidates like Pennacchio (who is right on just about all the issues for most Democrats) by endorsing the conservative Casey,’’ he said.

Beardsley said that Casey’s relative silence in the face of criticism from those in his own party and Santorum is making it easy for others to define him.

No one's going to go out on a limb and say that Lancaster County is representative of Democrats or liberals progressives across the state, but you have to wonder.