After His Office Falsely Denies He Is An Obama Campaign Cash Bundler, Casey Falsely Denies That Obama’s New Stimulus Is A Stimulus

On two separate occasions yesterday, liberal U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and his office issued statements that were false or misleading to Pennsylvania voters.

First, Casey’s office flatly denied a recent report by the New York Times, circulated yesterday by the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), noting that Casey has been busy bundling campaign cash privately for the President’s reelection campaign – despite his well-documented attempts to distance himself from the President publicly.

While the initial post has since been removed from the Allentown Morning Call’s website, here was the statement made by Senator Casey’s spokesman where he both denied the report and attacked the NRSC…

• “This is another reason why you can’t trust these Washington political operatives,” said Larry Smar, spokesman for Casey. “They don’t know Haverford from Scranton, let alone Bob Casey’s record of fighting for Pennsylvania.” 

Strong words from Team Casey – and ones they no doubt regret, because as Politico’s Morning Score reports today, they aren’t true at all:

• BOB CASEY DENIES, THEN ADMITS HE’S AN OBAMA BUNDLER: Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey made a list of bundlers released by the president’s campaign because he co-hosted a fundraiser in June. When the National Republican Senatorial Committee used it to attack Casey for his closeness to Obama, the freshman senator’s spokesman vigorously denied it and mocked the NRSC for not being able to tell the difference between two people named Bob Casey. Then, in an embarrassing turn, the office had to eat crow and apologize when it turned out he was the bundler. The Morning Call removed its first post and wrote a second blog item about it: http://bit.ly/rsRwT6.

Second, Casey himself flatly denied that President Obama’s proposal for new stimulus spending is, in fact, a “stimulus.”  As the Morning Call reports:

• [S]ome Republicans have dismissed the plan, calling it another stimulus or bailout. A vote could come by the end of the week.  “That’s Washington talk,” Casey said of the GOP critique. “It’s meaningless Washington talk, and frankly it’s misleading.”

Once again, tough talk from Casey – though, notably, he was unable or unwilling to explain how the latest Obama proposal to spend billions of dollars in government money was different from his first $825 billion stimulus.  And once again, these are words Casey no doubt regrets, because as Politico reports today regarding the proposal, “Several moderate Democrats and Republicans appear to be struggling to overcome ‘stimulus fatigue’ setting in among voters back home and are withholding support for now — meaning the latest proposal is at risk of winning even less backing than the president’s signature economic bill…”

“While we don’t expect Senator Casey to do the right thing and apologize for his misleading attacks, we’re still waiting for him to explain why he’s embarrassed to stand with President Obama publicly after doubling down on his failed economic policies of reckless spending, massive debt, and job-killing tax hikes,” said NRSC spokesman Chris Bond.

As a reminder, the Pottsville Republican & Herald reports that, despite being among then-candidate Barack Obama’s earliest and most ardent supporters and rubber-stamping his party’s agenda 98 percent of the time in Washington, Casey is now desperately attempting to distance himself from the President in advance of his 2012 reelection campaign:

Early and wholeheartedly, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey embraced the presidential candidacy of fellow Sen. Barack Obama in 2008. Casey’s endorsement gave Obama a badly needed boost at the outset of his six-day introductory tour before the Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary. After Obama won the presidency, Casey signed on as one of the biggest supporters of the president’s agenda. But with both men facing a re-election campaigns next year, the embrace is loosening. In the last few months, Casey has started to oppose the president outright or developed more nuanced responses to events that differentiate him from Obama. Analysts say Casey wants to put some distance between himself and a president whose job approval ratings in Pennsylvania are poor… Casey has voted with his party in the Senate an average of 98 percent of the time since Obama took office, according to a Washington Post database on congressional votes…