Quick Hits

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), in a strongly worded press release, denied attending any meetings with Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-IN) group of Blue Dog "ConservaDems." "Pennsylvania is Blue, Obama won, and the people want his agenda passed. Why on Earth would I align myself with that bunch of obstructionist douches?" Casey asked. (Post-Gazette)

In a surprise move, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) decided to throw his support behind the Employee Free Choice Act. "I have a reputation to maintain as a Centrist. I absolutely will not damage that reputation just because I will be challenged by a dangerous far right opponent in a Republican primary." (Early Returns)

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, in response to challenger Patrick Dowd, said that far from wasting over 20 million dollars those monies were actually part of the Ravenstahl Administration's stimulus spending package. (KDKA)

District 2 Pittsburgh City Councilor Theresa Kail-Smith is now fully behind real campaign finance reform. Local blogger and Kail-Smith supporter Matt H applauded the change at his Pittsburgh Hoagie blog. (She also said that she would update her campaign web site to include that "Kail-" thing.) (Pittsburgh Hoagie)

The Republican "alternative budget" calls for a massive tax cut for the wealthy. The top marginal tax rate would be slashed from 35 to 25 percent which would just be CRAZY. (Huffington Post)

Speaking of taxes, the ginormous tax increase on cigarettes scheduled to go into effect today has been postponed indefinitely when it was discovered that the nation already had a high percentage of obese people and that smoking does indeed look "cool." (Washington Post)

Starting tomorrow, I will be posting exclusively at Twitter -- no more blogging here at 2pj (You can find me at Twitter here). Words are the enemy! Also, I'm really, really happy that I wasn't laid off yesterday along with many of my co-workers.
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