Corbett addresses jobless

Tom Corbett addressed unemployment benefits at a student forum in Harrisburg yesterday, saying he supported extending them if they were paid for with existing federal monies (not through borrowing, as the Senate narrowly moved).

That's not to say the General is happy to talk about the issue. From Amy Worden at the Inquirer:

Later, in reply to a reporter's question, Corbett lashed out at his opponent, Democrat Dan Onorato, for keeping the controversy about Corbett's comments alive as part of what he called an ongoing negative campaign.

"You tell me how many days he's been pounding me," said Corbett, adding that he wanted to move forward. "This is a positive campaign."

As he was leaving the conference center at the 1,150-student college, Corbett suggested that the news media had blown his Lancaster County comments out of proportion.

"I repeated what people had told me, what some people told me," he said. "I never said workers were lazy."

Asked by a reporter what he had learned from the experience, Corbett quipped, "I learned not to share anecdotes with you."

John Baer at the Daily News reviews the comments:

Does anyone doubt that some unemployed, a small minority, fit in Corbett's category? Doesn't matter.

He's a GOP candidate in a state where the unemployment rate is 9.2 percent, up a full point from last year (Philly's is 11 percent), while most Republicans in Washington oppose extending unemployment benefits pushed by Democrats.

Bad timing.

Worse, Corbett's campaign curled up in a ball as Onorato aggressively opened fire with ammo, such as saying that Corbett doesn't understand the economy, toes a party line and, according to a new Onorato Web site, cluelesstom.com, is, well, clueless.