{"id":2943,"date":"2008-08-27T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/another-casey-another-convention-updated.html"},"modified":"2008-08-27T00:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-27T00:05:00","slug":"another-casey-another-convention-updated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/another-casey-another-convention-updated.html","title":{"rendered":"Another Casey, another convention — UPDATED"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opposition to abortion was mentioned from the podium at the Democratic Convention Tuesday night — if only fleetingly. It came when Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey delivered his speech.<\/p>\n

If you blinked you might have missed it. Here’s the highlight<\/a>: <\/p>\n

The economy was the topic of Sen. Bob Casey\u2019s, D-Pa., Tuesday night address to the Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But the two sentences he uttered on abortion are likely to get the most attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarack Obama and I have an honest disagreement on the issue of abortion,\u201d said Casey. \u201cBut the fact that I\u2019m speaking here tonight is testament to Barack\u2019s ability to show respect for the views of people who may disagree with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Casey is the son of the late Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Casey.<\/p>\n

The elder Casey, a Democrat who also held strong anti-abortion views, was denied a speaking role at the party’s 1992 convention — a perceived snub that has long been a flashpoint in the party’s wrangling over how to handle the abortion rights debate on the national stage.<\/p>\n

Casey invoked that \u201cdark night\u201d while campaigning for the U.S. Senate two years ago.<\/p>\n

Speaking at The Catholic University of America on Sept. 14, 2006, Casey said the 1992 Democratic National Convention “insulted the most courageous pro-life Democrat in the land, who asked that those who believed in the right to life be accorded the right to speak.”<\/p>\n

In his 2006 speech, the younger Casey also took conservatives to task for being too narrow in their pro-life views.<\/p>\n

“If we are going to be pro-life,\u201d said Casey, \u201cwe cannot say we are against abortion … and then let our children suffer in broken schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can’t claim to be pro-life,” he added, “at the same time we are cutting support for Medicaid, Head Start or the Women, Infants and Children’s Program.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

UPDATE:<\/b> Over at America<\/i>, Michael Sean Winters<\/a> helps put the Casey appearance in context: <\/p>\n

Sen. Casey was aware of the historical import of the moment and he began his speech with these words: “I am honored to stand before you tonight as Gov. Casey\u2019s son\u2026”<\/p>\n

In 1992, the Senator\u2019s father was the Governor of Pennsylvania, the fifth largest state in the Union. He was a lifelong pro-life Democrat, one of the few who did not flip their position after Roe v. Wade. (Curiously, one of the other pro-life Democrats who did not abandon her defense of pre-natal life was Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso, the first woman elected governor of a state in her own right.) Gov. Casey wanted to address the convention on the issue of abortion. He was barred from the podium.<\/p>\n

Some of the 1992 campaign officials have tried to re-write the history of that first class snub. Last night on CNN, former Clinton aide Paul Begala denied that abortion was the reason Gov. Casey was barred from speaking. He noted that Casey had not endorsed the ticket and “wanted to speak about abortion for thirty minutes” and “no one” wanted that. Well, Mr. Begala, many of us pro-life Democrats did want that. (Would twenty minutes have been okay?) We certainly did not want to see the most noted spokesman of our cause denied even the right to speak. Nor did we want to belong to a party that applied such a litmus test. The governor of a state you need to win can talk about whatever he or she wants when they address a national convention.<\/p>\n

For many pro-life Democrats, the appearance of Gov. Casey\u2019s son at the podium last night was the important unity speech. The pro-choice litmus test had been set aside. No one deleted Sen. Casey\u2019s reference to abortion in his speech, nor his acknowledgement of an “honest disagreement” with this year\u2019s nominee, Barack Obama, on that issue. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s worth noting, however, that Casey fis<\/i> is not exactly a paragon of the pro-life cause. A reader wrote to remind me that he’s gotten a significant approval rating<\/a> from NARAL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Opposition to abortion was mentioned from the podium at the Democratic Convention Tuesday night — if only fleetingly. It came when Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey delivered his speech. If you blinked you might have missed it. Here’s the highlight: The economy was the topic of Sen. Bob Casey\u2019s, D-Pa., Tuesday night address to the Democratic National…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\nAnother Casey, another convention - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/08\/another-casey-another-convention-updated.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Another Casey, another convention - UPDATED - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Opposition to abortion was mentioned from the podium at the Democratic Convention Tuesday night — if only fleetingly. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}