Hey JOE-
1) “I’m so grateful to the men and women of my staff who have sacrificed for the cause of electing a real Democrat to the U.S. Senate”
Well, Joe, staffers are leaving your campaign to work for REAL Democrats.

2) Forget the campaign staffers… you are paying your CONGRESSIONAL STAFFERS LESS THAN MINIMUM WAGE.
The “excuse” that the staffers know what they are getting into or signed up for it is the same BS excuse that all underpaying bosses give.

3) Paying people the minimum wage IS a policy issue. DUH! (You know, practicing what you preach might help get our economy shape.)

4) “negativity and the personal attacks”???
Joe, you’ve done nothing but that. You are still calling Specter a “flight risk”, yet you are the one who keeps going off the Democratic reservation by damaging the President.

5) “Arlen Specter has used language to make people think I’m a criminal and a deserter after 31 years in the military.”
When??? Please point to ONE single example of this.

All this, and not a word about how VodVarka abuses his poor staff. I understand there is a signed, sworn statement that he forces them to lie down in rain puddles so that he can walk across their backs and stay dry. The FBI is looking into allegations that VodVarka makes his staff pay HIM for the privilege of working 20 hour days. VodVarka is a tyrant, VodVarka is under investigation by NATO *and* the UN for violations of the Geneva Convention, VodVarka slaps babies. He is a viscious evil man and the story is going to break any day now. Any day now. Just wait. Soon.

Hate VodVarka

Love it. Great laugh. Give us more, please.

On the original point, everyone that I have ever known who has been involved with a candidate or elected official has, at one time or another, worked as a volunteer. Last I checked, that means they got paid nothing, zip, nada, zilch. They worked for free because they believed in the candidate or official.

In fact, before money became such an important measuring stick of how well a candidate is doing, the number of volunteers was a popular measure.
So, now, because people are willing to work for lower salaries, it is a bad thing? Is the goal to see how much money one can make from either the public trough or a candidate’s contributors?

I guess I’m old school, but it seems to me the other way around. If Sestak can get the job done well with a staff of volunteers or by saving the taxpayers money, more power to him.

The issue is about as silly as the basis of Hate VonVarka’s satire. Let’s hear them discuss healthcare insurance reform, job creation, deficit reduction, Afghanistan, the type of judge who should be on the Supreme Court, etc.

Fascinating how none of Representative Sestak’s minions ever address the specific allegations that have been lodged against him. They adamantly refuse to discuss the “contributions” that Sestak reportedly accepted from labor racketeer Wendell Young IV. They cannot explain why Young IV, a member of both Sestak’s 2006 Transition Team and his Labor Advisory Committee, does not appear to have ever made legitimate campaign contributions to Sestak for Congress. They turn a blind eye to Sestak’s ill-considered (and highly unethical) intervention in a 2009 labor dispute involving Wendell Young IV, his illegal use of the seal of the House of Representatives on campaign literature in 2009, etc., etc.

Unfortunately for the aforementioned minions, the federal government of the United States is not prepared to overlook these transgressions – or the countless others that are being scrutinized. This unprincipled malefactor, a disgraced veteran with no respect for the law whatsoever, can only delude himself for so long.

Oh yeah? Well VodVarka once dated Eva Braun, and not one person has called him on that. He once posed for a picture with Beezelbub AND Satan, yet not once has the press mentioned this. The VodVarka corruption runs so deep and so wide, it would make THREE Panama Canals.

Lee-
Volunteer time at some point becomes an in-kind contribution.
But the paid staffers are NOT volunteers. Except for Sestak’s siblings, many are trying for a professional career and making a living wage. Sestak’s student volunteers are hoping for recommendations or school credit or something to add to their college applications. The older volunteers seem to be retirees with nothing better to do.
This doesn’t excuse the congressman from underpaying the Federal employees on his Congressional staff.

Also, Lee, I’m not really sure about Sestak’s staff and volunteers. Last Wednesday, the Philly HQ was closed/dark around 6:15 pm. So, right in the middle of petitions, Sestak can find even one person to man his Philly HQ or get signatures from passersby?

