For Bob Casey Jr., being a freshman U.S. senator won't mean sitting quietly and deferring to the seniors.

He showed no deference yesterday morning, during his first news conference since becoming senator-elect.

With the debris of Tuesday night's victory celebration not yet cleared away, Mr. Casey called for Senate colleagues to change legislative priorities, to hold President Bush more accountable for the war in Iraq, to debate the federal budget more openly, to reduce the federal deficit and to stop bickering.

"The environment [in Washington] is so poisonous and we've got to work very hard ... to take some of the hostility out of Washington," he said. Lawmakers "are not machines that spit out policy. They're human beings and there's been a breakdown, not just over policies, but a breakdown in how people treat each other, how they interact as human beings."

The nice thing about being a senator is that you are in no way forced to sit on the bench and wait. You have a voice immediately. Now that Casey is in the majority, he'll have an especially strong voice.