Your Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) news….
Good news for Arlen Specter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Senator Arlen Specter’s switch to the Democratic Party appears to be paying off with a poll on Monday showing him ahead in his 2010 re-election race in Pennsylvania….
A Quinnipiac University poll found Specter would defeat a conservative Republican who is in the race, Pat Toomey, if the election were held today by 53 percent to 33 percent.
But the picture was much closer if a popular former governor of Pennsylvania, Republican Tom Ridge, were to jump into the race. The poll found Specter leading Ridge by only a margin of 46 percent to 43 percent.
Bad news for Arlen Specter
Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) hasn’t been shy about criticizing Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) for switching parties last week, but his harshest words came last night in an interview with TPMDC: “He left the fight,” said the former admiral and highest ranking military man ever to serve in Congress. “In the military, we just don’t leave fights.”
Sestak’s shot at Specter comes amid grassroots grumbling that the deal Democratic leaders struck to get Specter to defect from the GOP cost the party a shot at putting a real liberal in the seat in 2010.
“I can’t figure out…why the deal was done,” Sestak told me, saying he’s concerned that the party was so quick to embrace Specter for reasons of “expediency,” and without regard to the needs of Pennsylvania voters. “It isn’t Washington’s prerogative to tell us what to do,” Sestak insisted….
While Democrats from the While House on down might be trying to keep the Democratic primary field clear for Specter, they might not necessarily mind the fact that, for the time being, Sestak is applying pressure on Specter to move left. By keeping the door open to challenging Specter in the Democratic primary, Sestak may serve to nudge Specter further than he might otherwise have gone. Yesterday, Sestak told Greg Sargent that if Specter “doesn’t demonstrate that he has shifted his position on a number of issues, I would not hesitate at all to get in” to a primary fight against him.
UPDATE: I’m thinking a Sestak run for the Dem Senate nomination just got a little more plausible. In an interview to be published in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, Specter was less than supportive of his fellow “Democrat,” Al Franken:
“There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.”
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66 comments Add your comment
Joe Matarotz
May 5th, 2009
12:49 pm
Sestak is a former 3-star. He also urged AG Mukasey to open an investigation into the financial crisis culprits. Arlen Specter is a typical weasel politician who could not shine Joe Sestak’s shoes.
Bosch
May 5th, 2009
12:51 pm
For the life of me I can’t understand why a 79 year old would want to run for Senator. Good lord, if I live that long, I hope to be watching old re-runs of the Price is Right and yelling at my grand kids to get me a beer every five minutes.
And yes, you can switch parties, but if you don’t switch positions what good is it – and if you do suddenly switch positions and start voting another way, well, that just shows that you aren’t in the game for the voters but yourself.
Catch-22 – that’s why I hate party switching like this.
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
12:52 pm
While House? What’s dat?
Enjoy your new boy Spectre, he’s lots of “fun.”
Well, if you think being sold out is fun that is.
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
12:55 pm
As I’ve writen before, Specter should do the honorable thing and retire. He’ll be 80 with 30 years in the Senate. He was very unimpressive in the photo-op he had with Obama and Biden that I posted earlier.
I like Sestak and think he or any other up and coming Democrat can and will win.
Hillbilly Deluxe
May 5th, 2009
1:01 pm
Since I don’t live in Pennsylvania and I’m not going to move there, I’ll leave it to the Pennsylvanians to choose their Senator.
Bosch
May 5th, 2009
1:02 pm
Hillbilly Deluxe,
Good advice.
Bosch
May 5th, 2009
1:05 pm
Off topic, but funny:
NPR: Ten Jobs Not Right for Wolverine
http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2009/04/ten_jobs_not_right_for_wolveri.html
Sorry Jay, couldn’t resist
pat
May 5th, 2009
1:17 pm
Well the best news for the republicans in a long time is that this nimrod became a democrat. They deserve him.
sd
May 5th, 2009
1:23 pm
The fact that people feel betrayed when a Congress person votes in opposition to the majority of the party is a problem. There should be no feeling of obligation for a congress person to even check to see how the rest of the party is voting. Read the legislation and make a decision without regard to party lines! Thats what makes a good senator or rep. Not falling in line.