Some of us actually REMEMBER the way Arlen Snarlen Specter treated Anita Hill!! the way he attacked this woman and her statements about work place harassment. I recently asked Arlen if he REGRETTED the way he treated her-his answer, that he has learned from that experience!!! Really!! Really!!!
And how he now feels about allowing Roberts and Alito to rise to the Supreme Court-his answer-he should have paid more attention to their record, rather than their testimony!!! Really?? Really?? how old or how many years do you need to spend in the Senate to know that you don’t take the testimony of these right wing judges as the truth? Why wouldn’t he look at their records? He takes credit for keeping Bork off the Supreme Court but i blame him for allowing the likes of Thomas, Roberts and Alito to get on the court and destroy our country-that legacy will live on, like his single bullet theory!!
What Sestak did or didn’t do pales in comparison to Specters 30 year legacy, and we are only just beginning to reap those rewards-
NO MORE ARLEN

Specter or Sestak? Six of one or half a dozen of the other? This race boils down to a contest between two egotistical, megalomaniacs that care more about their own ambitions than making good public policy. I will abstain from voting in the Democratic primary for Senate on May 19th and will begrudgingly vote for the Democratic nominee in November. Only because I abhor Pat Toomey’s outright disdain for the working people of this country.

TB-
Disenfranchisement? How responsible of you.
Specter isn’t perfect but he’s obviously much more favorable than Sestak.

Anyway Sestak doesn’t stand a chance of winning. He’s too far down in the polls, his campaign is imploding, his staff are leaving, he’s outfundraised, etc etc. All Sestak has are his platitudes and huge ego.

contactsport-
You should ask around about how female staffers have been treated at Sestak district office.

As for Supreme court, Specter defied the GOP to block Bork. That was actually pretty significant. Specter also voted for Ginsberg and Sotomayor. His philosophy has been to defer to the President and provide consent, unless the nominee was a wacko (like Bork). Specter’s not some religious or far-right ideologue.

The vast majority of workers for flipflop Spector are working for no wages. This make him a slave owner?

In response to those that never worked for a candidate on staff, I will tell you, yes they have volunteers and they have PAID staffer’s. The paid staff are the cream of the crop and they get paid the most. As a single mother of three kids I was always a highly paid staffer. Even in the 80′s I was paid $35 to $40.00 dollars a hour depending on what office I was involved in. Now we are in 2010 and Sestak is paying below slave wages but way out of the ballpark for his brother and two sisters. His staff is bleeding and it is bad and if he was a real leader he would have changed that right away. He doesn’t have a well seasoned campaign manager as he couldn’t find one that would work for him. Why, for many reasons I was told but mostly that the little navy man is a loser and it is all about resume building for the next campaign. Even though I made so much money way back when and now I have MS, I will volunteer to make phone calls for Sen Specter. Yes I have some problems with him but I also remember when he had the courage to vote the right way.
Sestak is a disgrace and I am ashamed to have him as my congressman, not for long, thank God. Sestak was paid to do a gob but he never did so don’t be fooled. All you have to do is to look at his voting record to know the truth. He is my over paid employee that must be fired.!

Thank you, Lana, for that view from inside the Specter campaign. [Hint to the Specter folks: please make it a bit less obvious next time. These are getting way too easy to spot. Oh, and by the way - Thanks. The time you take to actually put staff on the task of posting these fake comments is that much more time the Sestak campaign is getting ahead of you on the ground. Good strategy, guys.]

Lana-
Please post under your full name and address the issue of your history for your support for candidates as a staffer.

Poor ol’ Joe. Dismal poll numbers. Staff members departing in droves. Endorsements from sexual predators who make advances on their aides. Baseless, unsubstantiated accusations against the incumbent Democratic President of the United States. Minimum wage payments to long-suffering employees. And, of course the looming threat of a bribery conviction for him and his labor racketeer allies.

Por ol’ Joe’s little world is crumbling before him – and the disintegration will continue for the forseeable future.

Joe Vod Varka wanst to save Christmas

http://earlyreturns.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=312:tea-party-endorses-vod-varka&catid=53:post-gazette-staff&Itemid=34