Thread: 'Kick me!' says Casey as Rick Santorum closes the gap

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... 66710.html

'Kick me!' says Casey
By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, August 20, 2006

As Rick Santorum closes the gap in his U.S. Senate race with his Democrat challenger, the Penn Hills Republican will see the oversized "Kick me!" sign -- written in fluorescent colors -- glued to Bob Casey's back.

Leading in a race is good. Leading with your chin is not. Especially when the scarlet-hot-button issue is illegal immigration.

Mr. Casey, the Pennsylvania treasurer, had a double-digit lead in public opinion polls. "Had." The Quinnipiac University poll conducted Aug. 8-13 says that in a race including Green Party candidate Carl Romanelli, Casey leads Mr. Santorum 48-42 percent with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Squandering another double-digit lead, as in 2002 when he lost to now-Gov. Ed Rendell, is the least of Casey's problems. If Pennsylvanians are not lulled to sleep by Scranton's charisma-challenged nice guy, they will be startled to learn just how frighteningly liberal Casey is about illegal aliens.

Mr. Casey makes Mexico look like the Minuteman Project.

Casey campaign manager Jay Reiff, on his blog, accuses Santorum of being a Ricky-come-lately about illegal immigration. "Santorum has been in Congress for 16 years and has done virtually nothing to address this problem," Reiff wrote.

That's breaking news to Americans for Better Immigration. ABI tracks politicians based on their votes on immigration bills.

From 1991, when he became a congressman, Santorum earned an overall grade of B-minus. However, since 2003, a B-plus. The report card -- online at www.betterimmigration.com -- gives Arlen Specter, the state's other senator, an F.

Speaking of leading with his chin, it's Casey who has "the immigration problem." He's been refusing to answer a survey by ABI to determine what, if anything, he'd do to stop the influx of illegal aliens.

Candidates are asked their positions on amnesty, temporary legalization for so-called guest workers, chain migration (allowing very extended family members to become citizens), visa lotteries, citizenship for illegal aliens' babies, large-scale importation of workers, worker-verification laws, the feds picking up captured illegals and federal forced doubling of the U.S. population with immigration.

Santorum's survey says he opposes all except worker verification laws, picking up captured illegals and citizenship for the babies. Casey's positions are anyone's guess.

But in a June 9 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Casey seemed to like amnesty (the guess here is that it's as long as it's called anything else), temporarily legalizing guest workers and large scale importation of workers, and is for doubling the U.S. population with foreigners, while supporting and/or opposing worker verification laws, according to ABI. Go online -- www.betterimmigration.com/candidates/20 ... pasen.html -- to read the survey results.

Visit www.bobcasey.com and note that it's Casey who has done virtually nothing to address his immigration problem even on his Web site.

Larry Smar, Casey's spokesman, responding by e-mail, said, "We are reviewing (the survey) and have not made a decision on whether to answer. We get lots of questionnaires and we do not have the ability to answer every questionnaire."

Since Mr. Casey has the ability to answer this one, he must have a good reason why he won't.

Dimitri Vassilaros can be reached at dvassilaros@tribweb.com or 412-380-5637.

When people ask me who I am planning to vote for in November , I tell them Santorum because he voted against the senate amensty bill. Aren't you concerned about other issues? No other issue is as pressing as this one. We don't have a problem with illegals here and I want to keep it that way