Sanctus Santorum

Via Atrios, Will Bunch annotates, if you will, the love note the New York Times Magazine sent to L'il Ricky this weekend.

And his critique doesn't even mention this time-worn paragraph that seems to turn up in every New York Times story about Pennsylvania politics.

Even his Democratic challenger signifies Santorum's influence. The national party and Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania have chosen Robert Casey Jr., an abortion opponent, a Catholic and the son of the late Gov. Robert Casey Sr., who was barred from speaking at the 1992 Democratic National Convention because of his antiabortion views. (Casey Sr. was the defendant in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the landmark case in which the Supreme Court upheld the right to abortion it initially found in Roe v. Wade.) Santorum trails Casey in early polls, but in one sense he has already won: no matter who wins the election, his position on abortion, Santorum's central issue, will be represented in Washington.

Bull. Casey's "views" were never the issue. Now, it's been debated since that convention whether Casey was barred because of his refusal to endorse the Clinton/Gore ticket or Casey's avowal to give a pro-life speech at the convention. Either way, we're not talking "views." Why would the Clinton/Gore team give a speaking role to someone critical of Clinton/Gore, or to someone about to criticize the party's platform? Would Bush Bush/Quayle have done that?

The melody changes, but the words never change.