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Smith Website Calls Casey “Senator Zero”

In meetings, town halls and interviews, Bob Casey is nearly impossible to stump. On practically any issue from milk prices in Pennsylvania to IEDs in Pakistan, the freshman Senator can point to a bill he’s introduced or a letter he’s written to address the problem.

Today, his opponent is demanding results.

Tom Smith, a former mining company owner and Tea Party leader, launched the website SenatorZero.com. He charges that Casey has sponsored 324 bills since April 2007, but not one has become law.

It’s a one-page microsite that includes a web video (above), rolled out in a big push by the Smith team and the PA Republican Party.

“For more than five and half years, Bob Casey has done nothing to address a dismal economy and stagnant unemployment,” said Smith. “While Pennsylvanians have suffered, Senator Casey has failed to offer a single solution, and failed to pass a single piece of legislation into law.”

The tactic is common for incumbents, as is the line of attack for candidates. Indeed, Smith made a similar charge against former state Rep. Sam Rohrer during the GOP primary.

Smith also criticized Casey for voting 95 percent of the time with President Obama, as well as accepting over $1.3 million in campaign contributions from lobbyists and attorneys. And Smith also implies that the Senator is introducing bills for political purposes (like this one, perhaps). He’s sponsored 199 bills so far this election cycle, compared to 125 in his first 4 years.

Casey spokesman Larry Smar said the attack shows that Smith doesn’t get how the Senate works.

“Due to compromise and negotiation, bills and amendments are added to other bills or a different version of the bill is the one that is signed into law,” Smar said. “Bob Casey has a record of working with Republicans and Democrats to find commonsense solutions to problems.”

He pointed to a number of the Senator’s legislative accomplishments that don’t fit in the introduced-then-passed paradigm of Congress, including: extending the payroll tax cut, new ethics rules, add-ons for PA in the Farm Bill, and new rules that help reduce abortions by providing government assistance to pregnant women.

Smar pointed at the GOP-controlled House, where a number of Senate-passed bills have withered.

“Tom Smith wants to go to Washington to push a rigid Tea Party agenda.  His Tea Party allies in the House have blocked a number of issues important to Pennsylvania jobs,” he said.

Update:

On the heels of Smith’s latest attack comes new legislation from Casey.

Earlier today, Casey introduced legislation penalizing companies that outsource jobs by excluding them from federal grants and loans as well as having the Department of Labor create a public list naming all of the companies that outsource jobs for three years.

Casey’s latest proposal seems like an oblique shot at Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who Democrats have accused of outsourcing call center jobs to nations with less stringent workers’ rights laws.

In a press release from Casey’s office, the Senator said his legislation benefits working Pennsylvanians.

“Companies that outsource their call centers overseas shouldn’t see the benefits of government grants and loans,” Casey said. “Keeping call center jobs in Pennsylvania is good for our workers and our economy, and my bill will send a clear signal that outsourcing jobs will not be rewarded.”

9 Responses

  1. Smith uses the same tactics as the local GOP leaders in Armstrong County. Divert the attention from your own shortcomings by attacking others. He must have learned these tactics from his unholy alliance with ine of the most corrupt politicians in this state ( the dirty Sen. Don White) and White’s puppet, Rep. Jeff Pyle
    Why isn’t Smith telling us why he feels he’s qualified for senate and what he plans to do? I
    guess it’s easier to reach into your own deep pockets and try to buy your way into whatever you want.

    Don’t buy into Smith’s “I came from humble beginnings and I care about you” speel. If he gets elected, the real zero will be in how much he cares about those foolish enough to have voted for him. As the poster above said. Tom Smith is for Tom Smith

  2. wait, no democratic senator has been elected to a second term? So, harry reid just has a 25 year long term?

    maybe you meant pennsylvania, where Daniel Sturgeon, Joseph Guffy, James Buchanan and Joseph Clark have all served more than one term in the US Senate.

    it seems that simple facts aren’t your specialty, bob.

  3. CaseyObama Win: Pennsylvania Loses.
    Partisan politics obscures this simple fact.

    Coal mining – gone, as one example. Fewer jobs is another. There is no reason to think that the CaseyObama spending of trillions of dollars that has not moved the jobs needle will have any different result in a second term.

    Historically, no Democratic Senator has ever been elected to a second term.

  4. Like President Obama, Sen. Casey has never had a private sector and is more a product of his name and political inheritance rather than independent accomplishment.

    President Obama and Sen. Casey are both speaking from personal experience when they said: “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen”

    I know that Sen. Casey did not, literally, say what President Obama but I can’t help think he thinks the same way. Both had somebody else make their careers. see “separated at birth” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHe9NZ9VNSM

  5. I don’t know, the women of the Democratic Party bit the bullet and endorsed Casey then he went and stiffed them with his backing of Obama – which he blamed on his KIDS! We know it served his Clinton vendetta, but we elected Casey, not his daughters. You mentor your children; you don’t let them pick the President when they don’t understand how the Country “works.”

  6. I think “zero” is what Casey does to the probability of political futures for the Republicans who run against him.

    Santorum: 0% chance of being President
    Smith: 0% chance of beating Casey

  7. Very catchy and it really sums it up. PA has gotten zero return on Casey. And we are probably better off than we would be if any of his proposals passed. Zero. Wow. I mean, couldn’t he have gotten a bridge renamed or anything?

  8. Comments on video:
    1) Filming Casey like he was from around in the Charlie Chaplin era. I guess that’s meant to appeal to the “hip” 80 year olds who watch political ads.

    2) Why does Tom Smith think it’s okay to hire an actor to burn US currency to light a cigar? How many takes did it take? It’s looks like he’s burning two bills (one of which is a $10 )

    3) Why is the “lobbyist” dressed like an old-time gangster, and appear to have an earring?

    4) The $1.3 million that he says Casey took from lobbyists and lawyers is pretty small potatoes compared to the $6,475,000 that Smith has lent to his own campaign, on top of the $322,265 he gave to his own campaign. I guess the answer to “Who loves Tom Smith” …. is Tom Smith.

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