Joe Sestak crashes the tea party!

[Bravo Zulu]

The fact is, Sestak's the outsider and Toomey's the one working for the elites

WASHINGTON -- The cake was baked in Pennsylvania's Senate race a long time ago.

This was to be the year for conservative Pat Toomey, the former representative and onetime president of the Club for Growth, to win statewide in his second try. He'd almost taken down Sen. Arlen Specter in the Republican primary in 2004 and was ready to vanquish him this time.

Enter Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak, a former Navy admiral who didn't like being told what not to do. As he challenged Mr. Specter for the nomination, he was snubbed by fellow Democrats: How dare he muck up such a perfect deal, whereby Democrats got a critical 60th vote in the Senate and an easy win in the 2010 Senate race.

Now Mr. Sestak seems to be enjoying a similar kick in the homestretch of the general-election campaign. Two polls released in the last few days showed him ahead of Mr. Toomey for the first time -- up 44 percent to 41 percent in the Morning Call/Muhlenberg College daily tracking poll, up 46 percent to 45 percent according to Public Policy Polling, which in August had him down by nine percentage point.

Mr. Toomey, the out-of-office Republican, can be counted on to fight for the haves over the have-nots -- what an insider does. Mr. Sestak, the Democrat with a seat currently in the House, had the guts to challenge his party by taking on Mr. Specter. That made him an outsider, with all the attendant inconveniences.

Mr. Sestak's campaign has reminded voters time and again that Mr. Toomey is too conservative for Pennsylvania, even taking into account the description of the state as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between. Pennsylvania elects moderate Republicans, such as Mr. Specter and former governors Tom Ridge and Richard Thornburgh. (Consider former Sen. Rick Santorum the exception that proves the rule.)

A former derivatives trader on Wall Street before he entered politics, Mr. Toomey was more conservative during his three terms in the House, from 1999 to 2005, than 98 percent of U.S. legislators since 1995, according to an analysis by the website pollster.com, which relied on a computer analysis of roll-call votes called DW-Nominate. That score makes Mr. Toomey more conservative than Sen. Jim DeMint, the tea party favorite; more conservative than Mr. Santorum in his day; and about equal to the late Sen. Jesse Helms.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10297/1097319-109.stm?cmpid=newspanel#ixzz13K1i1q7Q

[redirish28]

1. Everyone was writting off Joe... Now it looks like he may in fact win..

have to wonder what Obama and the DCCC will do now... (remember during the primary they did everything they could to beat Joe.)

[BlueIdaho]

2. Forgetting that Obama, Sestak and Biden

All appeared at a rally together about two weeks ago are we?



Edit typo.

[redirish28]

4. One photo opt does not make up for what was done to Sestak in the

primary. If I where joe I would not have done it. He is a bigger person and I give him kudos for it but when they tried to get him to drop out during the primary it makes me wonder.


I'll be voting for joe and I hope he schools blue-dog dems unfortunately I'm going to have to vote for that blue-dog Altmire...

[wisteria]

8. He was asked not to run he decided not to take their advice and he ran as an outsider.

What exactly did they do to him? He was given the ok to run, but it was never guaranteed to him.
Besides, this is an old war and I didn't even support Sestak in the pimary, but I support him now, and so does the party-that is the only thing that is important. I think it is time for you to move on to the now.

[redirish28]

14. There is the difference with us. I supported Sestak in the Primary

[JI7]

21. what does that matter, he needs those who didn't vote for him in the Primary to win

[Clio the Leo]

11. Does a half million $$ in one night make up for it?

Because that's how much money was raised at the President's fundraiser with Sestak in September. It's highly unlikely that ANY candidate, Sestak or otherwise, could raise a half a million dollars in one night on their own, without Barack Obama in attendance. Do you think Sestak should return the money? Of course you dont.

For the love of all that's decent can we AT LEAST suspend the party infighting in the week before the election?

[redirish28]

15. No it doesn't IMHO. I was sick that Spector switched parties just

to stay in the Senate and I was appauled that The Democratic party for supporting -Let's change my R to a D.

[Clio the Leo]

18. Were you sick when Specter voted for the health care bill?

Or was that bill not progressive enough?

What about the latest jobs bill?

The stimulus?

You must have more pearls (for clutching) than I do. If members vote in favor of legislation that helps the American people, I dont care what letter is behind their name or how long it's been there.

[redirish28]

20. Specter was always a moderate Republican. I for the most part

always repected him. The last few years was when I lost respect for him. After suffering through cancer himself I would think he would have fought for a stronger health care bill. But than me saying that makes me a nut case on this board.


Specter only changed from Repug to Dem so he could get re-elected in PA. The Democratic party did try to get Sestak to drop out. I think it was an under-handed thing to do. Sorry for being too progressive that I don't believe in the you wash my back I wash your back in DC game. We need strong Dems who will not cow-tow to Corporate America.


In believe Sestak was the right candidate in the Primary and I believe he is the right candidate now.

I just think the whole thing that was done in the primary was wrong.

[Clio the Leo]

22. Yep, that's why we didn't end up with a stronger health care bill...

.... 'cause we didn't FIGHT hard enough .... there wasn't enough FIGHTING in the whole process. :sarcasm:

Reminds me of that Saturday Night Live skit where "Hillary Clinton" begins to laugh at "Sarah Palin" because Palin told Hillary she lost the primary because she didn't "want it bad enough."

Politics isn't pretty .... it's not a kids tea party where everyone is polite and no one's hands get dirty. Do we tell President Clinton to go sit down somewhere because of the things he said about President Obama during the 08 primary? Do we tell him we can do without his help and we're still hurting? Of course not. We need all hands on deck.