Mrs. Godzilla
May 5th, 2009
1:27 pm
I like Sestak too.
ByteMe
May 5th, 2009
1:34 pm
Similar to my comment on the Murtha thread: Who’s behind Sestak telling him to make noise? Democrat Reps don’t go after Dem Senators without a blessing. I’m betting Rahm asked him to do it. Would be his style to get Specter into line this way without having his fingerprints be so obviously on the attack.
Forget what’s being said for the press; watch how they act to know which team trusts Specter. Right now, no one does.
BDAtlanta
May 5th, 2009
1:39 pm
Bill Maher is hilarious. From his New Rules segment:
It’s sad what happened to the Republicans. They used to be a party of the big tent. Now, they’re the party of the sideshow attraction, a socially-awkward group of white people who speak a language only they understand. Like Trekkies, but paranoid.
Groups currently more relevant than Republicans include the Eskimo Film Society, the American Ferret Breeders Club — and the Itty Bitty Tittie Committee.
And if you say, “Well, Bill, come on, this is just a fringe,” no. No, the governor of Texas has dropped the word, “secession” as an option for how to deal with Obama. And this is before his first hundred days?! Where do you go in year two? Una-bombing? I’m not sure exactly what this new independent nation of “Jesus-stan” would look like — but I’m pretty sure I’d have to totally rethink my position on a border fence.
http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/index.html
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
1:41 pm
ByteMe
May 5th, 2009
1:34 pm
As was mentioned above, Sestak is a retired 3-star. I don’t think he takes marching orders from anyone.
True luxury?:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090501/cm_csm/ycorson
md
May 5th, 2009
1:44 pm
Only in politics…… Bait and switch is illegal in most forms of business, but not in our wonderful world of politics.
Regardless of party, people voted for an individual that labeled himself one way or the other. To switch in mid-stream is disenfranchising voters. If these self-centered politicians want to switch, they should be required to wait until the next election cycle or run as an independent to begin with.
Bait and switch just isn’t moral.
Thats any and all parties for the blow hard party loyalists on here.
Susan Myers
May 5th, 2009
1:44 pm
Sestak sounds like an incredibly sensible guy whenever I hear him speak.
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
1:44 pm
They said the same thing about Joe Lieberman. But except for the Iraq War, Liberman has been a reliable liberal vote. Spector will more than likely have to do some toeing of the line to remain in the Democratic caucus. He was not liked by the neo-cons, refusing to support them on many issues and even opposing Reagan on many. Especially when Reagan ran against Spector for the party nomination back in 1980. Spectors old style moderate Republicanism lost to Reagans social conservativism and lest we forget, Reagan ran as a social conservative more than a fiscal conservative. Reagan promised NOT to cut education, social spending etc, and asserted that his supply side economic theory would generate enough revenue to pay for it all.
BDAtlanta
May 5th, 2009
1:45 pm
oh oh, another one:
New Rule: Since Glenn Beck is clearly onto us, liberals must launch our plan for socialist domination immediately. Listen closely, comrades. I’ve received word from General Soros and our partners in the U.N. “Operation Streisand” is a ‘go.’ [suspenseful music plays]
Marcos Moulitsas, you and your DailyKos-controlled army of gay Mexican day laborers will join forces with Michael Moore’s Prius-tank division. North of Branson where you will seize the guns of everyone who doesn’t blame America first, forcing them into the FEMA concentration camps! That’s where ACORN and I will re-educate them as atheists and declare victory in the war on Christmas!
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
1:48 pm
And Pennsylvania is a rather unusual state. They voted OUT Rick Santorum and replaced him with a pro-life Democrat. The pro life Democrat defeated the pro Choice Democrat by a considerable percentage in the primaries. Spector is basically a pro Choice moderate Republican and this has gained him a very much larger centrist vote in his state.
Susan Myers
May 5th, 2009
1:49 pm
BDAtlanta,
My monitor is all icky now. Too funny!
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
1:54 pm
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
1:44 pm
That’s why I gave him a new nickname, the Gypper.
But don’t true social conservatives want to reduce or end most social spending, regardless of how it’s paid for?
Jake
May 5th, 2009
1:55 pm
After Byrd, he is the second best argument for term limits, and legal abortion.
