Pennsylvania is the primary challenge everyone can agree with! In an email leaked from Journolist, Joe Klein endorses Joe Sestak even while attacking the concept of progressive primary challenges in general:
Joe Klein on Journolist
(in reverse chronological sequence)
From: Joe Kelin
Date: Aug 29, 6:03 pm
Subject: A letter from Mr. Billy Ralph Bierbaum of Waxahachie, Texas
re: condensed journalism
To: Journolist
Luke--i think primary challenges are valid in some cases. I'd vote for Sestak over Specter in a heartbeat. They are much more tricky in the House...As for Greenwald, he knows little about politics, less about journalism and cares not a whit about the national security of the United States. I find the Limbaugh-like, knee-jerk devotion of his flock depressing.
----- Original Message -----
From: [email protected] Sent: Sat Aug 29 16:54:11 2009
Subject: [ JournoList] Re: A letter from Mr. Billy Ralph Bierbaum of
Waxahachie, Texas re: condensed journalism
Joe
You are arguing with a straw man. No one here is "more interested in whacking moderates than in making sure that moderate districts are represented by Democrats rather than Republicans." No one is calling for a Naderite heightening of the contradictions.
Why do you insist on characterizing people who disagree with your tactical assessments as "self-righteous political naifs" hellbent on achieving some sort of solipsistic emotional release by way of "purges" and "litmus tests"? That hardly seems civil.
In any case, the question before us is: Are primary challenges a useful means of achieving liberal policy goals? I think they are, based not only on basic human logic and my personal preference for more rather than less democracy, but also on the concrete example of Arlen Specter's recent and pleasing ideological evolution.
You seem to think they are not. Other than suggesting that a theoretical victory by a theoretical liberal in a theoretically conservative district could, theoretically, throw a Democratic seat to Republicans, what is the actual evidence from cases that is causing you to reject the validity of one half of the entire democratic process?
The whole exchange is amusing, even if the leak isn't.
Above Average Jane writes up a detailed report from a town hall on women's health care that Congressman Sestak held with Lynn Yeakel in Bryn Mawr. Congressman Sestak also held health care townhalls over the past week in Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Lancaster.
Arlen Specter is having difficulty selling tickets to his fundraiser with President Obama in two weeks. So, according to PA Progressive, Pennsylvania State chair TJ Rooney is giving away $1,000 tickets to hundreds of state committee members for free:
Senator Specter promised the county Chairs free tickets to his upcoming $1000/person event in Philadelphia with President Obama. TJ Rooney then announced the Senator will pay for every state committee person to attend. This makes me thing the Senator is having trouble selling tickets if he has to begin tickets away at $1000 apiece. It'll remain to be seen if he can buy off committee people for a thousand bucks a pop. This hits me as trying to buy votes.
PA Progressive also got a video of Congressman Sestak talking at the Pennsylvania State Democratic Committee meeting over the weekend:
As the number of people in danger of losing their homes continuing to increase, Congressman Sestak has been keeping his office open seven days a week and designating two staff members to help out constituents. From the Delco Times:
For the Mignognas, Strohl, Bettcher and the Fuciles, their journey brought them to Sestak's door.
"Your office did more for me in two weeks than two attorneys that I had hired in a year and a half," Strohl said.
Bettcher said she was unsuccessful trying to refinance until she called Sestak.
"Two days later, I got a response," she said. "I've probably talked more to (Sestak's office) than my family members in the past few months to keep me from becoming a statistic."
Partly because of this, Sestak has kept his office open seven days a week.
In 2007, his office fielded 49 housing-related calls. Last year, it jumped to 224. This year, he expects to take more than 500.
"A lot of these are just conforming loans, 30 years," Sestak said. "People had it and all of a sudden, something happened."
The congressman has designated two staff members, Sean Kelly and Bill Walsh, to handle the cases.
The above excerpt is a small part of a longer story about how an effective member of Congress can make a real difference in the lives of local residents. Check it out.
Another thing we learned years ago was that the entire scheme was made possible by Senator Arlen Specter, who quietly changed the law allowing US Attorneys to be replaced. Without this change, President Bush could have threatened to fire Christie and the other USA's, but he would not have been able to easily replace them with political hacks. Apparently, Specter inserted the changes to benefit Bush and the Republican party--and after all, it's easy to guess at his motives since Bush and Rove saved in him in his 2004 primary contest, and Republican control of the Senate rested on the upcoming 2006 elections.
The biggest campaign even of the week will take place on Wednesday from 6-8 pm when Congressman Sestak debates Republican frontrunner Pat Toomey. It will be broadcast live on JoeSestak.com, and takes place in Allentown at Muhlenberg For ticket requests call (610) 891-8956 or send an email to [email protected].
Does anyone else find it impossible to to not start singing the Bill Joel song of the same name whenever they hear about Allentown?
