Bob Casey at the Democratic State Committee (via PCN)

Today I taped the Democratic State Committee on PCN and watched it this evening. I’m not sure when the event actually happened but it was sometime in the past week, between the Casey / Santorum debate and this past weekend. The most notable portion of the 90 minute program was the speech by Bob Casey, Jr. He was wearing a gray suit, light gray tie, and standing in front of an off-white background. You would think that all that monochrome would just swallow Casey up but it had the opposite effect; the bland canvas really let him stand out.

He was the most animated I have ever seen him, gestures, smiles, even a little melody in his voice. He started off discussing the debate and said Santorum’s support of Rumsfeld and Bush were the equivalent of the president congratulating Michael Brown after Hurricane Katrina. (“You’re doing a great job, Brownie” being compared to Santorum saying Bush was doing a great job.)

My favorite line in his speech was “We cannot tire. We cannot falter. We cannot stop.” He said we have to work night and day to change course and reverse some of the effects of Republican policies. As one example he mentioned that 8.3 million children with no health insurance is an abomination. In his view the Republican priority is to give tax cuts to the very wealthy, instead of supporting homeland security or fiscal responsibility.

One of his parting lines is that he will focus on the people who live on Main Street not the people who peddle influence on K Street, a direct swipe as Sen. Santorum.

These may be oft repeated chestnuts but they were all new to me. Other features of the program were lengthy remarks by Lt. Gov. Knoll and remarks by party officials to the effect that state committee members should support endorsed candidates or find something else to do. The rest of the program involved memorials to the late Pittsburgh mayor and someone else whose name I did not catch (apologies to the family) and party business.