Lib
May 5th, 2009
1:55 pm
Arlen, buddy, I thought you knew.
Once you join a gang you are in for life.
What is that old saying?
Lie down with dogs and get up with fleas.
Poor Arlen, one must live with the consequences of his decisions. In this case, act in haste, repent in leisure.
ByteMe
May 5th, 2009
1:56 pm
TnGelding: it’s not called “marching orders” when it’s in the realm of politics. But think how Sestak would react if Rahm came to him and said “we don’t trust Specter and if he doesn’t get on board, we’ll back you instead; in the meantime, make some noise and see if he’ll fall into line.” Sestak said a few weeks ago that he was happy as a Rep… suddenly that supposedly changed. Had to be something coordinated.
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
2:00 pm
ByteMe
May 5th, 2009
1:56 pm
I understand, but I just don’t think it is true in this case. But of course you could be right. I was thinking more along the lines that Rahm just wants to use him the rest of this term and then discard him.
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
2:10 pm
How many more?
http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/05/05/atlanta_carjacking.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab
I was hoping he wasn’t seriously wounded after reading the “front page.”
maxwell
May 5th, 2009
2:12 pm
Mitch McConnell is now trying to throw Jim Bunning under the bus…
Is there anyone the Republicans don’t hate? Anyone they won’t attack? They are like a pack of cannabilistic hyenas.
Let’s just sit back and watch them eat there own…
Obozo
May 5th, 2009
2:14 pm
“The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations.”
“Allah Akbar!”
Man stoned to death in Iran for adultery: According to Iran’s Islamic penal code, men convicted of adultery should be buried up to their waists and women up to their chests for stoning. Stones used should not be large enough to kill the person immediately.
Yes we can!
Susan Myers
May 5th, 2009
2:14 pm
Completely Off Topic
I don’t remember ‘My Pet Goat’ doing this well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/netherland-sales-boom-pap_n_196646.html
fearless fosdick
May 5th, 2009
2:16 pm
Has the Whiner once again changed his name? OBOZO @ 2:14
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
2:17 pm
ah, Rule Britannia!….
LONDON – Britain for the first time has published a list of people barred from entering the country for what the government says is fostering extremism or hatred.
The list includes popular American talk-radio host Michael Savage, who has called the Muslim holy book, the Quran, a “book of hate.” Savage also has enraged parents of children with autism by saying in most cases it’s “a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out.”
The list Tuesday also includes Americans Stephen Donald Black, a white supremacist, and anti-gay preacher Fred Phelps…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30575687/?GT1=43001
…just to show they are equal opportunity though, they have also banned:
Hamas parliament member Yunis Al-Astal and Egyptian cleric Safwat el-Higazi also are on the banned list.
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
2:18 pm
Fortunately, the Iranians have not killed as many people this way as the United States has executed people who were later determined to have been innocent.
Paul
May 5th, 2009
2:23 pm
One doesn’t need to get to the end of Jay’s writing to think “hmm, I’ll bet Sestak wanted to run for senator.”
This line, particularly from a retired flag officer, cracked me up for its testosterone-induced chest thumping:
““In the military, we just don’t leave fights.””
Horse puckies. I’ll bet he left more than one fight, lotsa times. It’s called ‘career enhancement’ and ‘attractiveness for promotion.’ I’m sure when he was on the NSC he never, ever abandoned a position when the SecDef or Pres told him to can it. I’m sure he kept up advocacy for more multibilliondollar aircraft carrier battle groups and nuke subs when he was charged with figuring out how the Navy could contribute something to the war on terror.
Dang, that quote was funny. I needed a good laugh.
Now it’s on to Bosch’s link for more laughs.
Paul
May 5th, 2009
2:33 pm
TnGelding
Interesting piece on ‘true luxury.’ But there’s lotsa funnies today. Like this:
[["I'll never become rich in Finland," one explained, "the taxes are just too high." But for him it was a trade-off worth making. "Great healthcare, basically free. My kids get one of the best educations in the world, free." By the way, that includes college, free.]]
In one breath, the guy says he’ll never get rich ‘cause the taxes are so high. In the next breath he lists all the ‘free’ stuff.
