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Patrick McKenna's Blog

Patrick McKenna's Blog

The BlueBlast

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Welcome to the new BlueBlast

A couple months after my venerable predecessor Abe Amoros exited the scene, I’m ready to pick up the mantle for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. I want to start off by saying thanks to pa2010.com for the important job they’re doing covering races across the Commonwealth. Although many of you will disagree with the opinions I offer up here, I imagine you’ll agree that pa2010.com has quickly become the go-to site for up-to-the-minute political news.

I look forward to being part of the dialogue here in the months ahead.

I’d like to use this first  post to talk about the Senate race, specifically Republican front-runner Pat Toomey and the disingenuous campaign he’s running.  The standard bearer of the GOP, Toomey has made the choice to walk away from his career as a Wall Street banker. In order to avoid all things Wall Street, Toomey has adopted the old and tired GOP tactic of fear mongering designed to scare the electorate into submission.

As a congressman, Toomey was a staunch and effective advocate for the interests of big banks. By masking his interests in the philosophy of smaller government, Toomey wrote the legislation that tore down decades of regulation, encouraging the kind of risky banking practices that ultimately led to the current financial crisis.

In late 2009, Pat Toomey further burnished his Wall Street credentials and went so far as to defend the exorbitant bonuses handed out to executives of banks bailed out by the American taxpayer. As Congress was preparing a bipartisan effort to tax those outrageous bonuses, Toomey was praising one of the few members of Congress who opposed the idea.

Mr. Toomey is a disciplined campaigner who clearly understands that any examination of his career as an investment banker will do damage to his candidacy.

That said, there is no one more qualified to talk about how Wall Street brought our economy to the brink than Pat Toomey.

I’ll talk more about this in the weeks and months to come, as I carry on in Abe’s stead as author of The BlueBlast.

share001btn Welcome to the new BlueBlast

April 23, 2010 at 12:25 am

--Patrick McKenna

comments

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  1. Lee Levan

    Apr 23rd, 2010

    Toomey is an extremist-in-recently-purchased-moderate’s clothing. He’s pretending to be what he is not in an attempt to fool the public. That’s what the party has to get across to the voters.

  2. Starboard

    Apr 23rd, 2010

    Thanks Patrick-

    A tip for future posts. It would be more substantive (and effective) if you gave examples as opposed to reciting talking points, as you are normally used to doing.

    For example,

    As a congressman, Toomey was a staunch and effective advocate for the interests of big banks. By masking his interests in the philosophy of smaller government, Toomey wrote the legislation that tore down decades of regulation, encouraging the kind of risky banking practices that ultimately led to the current financial crisis.

    Include examples/links of legislation, what the bill specifically was; etc. Its the equivalent to footnotes and provides the reader with more information.

  3. Bruce Bailey

    Apr 23rd, 2010

    Glad to see you here Patrick.

    Unfortunately, as spokesman for the state Democratic Party, you’re going to have be the flack catcher for TJ Rooney and his top-down, vote-for-who-we-tell-you-to-vote-for approach to the Senate primary.

    Rooney was quoted today in the The Hill as saying:

    “The venom is going to come from Sestak, it’s not going to come from Specter. People know Arlen Specter. No one knows Joe Sestak. In order to get to Arlen Specter you’ve got to de-bark him, and that’s clearly the road map or the plan they intend to employ.”

    Except that obviously isn’t true. Who is the only one airing a negative, mudslinging ad? Specter, who couldn’t wait to assault Joe on his military record (using unnamed, anonymous sources for his attack) and on his missing Congressional votes due to this campaign…and a dying father.

    The fact that our party leadership is so comfortable supporting the man and the tactics that we fought against for the past 30 years is completely disheartening to me, as it should be to all true Pennsylvania Democrats.

    I am glad to see you used your opening column here to tell the truth about our common foe, Pat Toomey.

    I hope you will not be using this platform to further TJ Rooney’s attacks on Joe Sestak.
    I think that would be a huge mistake that would alienate many of our grassroots party members throughout PA.

  4. Starboard

    Apr 24th, 2010

    Bruce B.
    TJ Rooney is a puppet and a hack, I cannot wait to see the day he is no longer the chair of the democratic party.

  5. bill healy

    Apr 25th, 2010

    i’ll second that motion. Hard to believe that the “leaders” of the Democratic Party in Pennsylvania think the future lies with electing an 30+ year republican,who is 80 years old and has had cancer twice in the past 10 years.

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