Attorney Richard DeMarco, of Lenny Klehr's firm, hosted the young professionals' fundraiser on the rooftop of the hipster bar. Well-heeled youngish lawyers such as Brett Feldman, Darwin Beauvais and Natalie Klyashtorny; and politicos such as new Democratic primary House candidate Tony Payton and Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell attended.

Casey made a brief appearance. He wanted to stay longer, but had to hit the next moneymaking event. As supporters put aside their martini glasses, Casey opened with a joke about the snooping accusations against his campaign last month that were widely covered in the national media.

On WILK 980 AM radio in Wilkes-Barre, Santorum accused Casey operatives of sneaking onto the property surrounding his family house in Penn Hills. While Casey denied that anyone from his campaign was involved, Santorum insisted that Casey supporters were looking in his windows to see if, in fact, he and his family lived there. Democrats believe the Santorums actually live in Virginia, while Santorum maintains that his legal residence is here.

"Santorum called me a thug on a radio show," said Casey. "That's outrageous! And insulting to thugs everywhere!"

Casey then called for a new direction in leadership. "Sen. Santorum has voted with President George W. Bush 98 percent of the time and has been aligning himself with Bush and supporting the federal marriage amendment," he said. "And it's time for them to tell the truth about Iraq."

Casey was cautiously optimistic about a Quinnipiac University poll released last week showing he had a 18 percentage-point lead. After the results were released, Santorum's campaign issued a press release dismissing all current polling as "unreliable." They also referred to a Zogby Interactive poll from later that same week where Casey had 48 percent to Santorum's 41 percent. Either way, Santorum is really going to need that TV time. The next polls will tell if the incumbent's media blitz has helped him.

Forget the networks. Many people get a lot of their news from watching parody shows like Jon Stewart's The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report.

This was the topic at last week's forum of the National Constitution Center's Constitution Culture Club. Moderated by Anthony Green, vice president for programs and national outreach, some 50 attendees munched on pizza and gave their thoughts on how comic "newsmen" like Stewart, Colbert, Bill Maher, Dennis Miller and hardcore parodists like Howard Stern are the real newsmakers and about how, although focused on laughs, their commentary contains enough intellectual truth to be considered on the same level as traditional news.

The consensus was that most under-29-year-olds get their news from comedy, and that older adults, although they watch local networks, also watch those shows.

Critics of network news complained that the business has become a ratings game and there is really only 20 minutes of news, after commercials, and, even after that, only maybe 10 minutes of "real news" with the rest taken up with sports and the latest foibles of Britney Spears or some other irrelevant celebrity. Most said they listened to NPR and watched the BBC for important international and national news rather than local stations. Late-night talk shows, like Jay Leno and David Letterman, also play a part in forming opinions about current events. The late-night fodder can change popular perceptions: When John Kerry was being painted as a stiff, he went on Leno and Letterman to loosen up his image; and when Bill Clinton was behind in the primaries, he played the saxophone on Arsenio Hall's show to turn his campaign around.