Adding Insult to Injury

Think back to 2006.  The most hotly contested Senate race that year was in Pennsylvania.  Ultra-conservative Republican Rick Santorum (Pictured on the left.) was the incumbent.  NOW members  wanted  the extremist Mr. Santorum gone so bad they could taste it.  The frontrunner to take on Santorum was a woman, Barbara Hafer,  a strong advocate for reproductive rights.  Then what happened?

Suddenly the higher-ups in the Democratic party decided Hafer wasn't good enough.  They needed a man to do the job.  After showing Hafer the door, they recruited  Bob Casey Jr. to run (Pictured on the right.).  NY Senator Chuck Schumer,  you will recall, was the chief wheeler-dealer in this backroom scheme.

NOW members were outraged, first of all because there were (and still are) so few women in the Senate.  The election of Hafer would have helped rectify things slightly.  But what angered NOW  more was the type of man the party elders chose to replace her.  Bob Casey Jr.  was a staunch abortion opponent, who had publicly stated his support for overturning Roe v. Wade.

(By the by, Casey's father, Bob Casey, Sr.,  was the defendant in the 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which affirmed the right of states to restrict abortions.)

When Casey,Jr. told the media that he, like  Rick Santorum, supported  Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court, NOW members and other pro-choicers were even more steamed.  That was when Kate Michelman, former head of NARAL Pro-choice, threatened to jump into the race and run herself.

Kate ultimately got cold feet, and Bob Casey went on to be elected Senator from Pennsylvania.

Which brings us to the present.  Casey is again in the news, and what's he doing this time?  Thwarting the wishes of women again.   Trying to head off a Hillary victory in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary,  Casey has announced he is supporting Barack Obama and is now touring the state with Hillary's opponent, trying to convince the voters  to shun the woman candidate.

Oh, and one more thing:  Apparently Casey's strong anti-choice convictions have gone by the wayside, allowing him to  support  Obama, who is pro-choice.