As soon as Hoefell dropped out of the race, he threw his support behind Casey.

Hoeffel is open about Casey's stances on women's rights, he still is.  Pennacchio appears to be saying that the two who are advocating for Casey need to get their stories straight.

And he is right.  

actually said that they cleared the field for Casey by convincing the other candidates not to run.  These quotes have been all over the internet.  

I didn't read, in CHuck's statement, that Hoeffel has backed away from supporting Casey, only that Hoeffel has backed away from calling Casey a progressive. Are you defending Hoeffel and supporting Casey, because I have not made up my mind yet in the 8th. Congressional district who I'm supporting. But I have decided to support Pennacchio, as have MOST of the progressive activists I know who live in the district you are running in. We should talk some time. I'd like to get to know you better.

Okay, lol.

"Joey"  hasn't always been behind Casey, in fact he was going to run against him until he was talked out of it by Rendell and other party insiders.  "Joey" is being a good soldier because he thinks it will help him in his next race.  Unfortunately most of his support the last time he ran is going to be turned off by his new found insider loyalty since last time he ran (and did well considering Spector is pro-choice and also has the support of the biggest union in the state).

over the top -- it's a little bit like McCain kissing GWB in the hope of getting more support for the Party if he chooses to run for POTUS again.

Joe would have had a good chance to take out Spector if the PA DEM Party had been behind him earlier and stepped in with money.

This is the problem with being so far down, that just winning looks like up.  Casey Jr. brings little to the table but favorable name recognition (and lots of voters will think they're voting for his father as many thought they were doing in 2000 when they threw their initial support to Bush).  Santorum is so weak that if the Democratic Party were functional, this would not be the race to compromise on by rallying around someone out of step with core principles.  Short-term gains that ignore the long-term is part of how the DEM Party came to find themselves so powerless -- and at the national level the Democratic voice is still so undefined.

I met up with Joe at Drinking liberally Philadelphia, and asked him point blank about his support for Casey.  I also called him out on casey's gun stance, which is to the right of Santorum (this was news to joe, but it's also true).

All Joe could say was he thinks Casey has the best chance to beat Santorum.  I disagree and will be supporting you in the primary.