Via email, the president tells me why I should vote for Arlen Specter in the May 18th primary against Rep. Joe Sestak.
He cast a deciding vote in favor of the Recovery Act that brought our economy back from the brink and created more than 120,000 jobs in Pennsylvania in just the first three months of this year.
He fought hard for health insurance reform, and because of that victory 1.3 million uninsured Pennsylvanians will now have access to affordable care — including more than 140,000 with pre-existing conditions.
And he’s been a champion of Wall Street reform and combating climate change, two crucial parts of my agenda that won’t happen without Arlen’s support.
Sometimes I get angry when the party leaders tip the scales in primary battles, but I’m not angry about this one. Flipping Specter to the Democratic caucus was a shrewd move and this is part of the price Obama agreed to pay to make it happen. But I won’t be voting for Snarlin’ Arlen. Frankly, I don’t like my choices in this race. I’m obviously not going to vote for Club for Growth champion, Pat Toomey, in the general. And I’m not impressed by Joe Sestak. I don’t like how he treats his staff, among other things. But Sestak’s stated positions and record are the best among the three, and I will be voting for him on May 18th.
As to Obama’s argument for Specter, I feel certain that Sestak would be just as good as, and probably better than, Specter on health care, Wall Street reform, and climate change. Sestak is more of a conventional Democrat, so I’d expect him to generally out-perform Specter on most issues.
However, it isn’t easy to cast away the kind of seniority that Specter has for a backbenching former admiral who grinds through staff like they’re nothing more than wheat. If Specter were to win another term, I’d expect him to be considered a Democrat in full good-standing, and to have his seniority restored. That would place him very high up on the Appropriations Committee (just behind Inouye and Leahy) and in very good position to bring home the bacon to the Keystone State. Sestak and Toomey can offer nothing more than their one percent influence in the hundred-member Senate.
Yet, despite the sacrifice losing Specter would mean for my state, I can’t support him. Probably more than any senator I’ve observed during my short life, Specter personifies the say-one-thing-do-another syndrome expressed by politicians at their worst. Specter’s record as Judiciary chairman under Bush was flat-out abysmal. He’d call something unconstitutional one day, and vote for it the next. The defining feature of Arlen Specter is that he doesn’t stand for anything other than his own political career, and that is why I can’t support him despite a generally moderate record, a good relationship with labor, and the endorsement of the president.
I will unenthusiastically vote for Joe Sestak. If you live in Pennsylvania, you should do so, too.
Also in my email inbox:
You should vote for Joe Sestak very enthusiastically. I live in his district, and he has been an outstanding representative in all aspects: constituent service/outreach/accessibility; voting record; ethics; maintaining a high national profile (for a second-term rep he has a very high number of appearances on TV, cable as well as Sunday morning). His resume is stellar (3 star admiral, second in class at Annapolis while graduating a semester early, MA and PhD from Harvard, Director of Defense Policy on the Clinton National Security Council from 1995 to 1997). He demands from his staff only the same degree of hard work and long hours that he puts in himself. I teach Government at a local public high school and Sestak and his staff have been extremely helpful and accessible since before he was elected. I have been around politics for a long time and I’ve rarely been as unequivocal in my support for a candidate as I am in support of Joe Sestak.
That’s great. Hopefully he is a good candidate and will be a great Senator. Good luck with your advocacy on his behalf.
That said, if you read that article Booman linked to, Sestak does work that staff too hard. I’ve had a number of friends who worked for Congresscritters. Many of them have been asses, or worked the staff beyond what’s reasonable. But not for 12 hours a day 7 days a week! Working people that hard is a recipe for poor productivity, a negative office working environment, backstabbing and bad decisionmaking overall.
well, your opinion means a lot to me, so I am pleased to hear you have had very positive experiences.
You should come see the baby…
Yes, definitely! It has been a very tough couple of months for me but I’m doing great now and would love to get together. I’ll call.
My grandfather (great grandfather) knew Arlen Specter very well. He was a powerful man in Philadelphia at the time. He never said if Specter had any principles, he just always said this about him:
“He’s very effective. I’ll leave it at that.”
