Bobby Casey loves running for office. Showing up to do the job, that's a different story. As Auditor General, Casey skipped so much work running for Governor, he never completed over 800 audits...Of course, it's a false charge. Take a look at this. It's from the P-G website.
A television ad by Sen. Rick Santorum implying that his opponent in the November election, former state Auditor General Bob Casey, did a poor job in his previous position is "simply not true," current Auditor General Jack Wagner said today in a Downtown press conference.So the current Auditor General thinks Casey did a good job. Huh. So where did the Santorum campaign get the "information" to support its charge?
Mr. Wagner said the ad takes comments he made at a March 2005 state budget hearing about a backlog of audits in the department out of context. He said he called the press conference to "set the record straight" and prevent Mr. Santorum from using the ad "for his political gain."Oh, I see. How was it taken out of context?
The ad, he said "doesn't give justice to my statement. Bob Casey did a professional job as auditor general. The people of Pennsylvania know that and I'm here to state that today."Interesting. Who would have imagined that the Santorum campaign would take something out of context for political gain??
Mr. Wagner had testified at the hearing last year that there was a backlog of 839 audits when he succeeded Mr. Casey as auditor general. But he said he amplified that statement later, telling the hearing that the number of backlogged audits changes monthly.
He said the auditor general's office completes 5,000 audits annually on pension plans, school districts, volunteer fire departments, state prisons and liquor stores.
He said his office currently has a backlog of about 300 audits.
No sirree, not me.
Hey, have the police arrested the "Casey operatives" who "trespassed" at the Santorum "home" in Penn Hills, yet?
UPDATE: This is from Saturday's P-G.
Mr. Wagner had testified at the hearing last year that there was a backlog of 839 audits when he succeeded Mr. Casey as auditor general. But he said yesterday he later amplified that statement for the committee, telling it that the number of backlogged audits was in constant flux.Ok, then. So there's always a backlog of audits (one that changes from month to month), then? So Casey's running for office can't much change that, can it? So what Santorum said is (now here's a news flash) basically bullshit, right?
He said the auditor general's office completes 5,000 audits annually on pension plans, school districts, volunteer fire departments, state prisons and liquor stores.
He said his office currently has a backlog of 679 audits.[emphasis added]
Technorati Tag:Rick Santorum
4 comments:
Who would have guessed?
The guy who ran for governor with Casey and ran as a part of the Treasurer/Auditor General team with Casey in 2004 says Casey's an angel. OMG. :)
Wagner's such an independent source for a story!!!
It doesn't matter what the Post Gazette says.
That ad is still running, almost nightly this past week, during the supper hour, during local news on channel 11.
Santorum has run at least one other deceptive ad repeatedly during that slot, in which he claims to have strengthened Social Security and to have protected the environment with some local alternative energy program.
I have seen NO Casey ads counter-attacking.
Are they on some other channel? I don't think so. I think they don't exist.
Casey's silence has already cost him his huge initial lead. Continued silence will lose the election.
These ads during the evening local news target the large population of nearly illiterate undecideds who will, in fact, decide the election.
Counter-ads would, and must, reach the same target voters.
Newspaper ads, press releases, and the like do not reach these folks. If they hear them at all it's in one ear and out the other. Mostly, they are not paying attention.
But they are impressed by these TV ads shown during the evening local news, and very likely to believe them when they are repeated and unchallenged.
Casey must run ads aimed at these same semi-illiterate, totally uninformed voters or lose the election.
That's the reality.
Again, part of Santorum's gambit has been to force Casey to spend money he doesn't have. The positive ads Santorum ran didn't get a response from Casey; and they didn't need one. Santorum's poll numbers actually went down again. Also, I did see a Casey counter-attack ad on KDKA I think during the 11 o'clock news. Good in the short-term, but again, Casey has less money than Santorum and Santorum knows this. I'm betting Casey isn't spending more than he has to so that he can start hitting the airwaves in October. Wether or not it's too late is debateable, but if Casey goes on too soon and then disappears from the airwaves due to a lack of funds, that would be even worse.
Does he have that much less money? Drat.
And 11 o'clock is too late. A lot more folks are up and watching during supper.
TV trays, you know. The wife and I do it, ourselves.
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