This should be interesting. Will Snarlin' Arlen show up?
Allentown, PA - Today, U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey accepted an invitation issued by Rep. Joe Sestak to participate in a town hall meeting on health care on September 2, 2009 at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. The invitation was issued after Mr. Toomey engaged the Congressman in an exchange over health care several days ago. Mr. Toomey also suggested that the two campaigns invite Muhlenberg College's Dr. Christopher Borick to moderate the meeting.
"I eagerly accept Congressman Sestak's gracious invitation, and look forward to our respective campaigns working out the logistics over the next couple of days," Mr. Toomey said. "I'm happy to welcome Joe to the great city of Allentown and I'd extend to him an invitation to share a beer with me at one of our fine local establishments after the town hall meeting."
"Our health care system desperately needs reform, and Joe and I agree that a thoughtful and constructive policy discussion is a good way to move the ball forward."
"While I look forward to a substantive debate about honest differences with Congressman Sestak, I wish such an exchange was possible with Arlen Specter. Unfortunately, with Senator Specter, one never knows which Arlen Specter will show up-the May 2009 version who opposed a public health care option, or the August 2009 version who ardently supports it. Either way, I would be interested in having a similar discussion with Senator Specter and hereby extend to him an invitation to participate with me in a separate town hall meeting on health care."
Sestak's response:
"Pat, I look forward to such an exchange; how about a great town hall on health care? Does the evening of September 2nd, in your home town of Allentown at Muhlenberg College, work for you? We'll have a great discussion of the health care reform effort. I want to show you the light on the public health care option! What do you say?"
Also, pretty cool that Toomey accepted what was an initial challenge via Twitter:
I challenge @ToomeyForSenate to a health care town hall in his home town: http://bit.ly/IUhex #sestak #toomey #publicoption
Disclaimer: I am working for Joe Sestak's campaign. Follow the campaign on the official website, on Twitter and on Facebook. Contribute at Act Blue
Arlen Specter has received more press for having right-wing protesters yell at him than any other Senator. According too a new Rasmussen poll, it doesn't seem to be helping him electorally:
Rasmussen, 8/11, 1,000 LVs (6/16 numbers in parenthesis)
Pennsylvania Senate general election Toomey: 48 (39)
Specter: 36 (50)
Here are my thoughts on this poll (they do not necessarily reflect the thoughts of Joe Sestak):
Rasmussen may ask pro-Republican questions on issue polls and commentary, but I have never seen a reason to discount their election polls.
It is just one poll, and needs confirmation from other sources before being taken as an overall trend.
Both Specter and Sestak have lost ground in the general election, reflecting a deteriorating political environment for Democrats in general.
Specter, who has received massive press attention for the negative reaction at his town halls, dropped 7% more against Toomey than Sestak. He also lost 6% against Sestak in the primary.
Given all of this, it is hard to see how the "extreme protesters vs. Democratic politicians: media narrative is helping Democrats right now. No politician has received more attention in this narrative than Arlen Specter, and a poll taken after his town hall in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, shows him losing substantial ground.
While it may be easy to dismiss the vague, abstract Gallup poll released on the protests yesterday, polling on Specter is far, far more difficult to dismiss. The extensive attention he has received makes him the perfect test case, really.
As I argued earlier this week, we want a people vs. the powerful debate on health care, and it seems like we are getting one. Unfortunately, the version we are getting is wingnut protesters versus Democratic politicians, instead of average Americans versus a broken, for-profit health care system. No matter how crazy those protesters may seem, it is still going to come off as individual Americans versus politicians. Many Americans will be sympathetic with anyone standing up to politicians, purely out of spite.
The "wingnut protesters are crazy" narrative doesn't seem to be working. Certainly, it hasn't been helpful for politicians like Specter to video of protesters yelling at them spread all over the airwaves and internets. I think that we in progressive media have gone overboard in focusing on right-wing protesters.
Follow the Sestak campaign on the official website, on Twitter and on Facebook. Contribute at Act Blue
So as we've established by now, Darrell Issa thinks very little of 9/11 rescue workers and would prefer that the federal government not concern itself with their welfare. Cause according to him, 9/11 is not and presumably was not a national issue. We've also established that he has no qualms about throwing federal money around on local pork as long as it benefits him directly. So the next logical question for me is "oh hey, are there any familiar names that don't mind taking Darrell Issa's money?" As you may or may not know, Darrell Issa is filthy rich. So he's spread a lot of money around on Republicans and conservative causes. So as it turns out, there are quite a lot of Republicans currently running around the Capitol funded in part by Darrell Issa (partial list):
For each DVD you purchase, Brave New Films will donate $5 to OpenLeft.com to support our various projects. Please click on the buttons above to make a purchase.
SEIU will donate $1 to OpenLeft for each individual who signs up for their campaign to pass health care for all Americans. Sign up here.
