Bob Casey: National Beekeeper?

In office since 2007, Robert P. Casey, Jr. is Pennsylvania’s longest-serving U.S. Senate Democrat. He is currently seeking his fourth term.

A Public Broadcasting website describes Casey as, “a key ally of labor unions and President[ish] Joe Biden. In Congress, Casey, a moderate Democrat, has backed all of Biden’s top priorities and forged a close relationship with the president…”

Only left-wing propagandists could describe anyone who has “backed all of Biden’s top priorities” as “moderate.”

Casey, a/k/a, “Silent Bob,” keeps a low profile in Washington. He’s a “go-with-the-flow” kind of guy with a nearly perfect voting record on his caucus’s top issues.

But Casey may have just scored a major personal victory!

First, the background…

In 2007, Casey helped sponsor a bill entitled “The Pollinator Protection Act” designed “To Protect And Maintain America’s Bees And Native Pollinators.”

Containing no specific measurable objectives – congressional bills seldom do – the measure sought “federal funding for research and grant programs at the USDA over five years for work related to maintaining and protecting our bee and native pollinator populations,” and “to help research, protect and maintain America’s bee and native pollinator population and ensure the viability of crops that rely on them for pollination.”

It’s unclear how government manages to count apis mellifera, but the government periodically issues a “Census of Agriculture” that purportedly “counts” everything ag-related, including bees, the population of which, it reported, had dropped.

In 2007, freshman Senator Casey’s website featured multiple items proclaiming his determination to “save” America’s bee population, arguably a signature issue in an otherwise undistinguished career.

But, finally, seventeen years later, Beekeeper Bobby has results!

On March 29, the Washington Post published an article entitled, “Wait, does America suddenly have a record number of bees?”

Apparently, the little pollinators are everywhere!

The Post: “After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage…, we were stunned [by] the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture…: America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.” […] We’ve added almost a million bee colonies in the past five years. We now have 3.8 million, the census shows. Since 2007, the first census after alarming bee die-offs began in 2006, the honeybee has been the fastest-growing livestock segment in the country! And that doesn’t count feral honeybees, which may outnumber their captive cousins several times over.”

Although the article doesn’t mention his website’s “yeoman” contributions to raising bee awareness, in an election year, Casey might try to take personal responsibility for their salvation.

Nonetheless, one remains curious about how, exactly, Casey did that. Details are not forthcoming. Nor, one suspects, will they ever be.

But, Casey may have forgotten bees. In a current borrowed-theme, almost-lifelike campaign ad, Casey earnestly – and hilariously – attempts to spin family budget-killing Bidenflation as corporate “greedflation” – something…something…about “chickens” and “the Federal Trade Commission”…

For years, fawning media have described Casey as “son of the popular (or ‘beloved’) former-Governor Robert P. Casey, Sr.”

It’s uncertain for what Casey, Sr. was “beloved,” though. If memory serves, Senior inherited a huge surplus from his Republican predecessor, blew it all during his first term, put Pennsylvania in the red, then stonewalled an audit until after he was reelected.

At least Senior was legitimately pro-life. Junior can’t even get that right.

Casey, Jr. delivered a 2006 Catholic University lecture in which he said, “life begins at conception.” But, in 2022, he voted in favor of the “Women’s Health Protection Act,” a sweeping, pro–abortion rights bill that, among other things, would have superseded federal and state-level conscience laws and parental-notification statutes for minor girls seeking abortions. Casey has consistently voted to fund Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortionist.

The truth is that Robert P. Casey, Jr. has always been a slender reed – a mediocrity dining out on a lucky birth. If Bobby’s last name were “Smith,” at best, he’d still be a small town lawyer, or by now, perhaps, have retired – anonymously.

At 64-years old, Junior needn’t worry about Bidenflation. If he’s not reelected this November, in April, he’ll collect an extremely generous federal pension to supplement any he may have “earned” from his time in state government. Casey, Jr. has been living on public money most of his adult life. Why stop now?

But, if bees could vote, Bobby Casey would win in a landslide. They’re everywhere, you know…

https://www.pottsmerc.com/2024/04/22/jerry-shenk-bobby-casey-jr-national-beekeeper/