Good news, bad news

The good news is that Bob Casey Jr. is just as pro-life as many Republicans, the bad news is that of course most Republicans aren't fully pro-life. On the recent debates between Sen. Santorum and Bob Casey Jr. Rod Dreher relates:

Then the Plan B issue came up. Santorum said flat-out that the pill is sometimes abortifacient, which is certainly true if you believe that life begins at conception; the pill can work by preventing the fertilized egg (that is, a human being) from implanting on the uterine wall. Santorum said he was against Plan B for that reason. Casey, who insists he's pro-life, said he was in favor of Plan B because "the science is clear" that it's contraception. That's a shameful dodge. The science is clear about how Plan B works; whether or not that counts as abortion is a moral question -- and a question that the Catholic Church answers very clearly. Casey is trying to lay claim to his father's pro-life mantle, and he's not worthy of it. Not only is he for a potentially bortifacient pill to be distributed over the counter, but he dissembles about what he perfectly well knows the pill is.

It would be nice to actually have one truly pro-life Catholic Democrat in the Senate, but this won't happen with Casey. Though pro-life Democrats in the Senate are rather useless in that their views won't be supported by the majority. Voting Casey over Santorum on the pro-life issue just doesn't make any sense since giving Democrats a majority will kill any chances of a supreme court nominee that isn't politically correct on abortion. Unfortunately as the situation stands a pro-life Democrat and an equally pro-life Republican doesn't carry equal weight. The Republicans at least give some lip service and throw pro-lifers a bone every once in a while.

It does make you wonder if a Catholic Democrat who is fully inline with Church teaching could ever get supported in the Democratic Party? The Sen. Biden's are pretty much the template for the Catholic Democrat. Of course in the Senate's only consistent Catholics at least on issues that non-negotiable are Senators Santorum and Brownback. I would like to be optimistic on Sen. Santorum's chances considering the poor performance of Bob Casey Jr. when it actually comes to discussing issues. But Pennsylvania has picked moral muddles like Sen Spectre so that isn't a disqualifying attribute.