Wow. When I found this site, I thought it would be good but it’s just a place where the left vents their anger and cling to Sestak’s war status without discussing policy at all. Anti-gun, Pro-Cap and Trade, Pro-Obamacare. Does not seem that his voting record will hold up in PA here. Me, my family and all the friends I know are not voting for Sleestak. You can say Toomey worked in a bank and is in club for growth, but I think no one cares his voting record speaks for itself and it resonates with a lot of people here. His old district had more Democrats than Republicans. Remember… Mark Critz was a veryyyyyy conservative democrat. Sestak is not. Keep towing Sestak was an admiral throughout the campaign [and from what I hear a sucky one, my brother said everyone hated him]. Get ready girls, you are going to cry.

@november–Toomey’s voting record will be very illuminating…as wlll his extreme Club for Growth beliefs and proclivity for teabagging.
As for Sestak’s 31 years of military service to our country, two very powerful and well-funded repubs tried to damn him with it and it boomeranged…love to see Toomey try to do it (especially after he said he wanted to talk about issues only).

nov.-

Perspective is important. If one begins from an extremely right wing ideology, even moderate reforms seem extreme and out of touch. But the reality is that the radical starting point was out of touch, thus distorting the appearance of reality through an ideological prism.

This campaign will turn upon who can convince the voters what extremism really is. Toomey has done a good job of disguising his extremist past inside a new wardrobe of moderate’s clothing. As a righty yourself, you certainly must see that, probably to your inner discomfort.

We shall see if Toomey can play “hide the truth” until November.

Sick- So you are saying all this club for growth stuff is radical? I think no one cares. What about Toomey’s small business experience? More people will relate to that? As I thought, you can not talk about the issues and how stinky Sestaks voting record is. PA is very against big liberal Pelosi stuff.

Lee- Toomey is not radical. Sestak is. Toomey won in a district with more democrats than republicans and ended his career after his self-imposed term limits. Sounds pretty bad for you. You lefty moonbats are always moving the spectrum of what is “moderate” or not. I don’t see any of the to my discomfort. I looked at Club for growth and it does not seem to bad, and his experience as a small business owner is I guess ‘radical’ to you to. Get ready girly, you’re going to get your block knocked off in November.

This is my last time I will be on this site. Too many left wing zealots here. It’s sad. I was hoping for good talks but none…
Goodbye moonbats.

November-
Toomey won in a district with more democrats than republicans. Sestak won in a district with more Republicans than Democrats.
Toomey ended his career after his self-imposed term limits to move on to a more lucrative job trying to help the super-rich avoid paying taxes.

Sestak ended his career in the Navy after the exposure of his behavior prevented any future advancement. Then he became a congressman for one-term, lied about a WH job offer, and is spending the second term vying for a promotion to be a Senator.

Vote none-of-the-above.

David-
Is trying to be the one man fifth column in the Democratic Party helping the club for growth clone army really doing anything good for the people of PA or is all about your petty narcissism?
Do you know the principal of fecal gravity?
The longer you feed the retreaded “neo cons” who have re-branded as taebagers or “conservatives” with their hateful message.
As to “november”, I imagine he got in his Mercedes and drove down to Stone Harbor for the yacht club happy hour to get a jump on the long weekend.
See-ya!
P.S. Love him or hate him ,thanks to Admiral Joe and all those men and women who served out country. Every day is memorial day in our grateful house for them and their service to us all.

What really matters is who initiated the conversation, Sestak’s team or the WH. The memo and comments from both camps don’t really make that clear, and until it is, the issue is likely to fester.

If the WH initiated it, they could be in some hot water if there’s any substance to the bribery allegation. If Sestak’s team initiated it, he could very well be toast.

No attempted bribery here…just republicans grasping to save toomey the teabagger…can’t wait until everyone in PA learns about Club for Growth…a marvelous November…combine that with Corbett’s antics and it has the makings of a decent Democratic year!

Matt reading comprehension problem? Go back and read the first line in the story. No wonder repubs want to do away with the Dept. of Educ.

Bill,

You’ve obviously not had much practice with critical reading. Consider this a gratis lesson.

In the sentence to which you refer, the WH admitted (as is documented here and elsewhere) that it enlisted Pres. Clinton to communicate with the Sestak campaign, but did not clarify whether this was done in response to an overture made by the Sestak team or independent of any such overture.

This difference in factual circumstances dramatically changes the implications of the event. Under the first scenario, Sestak was fishing for an offer and the WH responded to him. Under the second scenario, the Sestak team has done no wrong, and the WH may have potentially breached ethics and election laws depending on the substance of the communication.

Also, cut out this self-righteousness. Democrats (I am one) and Republicans have every right and obligation to clear and complete answers in situations like this. It’s what keeps our system functioning. If you want the one-party state, I suggest you emigrate to Russia and leave the rest of us alone.