But we now have a health care bill that is a major improvement on what we had before (and the fact that I'm STILL having to defend it on a DEMOCRATIC message board a week before a mid term is shameful.) And we have that bill ... and SO MANY other bills that have made things better for "the least of us" in part because Arlen Specter swapped parties.

But you're right ... Joe Sestak is the right man for the job.

[redirish28]

24. THEY LET THE INSURANCE LOBBYISTS WRITE THE BILL!!! that is

lame! That is weak.

[Clio the Leo]

26. THEY LITERALLY LOCKED THE PUBLIC OPTION ADVOCATES OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!!!!

I REMEMBER!!!!

[redirish28]

28. Exactly! This is one of the things that pisses me off. That health care bill

could have been 10 times better. I honestly believe Specter wouldn't have change parties if he hadn't done the polling which suggested he wasn't going to win. I feel the White House and Democratic Party should have supported Sestak from the beginning. If I would have been in Sestak shoes I wouldn't have done the rally with Obama and Biden. He won the Primary without them and they should have stayed neutral in the primary.

[Clio the Leo]

32. lol, if you were in Sestak's shoes, you'd be out a half a million dollars..

... or more.

Iif you can beat Mr. Club for Growth without all the $$ you can get your hands on, more power to you.

[redirish28]

33. I believe Sestak would have. MHO. You and I differ sorry I had

an opinion.

[Clio the Leo]

34. Sestak CANNOT raise a half a million dollars in one night ...

.... by himself sorry. Un uh.

If he had that ability, we wouldn't be having this discussion .... because he'd be so far ahead in the polls we wouldn't even be talking about the PA race. (and that's no slight on him, there's only ONE person in the party who can do that)

[wisteria]

27. And, I think Sestak should have bowed out and ran at another time.

But, I am supporting him now and I hope and pray Admiral Sestak wins. I won't go as far however, as to suggest that everyone should kiss his a** if he does win, and I don't think he holds any grudges at this point. Many Democrats who supported Specter have held fundraisers on his behalf and have encouraged Democrats to vote for him. Good for you that you supported him in the primary and now in the general election, but please let the past die.

[redirish28]

30. So Specter could have played more games? Specter should have dropped out.

[wisteria]

25. And, for the record, years ago Senator Specter was a Democrat.

So you could say he came home, finally. But, the point is to win the seat, at the time the Democrat establishment was convinced that Specter could do that for them against Toomey. It was never anything personal against Sestak-it was politics and if Sestak wins I am sure he will find new respect within the party for the way he played it.

[redirish28]

31. And he switched parties when it is a good thing for him! why would you

want a fair weather Democrat?

[ClarkUSA]

13. Excuse me? Obama For America (OFA) members have been GOTV for Sestak for months.

OFA's efforts is one of the biggest reasons Sestak is doing better than expected. Just ask the head of the PA Democratic Party, who was on a conference call profusely thanking OFA organizers and volunteers a few weeks ago. You may want to rethink your opinion of Team Obama. I don't like Sestak but I've been working my Democratic ass off for Sestak on behalf of the party even though I think Sestak is a jerk (he treats his staff like shit).

<< I'll be voting for joe and I hope he schools blue-dog dems unfortunately I'm going to have to vote for that blue-dog Altmire... >

Sestak is not even close to being a liberal. He has more in common with Blue Dog Democrats like Altmire than you know because he is also a Clintonian ConservaDem.

For the time being, however, progressive Democrats have ample reason to be wary of Specter. Their problem is that Joe Sestak, the PA-7 Congressman who has refused to rule out a primary challenge, might not be any better from the standpoint of progressive policy.

In fact, it's plausible that he could be a bit worse. ProgressivePunch.org ranks Sestak as the 158th most progressive member out of 221 non-freshman Democrats, and notes that he's an order of magnitude or so more conservative than you'd expect of a Congressman from his Democratic-leaning district. Sestak's DW-NOMINATE score in the 110th Congress was -.287 on a scale that runs from -1 for extremely liberal to 0 for moderate; this is actually slightly more conservative than the score that we'd projected for Specter, which was -.303. The National Journal, moreover, found that Sestak took the liberal position only 63 percent of the time in the votes they tracked in 2007.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/05/is-sestak-right-choice-for-left.html

[redirish28]

17. After the fact! After they tried to get Sestak to drop out of the Primary

[Clio the Leo]

23. That he won! And then they gave him some money....

.... how cruel! (ha)

Unfortunately, honor doesn't pay for TV time.

[mkultra]

35. Obama has done much more for sestak than one photo op

once sestak won the primary, Obama's promise to specter was no longer needed. They have had fund raisers, several appearances, radio spots, and call banking.

[Gman]

3. It's not the DCCC

it's the DSCC and I'm sure they'll continue to pour the money to this race and I'll bet Obama slips into PA for one more appearance, probably next weekend. What did you think they would do?

[dionysus]

5. you're forgetting the conspiracy where obama and the DSCC are trying to lose...

[girl gone mad]

6. Specter would have been a sure loser..

so I don't think you can say they were trying to win by backing that toxic candidate.

[wisteria]

9. That is only speculation and actually it is irrelevant at this point so why bring it up? n/t

[redirish28]

19. my bad. I do apologize.

[wisteria]

7. They will welcome him. Our leadership has backed him since he became our candidate. n/t

[Tarheel_Dem]

10. Was this president not supposed to show any regard for the fact that...

Specter crossed over, and became a crucial vote for Dems? Critics of the president seem to glory in the demise of anyone the president helps, but then blame the WH when others (Meek, Feingold, etc.) aren't doing so well. Must be nice to have it both ways.

[Clio the Leo]

12. exactly nt

[firedupdem]

16. +1 n /t

[wisteria]

29. Well put comments. n/t