Free? Hel-loooo. TANSTAFL – there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Somebody, somewhere pays. In this case, it’s him. And he seems not to recognize it. Amazing.
Back on Specter: I’ll bet most of the Democratic complaining is because he retained seniority. Some people might get bumped from committee assignments. Others won’t get the assignments they wanted. In the Congressional culture, you live or die by seniority. Real democracy in action, that.
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
2:36 pm
maxwell
May 5th, 2009
2:12 pm
Bunning is an embarrassment to Kentucky and the country. He was a heckofa pitcher tho.
Obozo
May 5th, 2009
2:14 pm
Should that be “penile code?”
fearless fosdick
May 5th, 2009
2:16 pm
Very observant, detective. Good work.
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
2:36 pm
So far, we know absolutely that since 1973 123 people who were on death row were found innocent while waiting to be executed. A later study by Stanford University found a total of 350 people who have been found guilty of capital offenses who were later found innocent. 325 were released. 25 had already been executed by the time their innocence had been established.
and in Iran, the conditions required to sentence them to stoning are much more difficult to meet than in the United States, where the issue of “reasonable doubt” enters the picture. For stoning offenses in Iran there have to be 4 adult witnesses to the crime the punishement is being meted on. No forensic evidence is allowed, nor circumstantial evidedence. The punishment for false witness is even worse than stoning. If false testimony is given. Just for false witness for even a minor crime like theft the punishment is 80 lashes with a rather nasty looking whip or cane.
Because of the severity of the punishments in Islam, the rule is that there must be absolutely NO doubt that the crime has been committed, rather than the much weaker standard of “beyond reasonable doubt” used in the United States.
Which explains why the United States has more people in prisons or under death sentence than all Muslim nations combined.
The general principal in Sharia law is that it is “better to let release a guilty person than to punish an innocent one”
Directly from Sharia law, based on the hadiths (saying of Muhammed)
It is narrated that Muhammad (saw) said, “To free someone criminal mistakenly is better than to punish someone innocent mistakenly.” ‘A’isha (ra) narrated, “Ward off punishments as much as you can. If you find any way out for a Muslim then set him free. If the Imam makes a mistake in granting forgiveness it is better for him than that he should commit a mistake in imposing punishment.”
A nation which has one quarter of all the people in prison in the world, the United States, really is not in a position to criticize other nations criminal policies.
Obozo
May 5th, 2009
2:38 pm
“What I’ve said – and I will repeat – is that waterboarding violates our ideals and our values. I do believe that it is torture. I don’t think that’s just my opinion; that’s the opinion of many who’ve examined the topic. And that’s why I put an end to these practices.”
“Allah Akbar!”
On Aug. 8, six of the German spies were electrocuted to death and the other two were sentenced to long prison terms, by order of President Franklin Roosevelt.
“Uh, no we can’t, uh, hey!”
AmVet
May 5th, 2009
2:39 pm
“Well the best news for the republicans in a long time is that this nimrod became a democrat.”
pat, I’m not disagreeing. But what the hell does that say about the ongoing lack of good news for the languishing GOP?
Bunning and Maxwell? What a pair. Only Johnny Who? and Suxtobeus even rival them as paired losers from the same state.
There is much talk by the faithful here how the GOP should not change. How it needs to be even less accommodating and less willing to compromise. You know, principled. (har-dee-frickin-har) Notwithstanding that that idiotic “policy” has almost certainly caught up with them and hurt them enormously in the past few years.
Yet…in some ways it makes sense.
It’s kinda like a 1970s assclown country singer trying to do Jeff Beck or Steely Dan. It’s only gonna be ugly. Real ugly.
So if the neo-con leopards can’t/won’t change their spots and they can’t get some actual talent, they are gonna go the way of Tanya Tucker.
So the more I consider the options for this hemorrhaging GOP, it seems that the only redemption for them is gonna be when the old guard dies off and maybe, just maybe, some newbies with a lick of sense as to how the real world works can roll away the stone and resurrect the once Grand Old Party.
But at best that is a long ways off and at worst is never gonna happen…
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
2:44 pm
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
2:36 pm
It’s become an industry here. A disgraceful one at that.
