Category: default || By jt3y

If you didn't hear Slick Rick Santorum's interview with P.J. Maloney over KQV (1410), you missed a real treat. (Well, perhaps not if you're a Republican.)

Maloney keeps his cool while the junior senator from Penn Hills, Virginia, blows a gasket. The audio (apparently captured from the station's webstream) is currently making the rounds on the Internets.

(The fact that Santorum accuses Maloney of "being on (Casey's) side" is a hoot, if you realize that noted leftist Richard Mellon Scaife owns 51 percent of KQV. Curse you, liberal media!)

Last week, the Post-Gazette blasted Sen. Torquemada in an editorial that was rare by that newspaper's standards for both its vitriol and because it actually made a point:

Mr. Casey described Sen. Santorum's claims as "weird" and "bizarre." Actually, they are beyond weird and raise serious questions about the senator's ethics that go beyond the residency question. In a letter to Mr. Casey, he speaks of his "outrage" regarding the actions of the Casey campaign "which have put our six young children at a serious safety risk."

Though that suggestion is far-fetched to the point of absurdity, it would be a potential source of fear only if the senator actually lived in Penn Hills, but -- let us repeat one last time -- the Santorum family is at no risk because he doesn't live here anymore and the family is in Virginia most of the time. So what we have is the senator making untrue and outrageous comments while seeking to hide behind his wife and kids in order to get around an inconvenient fact.

This is funny, too: Video, from Pennsylvania Cable Network, of Santorum speaking to students about how he couldn't attend a Catholic high school back "when I was living in Pennsylvania." Oops.

KDKA-TV political analyst and CMU professor Jon Delano has a lengthy analysis of the whole situation at the webpage of Philly Inquirer columnist Tom Ferrick.

I've felt that Bob Casey Jr.'s campaign for Senate has been desultory and ineffective so far. But perhaps I'm not giving him enough credit.

With Santorum's approval rating now the lowest in the U.S. Senate, and his re-election efforts taking on this frantic and bizarre tone, it's possible that he's just going to stomp himself to death like Rumplestiltskin.

. . .

Having no record to run on, but rather one to run away from, Santorum has resorted to name-calling, dirty tricks, and negative ads, along with my least-favorite campaign tactic ... refusing to call your opponent by his real name.

Santorum and his operatives are now referring to the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate as "Bobby Casey Jr."

This is the same juvenile silliness that Republicans use when they refer to the opposition as "the Democrat Party." They're saying: We hold you in such contempt that we can't even refer to you by your real name.

Item of interest: Bob Casey is 46. Rick Santorum is 48.

"Bobby Casey Jr."? Whatever you say, "Little Ricky."

. . .

Correction, Not Perfection: Did I write last Friday that the McKeesport City Carnival was happening last week? Um. Oops. No, that's June, not May ... June 20 to 24, to be exact. Sorry 'bout that. Good thing no one relies on this page for accurate information ...

. . .

In Other Business: In the Post-Gazette, Ann Belser detailed the renovations that will soon be coming to Fifth Avenue between Water Street and Evans Street. Nearly a million dollars in work will be done to rebuild sidewalks, replace handicapped access ramps, upgrade street signs, and install new benches and trees.

I don't know if any of this will make Downtown more attractive to small business owners, but I suppose it can't hurt. (What we really need is a program to encourage property owners to replace or repair their building facades and make their structures more rentable.)

I do take offense at Belser's comment that the renovations will "get rid of the street lights that look like lollipops." Hey, I kind of like the lollipops.

We represent the Lollipop Guild, and we'd like to welcome you to McKeesport-land! (Just please don't ask what turned the bricks yellow.)

. . .

Bob's Bar, a neighborhood tavern in Glassport, is celebrating its 50th anniversary, according to Margaret Smylka in the P-G. It used to be Chuck's Bar until Bob Wawrzeniak bought it in 1956.

Smylka writes that since 1977, Bob's Bar has raised $133,000 for Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh's Free Care Fund --- patrons toss their spare change into an awning, where it's collected and donated to the hospital each year.

. . .

The veteran's memorial in front of the North Huntingdon Town House continues to grow, writes Noele Creamer in the Tribune-Review.

Residents and businesses in the Norwin area have been buying engraved bricks in the plaza around the monument to pay for its upkeep. Originally, 6,000 bricks were available; Creamer reports that only 1,000 blanks remain. Through July 4, they're being "sold" at a discount price of $35.

To place an order for a memorial brick, visit the township's website or the Norwin Chamber of Commerce.

. . .

To Do This Weekend: The City of Monongahela hosts the "Fleatique on the Mon," tomorrow from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with antiques and crafts at Chess Park on West Main Street and a flea market in the parking lot of the Noble J. Dick Aquatorium along the Monongahela River. Call (724) 258-5919 ... Zion Baptist Church, 1300 Locust St., celebrates the fourth pastoral anniversary of the Rev. Henry Billingsley with a series of events, including a concert at 4 p.m. Saturday by Deryek Tines and other musicians. Call (412) 664-9832.