Specter Campaign to Sestak: Stop Complaining and Start Explaining

By ARLEN SPECTER FOR SENATE

Harrisburg – Cong. Joe Sestak yesterday refused to release the Navy records pertaining to his being relieved of duty in 2005 for creating a poor command climate and claimed he would not make character an issue in the campaign just hours before releasing a new ad calling Senator Specter a liar.

The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “Rep. Joe Sestak says he is not going to turn over Navy personnel records that might rebut the stories he was let go from a top Pentagon job for creating a “poor command climate” among subordinates – an issue which has been used to great effect by Sen. Arlen Specter’s Democratic primary campaign.” http://bit.ly/cR7KDH

And the Morning Call wrote that Sestak claimed ”you’ll never see us attacking [Specter's] character.” (http://bit.ly/ar4u7h) Yet hours later Sestak released a new TV commercial calling Sen. Specter a liar.

“Congressman Sestak should stop complaining and start explaining” said Christopher Nicholas, Senator Arlen Specter’s campaign manager. “He won’t release his Navy records pertaining to his being relieved of duty. He says he won’t attack Senator Specter’s character knowing that his campaign had already produced a new ad calling Specter a liar. This is just another example of Joe Sestak believing there’s one set of rules for him and another set for everyone else.

The Inquirer said Sestak would not release his Navy records because he doesn’t want the issue “driving the conversation” of the campaign. Yet Sestak has just released a new TV ad calling Senator Specter a liar on this very issue.

In what was billed yesterday as a ‘major speech’ by the Sestak campaign many thought the Congressman would offer “a compelling explanation for his demotion from a three-star admiral position by Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chief of naval operations. Instead, he stuck to his same old explanation that Mullen wanted a new team when he took command of the Navy and he respects the decision. Such documents could directly rebut the Specter ad highlighting the episode.”

In a letter last week, former Navy enlisted man and the current Secretary of the Pittsburgh Democratic Party Dan Styche wrote to Sestak “You could clear up the circumstances relating to your 2005 Navy incident by releasing your Navy records. Attached is Standard Form 180 to do just that. The portion of the Specter ad on your being relieved of duty is based on numerous media reports in the past five years that detailed how you created a “poor command climate;” in fact earlier this month a current Admiral was quoted in the Post-Gazette as saying you had a “tyrannical” leadership style and that you “would command by intimidation and fear.”

Sestak has also refused to comply with Department of Defense regulations pertaining to TV ads by former members of the military. They require the use of a disclaimer on TV ads that states that use of photos and images of a candidate in uniform do not constitute an endorsement of that candidate by the military.

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