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
2:46 pm
In the United States’ estimates based on people who have been released from prisons for all crimes who were determined innocent range from 11 percent to 23 percent. We probably will never know how many people served their sentences, were released but were serving sentences on crimes they never committed based on our rather weak set of standards for convicting a person.
Many organizations studying the criminal justice system note that the standards for jailing people for non capital crimes are even worse than those for capital crimes. While several hundred people who were on death row were later found innocent, studies indicate that if the same tecniques and principals were applied to general crimes that got death row inmated release, there would have been 28,500 non death row exonerations in the last 15 years.
While in the United State all those involved in the actual criminal justice system publically state that it would be better to let guilty men go free than to punish one innocent man, the reality in America is very diferent. They will privately state that the cost/benefit answer to that is no. It costs too much to absolutely prove guilt, so we have the lesser standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt” where the definition of “REASONABLE” has not been firmly established.
TnGelding
May 5th, 2009
2:48 pm
AmVet
May 5th, 2009
2:39 pm
Did you mean Bunning and Mitch? Just wanted to let you know some of us read your stuff and look forward to it.
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
2:55 pm
And under Islamic Law, that is sharia law, government is basically democratic. The relationship between the Caliph and those ruled is contractual. If a ruler fails in those duties, they can be removed from those duties by the people. According to Sunni jurists any government is legitimate if derives exclusively from the will of the people. If the people want a monarch, they can have a monarch. If they want rule by clerics, they can have rule by clerics. If they want rule by elected representatives, they can have rule by elected representatives. The basic choice of form of government, under sharia law is up to those ruled by it. If they want a dictator, they can have that as well. And the rulers are as subject to law as the ruled.
I Report :-)/ You Whine :-(
May 5th, 2009
2:56 pm
If you want a bone to pick–or an economic argument to have–it should be about when the current recession actually began. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S.’s semi-official recession arbiter, says it started in December 2007. But real gross domestic product grew at a 1% annual rate from then through August 2008. That doesn’t look like a recession to us.-Forbes
Gee, August 2008 is when Obozo won the dem primary.
duh
getalife
May 5th, 2009
2:58 pm
He should be retired like Zell Miller.
AmVet
May 5th, 2009
3:02 pm
TnGelding, exactement.
Thanks for the correction. I’m not even sure where I got Maxwell from. Some recess of my brain that must have been think of Silver Hammers!
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
3:06 pm
as far as Iran goes, comparing the political deaths under the Shah to those today indicates that things were considerably worse under the Shah.
During the protests that occured in Iran in 1978/79, between five and ten thousand were killed. And the shah reigned for a total of 37 years.
An estimated 100,000 political prisoners were jailed at any one time under the Shah.
cases of torture were legend, but like recent political figures, he was quick to state that “We dont torture people anymore”
N.J,
May 5th, 2009
3:12 pm
Unfortunately its been a while since August 2008. Economy contracted a total of 3.8 percent in the last quarter of 2008 and 6.1 percent in the first quarter. Fortunately the economists are reporting today that economic slowdown seems to be reversing, and expect growth to begin sometime around June.
mm
May 5th, 2009
3:13 pm
“He left the fight”.
When the GOP figures out they need to be working with the Dems instead of fighting them, maybe they’ll become relevant again.
DB, Gwinnettian
May 5th, 2009
3:38 pm
Md @ 1.44, I’m no big fan of Specter’s, but I have no problem with the timing.
I think it’s fair to say this isn’t mid-cycle, really. The PA primary’s only about a year away, and like it or not, fundraising and campaigning happens that far out. In fact, one could make the case that it’s more ethical to give potential campaign donors plenty of advance warning of a change; were a candidate to announce with less than a year to go, how about all the loyal (fill in party name)s who feel they’ve squandered their money?
Fred
May 5th, 2009
3:38 pm
This is so simple. The Republican party screwed Spectre by supporting another Republican for his seat, so Spectre screwed them. The leftists may be a bunch of lying, cheating socialist hypocrits, but the Republican party is just plain STUPID.
md
May 5th, 2009
3:45 pm
DB,
I would think that those that gave money for his current seat would have the same argument. He is more than welcome to resign and start anew if that is what he wishes.
Bait and switch is not ethical. But considering “ethics” and “politician” are more like oil and water, its fitting.