I agree with your post.
” in very good position to bring home the bacon to the Keystone State?”
We have a greater need for that bacon up here in Michigan than you do down there in PA. And you have a greater likelihood of convincing the people of PA that taxes are a necessary fact of life than we do up here in Michigan, still suffering from the Engler syndrome (the Republican senate): the money will come from God.
the president does not seem to mention that Specter insisted on billions in cuts to the stimulus. if not for those cuts, most of PA’s 1.6 billion deficit would have been filled.
and then there’s his role in seating Roberts and Alito. And his role in passing the Military Commissions Act of 2006. And his continued support for a highly regressive flat tax.
That and the fact that Specter looks like a cadaver: if the next governor of PA is, as expected, a Republican that has ramifications for the seat if the sick and elderly senior senator (who has been having some senior moments lately, if you get my drift) dies in office or is otherwise incapable of carrying out his duties.
A flat-taxer is not a Democrat. Since Reagan, the wealthy have exceeded their take from the government and it is now time to give back. The flat tax is a formula for getting the poor and middle class to pay more. Cut the loopholes and taxation may become fair. One loophole is the 15% dividends/capital gains tax.
Wealth inequality has never been more…well you fill in your own term. How about obscene? Gluttonous?
Flat tax? Are you sure? That would put him to the right of even most Reps. Hard to believe.
“Sestak was relieved from his last post as deputy chief of Naval operations”
The position he was filling was as the second highest ranking sailor in the Navy. His boss, the Chief of Naval Operations is a 4-star and the senior sailor. To be relieved of that position shows a serious character flaw.
I do not live in PA, but my concern would be which of the candidates are the most progressive.
Well, that’s not correct.
I stand corrected on the technicalities. He is not the 2nd highest ranking person. And on reflection, after making that rather dumb-ass remark, there are a whole bunch of 4-star Admirals in the Navy. Commanders of fleets, SubLant, AirLant et cetera.
I, if I lived in PA, would still be concerned that a 3-star flag officer, a Vice Admiral, would be removed from a position of such responsibility for cause.
It was political. He was asked to provide a comprehensive plan to reorganize the Navy and cut costs. His plan rankled lots of his colleagues (predictably). At the same time, his young daughter had been diagnosed with brain cancer. Not wanting to deal with the flak from his plan, he retired. Because he hadn’t been at the three-star rank for long enough (I don’t know all the requirements), he officially retired at his previous two-star rank. From the Delaware County “Daily Times”:
“In 2001, then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark reportedly asked Sestak to review the Navy and make recommendations about its future.
Sestak, who became deputy chief of Naval Operations in October 2004, proposed some deep cuts as part of that vision, including about 60 ships.
“He was promoted to three-star (admiral) and tasked to `implement his ideas’ for a more efficient and knowledge-based Navy with fewer ships, but better capability in modern warfare,” said Sestak spokesman Jonathon Dworkin.
When Adm. Mike Mullen took over as chief of Naval Operations in July 2005, one of his first orders of business was to reassign Sestak from his position in favor of Mullen’s own team. The “poor command climate” quote is attributed to an unidentified source in a Navy Times article about the reassignment.
Sestak retired the following January. Though Sestak had been promoted to the rank of a three-star vice admiral, he had not held the position long enough to retire at that rank and instead left as a two-star rear admiral.
Clark recently said he likely put Sestak “in the crosshairs” by doing what he had been asked to do.
“People are going to say what they want to say, but he challenged people who did not want to be challenged,” said Clark. “The guy is courageous, a patriot’s patriot.”
The Specter ad has meanwhile been roundly criticized by veterans, some of whom rallied in front of Specter’s campaign offices in Erie, Harrisburg, Allentown, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Monday afternoon to demand the five-term senator remove the spot from the airwaves and apologize.”
Thank you. I appreciate your effort to bring me up to speed on Mr. Sestak. I never asked my subordinates to work harder or longer than I, Nor did I ever ask them to do anything that I hadn’t done.
If he puts in the hours he expects his staff to put in, so be it.