Reply #4: You have been away too long to know about Sestak

[daviddiano]

Diverman-
Vern Clark's defense of Sestak is not the end of the debate, because Vern Clark was part of the problem in the first place. The reason that Sestak was fired (relieved, reassigned, etc.) so quickly is that it was long overdue and that Clark had been protected Sestak who was previous considered "untouchable".
The behavior attributed to Sestak in the Navy has CERTAINLY been displayed since then in both his Congressional and campaign offices with record staff turnovers. The reasons given to reporters by those staffers of long work hours, unreasonable demands and Sestak's temper ALL match the "poor command climate" and other descriptions we've read about Sestak in the Navy.
Are we to believe that in the Summer or 2005 (long before Sestak's political career started) that Sestak was given an unusually rapid dismissal by the incoming CNO, and that by "coincidence" that a "false" description of a "poor command climate" just happens to match Sestak's command style since? Or is it more plausible that the 2005 Navy Times story accurately captured Sestak's consistent mistreatment of his staffers that continues to this day?

BTW, Sestak has given THREE different reasons as to why he was "let go".
1) In 2006 when he campaigned against the Iraq War, Sestak claimed that he was pushed out because he opposed the War as a "tragic misadventure".
2) He has tried to play it off as standard operating procedure for a new CNO to bring in his own team/staff.
3) He has claimed it was politics or payback for suggesting cutbacks (despite Rumsfeld and others calling for cutbacks)

I'm waiting to see if Sestak will come up with a fourth story.

As for the missed votes, only a few of them were due to his father's illness. That does excuse him from missing ones while campaigning but on the taxpayer dime for his salary. Also, Sestak actually has missed 13% of his votes, so he's really at 95% of the 87% when he voted, which really puts him around 83%.

Your statement that you wished Specter had missed some of his votes is pretty much the verbatim response/talking point from the Sestak campaign. However, you can be absolutely certain that if Sestak were endorsed by Obama and was hosting a fundraiser, he'd run little old ladies off the road to attend.

Sestak's shown a lack of honesty and integrity in dealing with local Dems in his district. Whatever honor he had in the Navy, he didn't bring it to his civilian life.