Ladies and gentlemen it's about three months until Pennsylvania decides who they'll nominate as a Democrat for the Senate. Even though Joe Sestak has made a large push in the polls, it appears like the PA Dem party is going to lend their support to moderate former Republican Arlen Spectre. Spectre has made a move to the left recently but who can trust him?
Congressman Sestak will be on the Progressive Electorate in one hour at 7PM ET for a liveblog. Come join us with a question, or if you can't make it leave one in the comment section below and I will ask it for you.
Carl Rotenberg at the Mercury has a good article about Sestak's race for Spectre's seat
The two-term congressman commanded an aircraft carrier battle group as a three-star U.S. Navy admiral in the war in Afghanistan and served as President Bill Clinton's director for defense policy in the White House.
Why did Sestak decide to run for the Senate?
"Think of what Arlen Specter did to my district. He voted to deregulate Wall Street, and they gambled with my district's savings — my IRAs and my savings. He voted four times against tuition college increases and assistance for students. He voted three times against covering children with health care — SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program). He voted for the largest education cut in the history of America, one-third over seven years. He voted to ship the jobs in my community overseas by actually letting large corporations keep the profits overseas until they want to come home. He voted for those (former President George) Bush tax cuts."
"In the Navy, when someone runs a ship aground," Sestak said, "you relieve him for cause."
This will be my second liveblog with the Congressman, in September on Senate Guru he answered about 30 questions. Joe let it be known that he supports the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act. He also had some harsh words for Spectre's past votes.
Arlen Specter: We would not have needed a stimulus bill if not for his 2000 votes for President Bush's economic, tax, and other policies (note, that Arlen voted first to remove all stimulus funding and only supported corporate and similar tax cuts when he supported the McCain Amendment to the Stimulus Bill; he then bragged on his website how he was still able to at least remove $100 billion in the end game of the bill...which included $1.5 billion to help close Pennsylvania's present budget deficit and $20 billion for construction money when construction workers have an unemployment rate of 31 percent. How could he have done that after helping create this savage recession with his support of President Bush.
We would not need to pass health reform now, if Arlen Specter had not traveled the country with Bob Dole actively working against the Clinton plan...and then proudly displayed their misleading poster on the plan in his office as a "trophy". In the next 15 years, 10 million Americans lost their health insurance.
I am glad to see that after Arlen switched parties, because -- as he said -- he could not win against Pat Toomey, he then switched his opposition to the public option (and EFCA) after I announced my intent to enter the race.
Please do what you can to support Congressman Sestak in his Senate run. You can contribute at Actblue here. No amount is too small $1 donations add up. And don't forget to join us before the SOTU tonight at 7PM ET for the live blog Q+A with Admiral Sestak.