Pennsylvania Politics -- Casey Sees Danger On the Left

In the wake of Joe Lieberman's defeat, mainstream Democrats in Pennsylvania are starting to worry about the take-no-prisoners attitude displayed by their party's loony left wing, especially since their senatorial candidate, Bob Casey is well to the right of even Lieberman on many issues. Consequently the Casey campaign is trying to deny the loony left an opportunity to demonstrate their independence and rage this fall.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG -- Democrats claim that thousands of Green Party petition signatures are phony, including such names as Mickey Mouse, Mona Lisa, Woody Allen, Robert Redford, George Bush, Gerald Ford and Lee H. Oswald.

As many as 70,000 of the 93,000 signatures turned in Monday by Carl Romanelli, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, are invalid, Democrats claimed yesterday.

To be on the Nov. 7 ballot, Mr. Romanelli must have at least 67,070 valid signatures of Pennsylvania registered voters.

Read it here. [emphasis mine]

I have no doubt that there are several fake signatures on the petitions -- there always are on any mass petition. But 70,000? That's not credible. This sort of exaggeration undercuts the credibility of the Democrats' claim and reveals their nervousness at a time when Party unity is dissolving. My guess is that they wouldn't sound nearly so hysterical had Lieberman won in Connecticut.