Carl Romanelli is going to Washington, and he’s hoping to take down an entire political party on his way there.

While planning to appeal his yearlong legal battle to the U.S. Supreme Court, he announced on Thursday his assault on the Democratic Party, starting with its members in the state judiciary.  read more »

Santorum’s office tries to silence disent. Shocking.

A Philadelphia judge yesterday acquitted 14 antiwar activists arrested in September when they tried to present a peace declaration at the Center City office of then-Sen. Rick Santorum.

Municipal Court Judge Marsha Neifeld announced the not-guilty verdicts after the nonjury trial, ruling that there was not sufficient evidence to prove the 14 committed criminal trespass in the Sept. 26 incident.  read more »

Oops… Ricky St. Torum got caught.

Highmark Inc. agreed to pay a fine of more than $54,000 for using corporate dollars on fundraising events connected to former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

In announcing the penalty yesterday, the Federal Election Commission also said it assessed a $20,000 fine against a former Highmark vice president and a $7,500 fine against Mr. Santorum’s political action committee, America’s Foundation. The donations went toward three golf tournaments at the Country Club of Hershey and a private fundraiser, the FEC said.  read more »

A month after suffering the largest defeat by a Senate incumbent in a quarter-century, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum ponders a future as a cable TV talking head and earning big bucks on the lecture circuit.

Santorum, who lost to Democrat Bob Casey Jr. in last month's election, has been weighing offers. They range from appearing on Fox News Channel as an analyst to working for a law firm, according to several people who have spoken with the Pennsylvania Republican.

Santorum, one of the most vocal lawmakers for the last decade, has been nearly invisible in the last month as he weighs his options.

Santorum has been negotiating a cable deal, which political insiders say most likely is with Fox -- though MSNBC and CNN have been mentioned as well -- "to be a screamer," as one political operative put it.

Smart money's on Fox. Or some place close to Virginia.

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.

Flashy isn't Democrat Bob Casey's style, and that might be why he so easily defeated Sen. Rick Santorum.

Up against a conservative firebrand, Casey proved the perfect foil with his calm demeanor and what helped get him recruited in the first place, his opposition to abortion.

It also didn't hurt that the 46-year-old state treasurer, son of the late Gov. Robert P. Casey, entered the race with a name known to most Pennsylvanians.

A Catholic who served a year teaching school with the Jesuit Corps in Philadelphia's inner city, Casey reached out to voters who revered his father for pushing through stringent state laws restricting abortion and also to those angered that the Democratic Party would recruit an anti-abortion candidate.

I think any number of candidates could have knocked off Santorum, but not many could have done it so convincingly.

Early this morning, Keystone Politics editors received and released a poll by McCulloch Research and Polling showing that Rick Santorum was within 4 points of retaining his Senate seat. Further research into McCulloch Research and Polling shows that Rod McCulloch, principal at the firm, has been indicted in voter fraud and forgery in Illinois.

CBS 2 Chicago
Black Box Voting Forums
Below the jump, we've posted the discredited poll:  read more »

Former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge returned to his home state Thursday to stump for Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, saying the country needs his leadership as it contends with terrorist threats across the globe.

Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor who resigned to be the first director of the Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11 attacks, urged voters to support Santorum over Democratic challenger Bob Casey even if they don't always agree with him.

Casey, rallying party faithful at a fundraiser in Williamsport, said Republicans were resorting to scare tactics in the closing days of a hard-fought campaign.

''If you want to know what's going to happen in the next five days, just look at the previous 10 days, or frankly for Rick Santorum, his entire campaign,'' Casey said. ''We're going to see fear and smear and divide and conquer.''