Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Joe Sestak for Senate

Congressman Joe Sestak was in Luzerne County over the weekend. Bill O'Boyle and Mike Sisak had a chance to chat with him and he laid out his case for taking on Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary. He earlier described Specter as a "flight risk."
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Specter was a Democrat when it helped him win office in Philadelphia then switched to the GOP to win a Senate seat. Now he is a Democrat again because he knows he can't beat Pat Toomey in a Republican primary this time. I'm no fan of Toomey but at least he knows what he believes in and I can respect that.

Rapid Edward, Bob Casey and the President are in Specter' s corner but the idea of Arlen Specter as the Democratic nominee for US Senate makes me and many of my friends in the blogosphere and elsewhere in Pennsylvania want to throw up.

Some choice quotes:

“I’m getting in this because Pennsylvania voters need a choice, a choice of someone who will vote for them and their values.”


“I believe changing parties is not the change Pennsylvanians need for the future. We also need a senator who is in this for Pennsylvania and not for saving their legacy.”


"If you run on principle, politics will take care of itself.”

“But he actually voted with President George Bush four out of five times. This country has seen an economic collapse; good families have lost jobs and health care benefits. We need a senator that will fight for them and those key issues.”


"It's about Pennsylvanians, it's not about your job," Sestak said of Specter. "We Pennsylvanians have lost too many jobs in this recession to worry about his job security, particularly since he voted with President Bush on the economic tax policies that sent us over the precipice into this recession."

6 comments:

David Diano said...

Gort-
Sestak became a Dem out of convenience. He then voted like a Republican for the Iraq War (despite campaigning as anti-war candidate). Sestak's been AWOL when it came time to help local candidates get elected in 2007 and 2009. Don't believe for one second that Sestak isn't in this to create his own legacy (and maybe make a presidential run in 2016).
At every event I go to, I meet Democrats that busted their a$$es for Sestak in 2006, only to be shown the door when they asked him for help later.
In Sept 2007, Sestak gave a speech to local Dems thanking them. He said "It wasn't my victory. It was your victory."
But, minutes after speech ended, I asked his brother if Joe would be "hosting" any fundraisers to help out. The response was:
"Why should he? It's not his contest. No one here did anything for him."

This is a candidate that is selfish at the core, but wraps himself in the uniform to deflect criticism.

Klaatu Barada Nicto

Anonymous said...

Pretty sure Specter was elected D.A. in Philly as a Republican...

Gort said...

In 1965, Specter ran for District Attorney, on the Republican ticket as a registered Democrat. He handily beat incumbent Jim Crumlish, and subsequently changed his registration to Republican.

The Scranton Guardian said...

Specter has recieved a lot of campaign donations off of the Denaples' over the years.

Dana said...

How loyal is Senator Specter? President Bush and Senator Santorum went to bat for him in his 2004 primary campaign against Pat Toomey, and look how he has repaid them.

In 2004, I voted for Mr Toomey. In the general election, I voted for Constitution Party candidate Jim Clymer. It seems to me that the wisdom of my 2004 votes has been proven.

David Diano said...

Based upon his voting record and conservative scoring, there are about 4 House members to the Right of Toomey. He's too extreme for PA.

Toomey would be another right-wing zealot "Party-of-NO" vote.