This Sunday, Sen Rick $antorum was here in Philadelphia preaching to the choir, literally, during Justice Sunday III [photos of the protest outside]. Thursday, he was in Valley Forge speaking to the military academy cadets, basically, another choir. While the cadets may have opinions of their own, they are literally pawns in the political game pushed from one country to another and Kimberly Hefling was there for the AP.
Speaking for about an hour to more than 300 cadets at the Valley Forge Military Academy, Santorum said public support for the war has been difficult to maintain because of “biased coverage of the war and the political left demagoguery of the war.”
Lovely.
And towards the end of the article, the Casey campaign was brought up.
The Casey campaign released a statement saying Santorum should have offered a real critique of the administration’s policies in Iraq instead of just blaming the media.
“Santorum has voted with President Bush 98 percent of the time and now he’s trying to copy his PR tactics,” said Larry Smar, a spokesman for Casey.
I thought that was quite laughable. Why? Let’s see what Bob Casey Jr has said on the Iraq War:
Once it was under way, like a lot of Americans, I was supportive of what our troops were trying to do there, based on what we were told by our government. We found out later the intelligence was, at best, faulty and, at worst, misleading. We can learn a lot of lessons from that, but the key thing now is to finish the job.
Inky 4.29.05
Casey said he would have voted for the war considering the evidence at the time, and supported the spending bills that funded the effort. But when asked to outline his plan for Iraq, including whether he favored a deadline for pulling troops out of the country, Casey would not offer specifics.
“I don’t think you can, as a matter of policy, articulate a long-term strategy if you don’t have the facts to make that determination,” Casey said.
Inky 8.20.05
Some people think that pulling out is a good idea and a timeline is a good idea — I don’t agree with that.
Centre Daily Times 10.23.05
Chuck Pennacchio was always against the Iraq War and wrote up this document [.pdf] calling for withdrawal with an exit strategy timeline. A timeline to get out of this debacle.
Jim Dean, Howard Dean’s brother and Chairman of Democracy for America started a pledge drive to only support candidates who 1. Acknowledge that the U.S. was misled into the war in Iraq, 2. Advocate for a responsible exit plan with a timeline, 3. Support our troops at home and abroad. Check, check and check for Chuck Pennacchio.
The Nation‘s editors pledged in their November 28, 2005 edition:
We will not support any candidate for national office who does not make a speedy end to the war in Iraq a major issue of his or her campaign. We urge all voters to join us in adopting this position. Many worry that the aftermath of withdrawal will be ugly, but we can now see that the consequences of staying will be uglier still. Fear of facing the consequences of Bush’s disaster should not be permitted to excuse the creation of a worse disaster by continuing the occupation.
We firmly believe that antiwar candidates, with the other requisite credentials, can win the 2006 Congressional elections, the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries and the subsequent national election. But this fight, and our stand, must begin now.
In the coming weeks and months The Nation will help identify–and encourage support for–those candidates prepared to bring a speedy end to the war and to begin the hard work of forging a new national security policy that an end to the Iraq War will make possible.
And in their January 2, 2006 edition, they acknowledged Chuck Pennacchio’s call for withdrawal from June of 2005.
$antorum and Casey Jr are both wrong on choice and on Iraq. Chuck Pennacchio is more than simply a step in the right direction, he’s the best candidate with the pulse of the people. Read his stances on the issues and make an informed decision.
