Just plain wrong


It’s easy to tell when an election is coming. Politicians
fill the bandwidth with e-mailed press releases. They also keep the fax
machines and the telephone wires humming.

What’s interesting right now is that it’s a sitting U.S.
congressman who’s burning up the wires, a congressman who’s not running for
anything until next year.

Granted, this year’s election is generating very little
heat, but for all the press releases, you’d think that U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak,
D-7, of Edgmont was running now, not next spring in the primary race for the
Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

Mr. Sestak is foregoing next year’s race for congress–what
would have been his third house campaign–to run for U.S. Senate against
Democrat turned Republican turned Democrat, Sen. Arlen Specter.

One of the latest pieces the Sestak campaign released calls
Mr. Specter to task for myriad perceived wrongs.

In "Arlen ... That's Just Plain Wrong," the
sitting senator is called on the carpet for shutting down and stopping “’the people's work’ so that he could leave
early and attend his own Philadelphia fundraiser.”

The release also
challenges Mr. Specter for changing parties, then using contributions from
Democrats to repay Republican loans.

On all points, the
release says the same thing: "Arlen ... That's Just Plain Wrong."

Cute, but hardly senatorial.

And while this, and other campaign press releases are just
so much rhetoric at this point, one must wonder where Mr. Sestak is going with
this current tactic and what he’ll have left in the tank come March and April
before the spring primary.

And one must also ask whether the congressman is right or
wrong in seeking the senate seat at this point in his political career. As a
political move, it’s up to him.

But where we have difficulty comes from an attitude he
expressed several months ago at a Democratic Party Leadership Caucus. He had
been telling a crowd of the party faithful what a great job he’s been doing for
the 7th Congressional District since taking office in January 2007
after defeating Curt Wheldon in the 2006 election.

After beating his own drum and telling people how great a
job he was doing for the district, a woman asked him if it wouldn’t then be bad
for him to leave congress and run against Mr. Specter for the senatorial
nomination.

Mr. Sestak responded by saying that his not running for
senate would be bad.

It may be understandable that such a statement would pass in
a partisan crowd without any negative reaction, yet the statement did reflect
more than ego. It showed arrogance. To paraphrase his own press release, "Joe
... That's Just Plain Wrong."

Arrogance in politics and politicians has been a destructive
force, but it works to get people elected. It also works to get people voted
out of office, too.

For Pennsylvania Democrats in 2010, that’s all they can
choose from. Their choice for U.S. Senator comes down to Mr. Sesatk who thinks
he’s so great for his congressional seat that only a run for senate will be
good enough, or Arlen Specter who thinks it best to switch parties to try for
another six years in the Senate since he knew that he would  be beaten in a Republican
primary. And based on an "on the issues chart," Republican hopeful Pat Toomey is
no friend either.

Does anyone really think this bodes well for the state?

About CFLive Staff

See Contributors Page https://chaddsfordlive.com/writers/

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Comments

comments

This Post Has One Comment

  1. DeVries

    This reader judges the national mood as so disheartened that he suspects the 2010 elections will be very strictly along party lines, rather than identity of the candidates. The primaries will be far more important (and recriminatory) than usual. ALL oppponents will be made to appear unqualified!!

Leave a Reply