The Obama administration said Friday that it had called upon former President Bill Clinton last year to gauge Congressman Joe Sestak’s interest in an unpaid advisory position as the White House sought to dissuade Sestak from a primary run against Senator Arlen Specter.

Matt note this states that the Obama admin called on Clinton to gauge Sestak’s interest. Pretty straight forward, note it doesn’t state it was in repy of or an answer to Sestak. Try just reading the words,then you might understand.
BTW Russia has more than one party. Try to keep up the Soviet Union disappeared almost 20 years ago.

Sestak issued the following statement shortly after the White House released the memo: “Last summer, I received a phone call from President Clinton. During the course of the conversation, he expressed concern over my prospects if I were to enter the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate and the value of having me stay in the House of Representatives because of my military background. He said that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had spoken with him about my being on a Presidential Board while remaining in the House of Representatives.

Another instance of the overture being made by the WH and not Sestak. Critical reading’s just not your bag is it?

Bill, examine the statement. “…I received a phone call…” Merely receiving a phone call does not clarify whether its receipt was in response to a previous overture or not. Think about it. You receive a phone call from a friend inviting you to dinner – had you previously intimated to your friend that you wanted to dine with her, or is she calling you out of the blue? It should not be difficult for either camp to clarify this chain of communication.

Russia does not have a de-facto two party system – the other parties are token opposition that are hardly influential in the exercise of government. Putin’s deputy was “elected” President and he himself is now the “PM.” Figurative language is complicated stuff, obviously.

Sarcastic jibes aside, it should be easy for either camp to clarify what went on so we can kill the issue. Whenever the electoral process is remotely threatened, the issue transcends party and goes straight to the integrity of our representative government.

Hey Matt – It doesn’t say whether Sestak took his clothes off and sang “Ave Maria” either. Does he need to say “I did not take my clothes off and sing ‘Ave Maria’” before you’ll believe that burning question has been answered, too?

Seriously, you guys just never, ever quit, do you?

And just to clarify, that incredibly insightful and serious post above came from yours truly.

While we’re (still) on the subject of the Le Petite Affaire de Sestak (if you put it in French it sounds so much sillier), here’s some punditry from today’s This Week roundtable discussion, courtesy of conservative George Will:

“Politics is a transactional business. Candidates go to voters and say “You vote for me and I’ll do this for you.” That’s what we do in this business and there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s called Democracy and Free Government. Obama was seriously trying to act as the leader of his party, to get what he thought – he was wrong – was the strongest candidate in the race in Pennsylvania. Nothing the matter with this. And the thought of Republicans, of all people, trying to resuscitate the Frankenstein monster, the Independent Counsel, is preposterous.”

See the video, in which each and every panelist takes a shot at how stupid Republicans are to pursue this. Here’s the link:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/30/this_week_roundtable_on_offer_made_to_sestak.html

Notsure-
Sestak’s the one undermining the Democratic party by causing all this needless embarrassment to Obama.

Bill and Sick-
Sadly, the Sestak and White House stories don’t match.
- Job vs non-job.
- One conversation vs multiple conversations.
- Offer made by administration official vs offered made former president.
- Range of options discussed vs Sestak’s new claim that the whole topic was 30-60 seconds as part of one call.
- Wanting to keep Sestak in Congress vs offering him a position that he couldn’t take unless he quit congress.
- Sestak saying “no comment” to SecNav job vs Sestak not even being eligible for SecNav until the end of 2010.
- Unpaid position on advisory board vs “high ranking” “federal job”.

The legal issues subject to debate. What isn’t is that Sestak had out-and-out lied and dragged the White House into an implausible story that is embarrassing on many levels.

The most likely scenario is that the White House and Sestak negotiated, made counter-offers, and the White House simply wouldn’t meet his “price”.

Let’s not forget, at the time Specter was 20 to 30 points ahead. Sestak was likely viewed as a nuisance who was not viable, but would drain resources from Specter, while trying to make a name for himself, then pull out to keep his seat. Lentz held off his announcement to run until Sestak formally declared in August, so Bryan was forced to miss a few months of fundraising.
Even after Sestak announced, Lentz had some trouble raising money because potential donors were afraid Sestak might come back into the race. I was at several events last fall where Bryan was asked what he would do if Sestak jumped back into the Senate race.
My point being, since some (but not all) Delco Dems believed Sestak would jump back to Congress race even 6 months after the “job offer”, it’s not unreasonable that the WH did not view Joe as having a strong enough hand to warrant a better offer.

Sestak is clearly a liar under the three possible scenarios:
1) He was offered a real paying job, but now he’s lying to go along with the unpaid position story.
2) He really was offered and unpaid position and lied that he was offered a real job.
3) There were multiple conversations with a back-and-forth negotiation that included paid jobs and unpaid positions (where it takes two to tango).

As for Issa and the rest of the GOP, they are making a mountain out of a molehill on the legal issue. The only story is that Sestak’s a liar who will say/do anything for his own self-promotion.

Also, there is one other possibility for Issa the GOP: the allegations that Hater alluded to months ago. If Hater was correct, there may be a complaint involving Sestak already sitting in the Office of Congressional Ethics. If so, Issa almost assuredly knows about it by now. I think Issa is pushing the Sestak issue to use it to lay the ground-work for a pattern if/when the Hater stuff come to light. Even if the OCE found no wrong-doing (or, worse, failed to investigate properly), Issa and Toomey could use it to question Democratic party transparency.
Joe’s been pretty good at dodging criticism of his honesty/integrity. But if the GOP manages to penetrate and tear away Joe’s paper armor, he’s got nothing left.
Just my speculations on what is going on with the GOP.

DD—u r sick…got sestak on teh brain…and an overactive imagination. pass the cheetos…btw.starwars marathon on Spike TV..but you already knew that I am sure…lol

sick-
Are you blogging on your cell phone? Or are you just incapable of using decent grammar, spelling, capitalization and punctuation?

Seriously, reading your posts almost makes me weep for the death of the written word as a form of communication. To make matters worse, you don’t even have anything useful to say.

Please stop playing with your light-saber and fantasizing about me. You are creepy enough as it is.

David Take some Medicine for that Obsessive Compulsive Disorder you have regarding Admiral Sestak Your guy Flip Flopper Lost the Race Please seek Help we are all concerned about you .Its just not healthy to have these thoughts constantly going through your Head like a Loop tape

Did Rendell in explaining this all really have to on national TV and out Hoffel as a whore who got bought off ( cheap) for dropping out of the lt Gov. race.- really Ed= it is not always about you.

I once worked for the former LT Gov that said he was holding a press conference to say the Clinton administration had offered him a job, they had not but he thought he would get good press with the voters as he hoped all saw him of staying in PA for the people, they didn’t and he lost.

Since I don’t like either for the first time I will not vote for either party and I am voting Green. Both teams have losers. Sestak did what he thought he had to keep his job. Since people stick with the two parties in the general his plan worked. Turn out was so low and Philly didn’t really vote as anyone running must come out of Philly with over 140.000 votes which they didn’t the little Admiral slid right on in. I believe the fall will be much harder for him , but I say vote Green and make both the D and the R go to the unemployment line with the rest of the unemployed.

I really like what the Green candidate has to say so I am voting Green no matter what !

You can do what you want as their really no difference between the two.

It’s like Randy Paul kept repeating “tea party” as if it had a set of identifiable principals and a cogent philosophy.
Driving a prius ,being a vegan and sneering at the “uninformed” is not going to attract anyone except firngies and UFO anal probe set.
“none of the above” and “green” is worshiping at the altar of pseudo non conformity.
I value the philosophy of conservation but choose a side and make it count.
Not voting (or staying home) only enables the tyranny of the uninformed.

Bruce, I can’t understand your aversion to holding your candidate accountable for anything. Like a candidate or not, nobody ever deserves an unqualified free pass. Politics requires a bit more of a discerning eye than you seem willing to employ.

Asking legitimate questions to discern what happened and when, which will in all likelihood kill the issue and end the distraction, are not defamatory towards anybody. The WH appears to have done its part, now let’s see if the other camp can finish it off so we can focus on the substance and defeat the GOP ticket in November.

Accountable for exactly what, Matt? The questions have been asked and answered. It’s time to focus on the issues and very real differences between Sestak and Toomey.

Or you can keep throwing crap against the wall in hopes that something sticks.

Let me say it again slowly, so you and anyone else who might be looking in can get this:

This…is…a…non-issue.

And if you continue to try to whip it up into something of substance, you will just look silly and desperate and completely out of touch.

Seriously, go look at the roundtable on This Week in which every single panelist remarked on how insanely dumb it is for Republicans (or anyone else) to even remotely suggest this carries any weight at all:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/30/this_week_roundtable_on_offer_made_to_sestak.html

Bruce, just because it’s a common practice doesn’t mean it’s right, and doesn’t mean it shouldn’t spark our attention. Moreover, being a member of a party doesn’t mean we’re obligated to accept everything that goes on in negotiation is beyond critical examination.

I shudder to think of the state of the universe if everyone possessed your driving curiosity.

There’s nothing more to say on this, so we’ll just have to wait and hope it blows over so we can focus on November.

Bruce-
The questions have been asked and answered, but with lies. This goes not only to Sestak’s credibility, but to the extent he’s not a team player and his willingness to damage other Dems to further his own interests.

It’s a “non-issue”…. unless it becomes part of a larger pattern about Sestak’s credibility. A fundamentally dishonest guy can only keep so many balls juggling at one time before some drop.

DD–I can spell and use proper grammar…just not a good typist. In any event, you are the broken record my friend…still bashing Sestak about non-issues…never thought I’d see the day you’d help Republicans…first Arlen and now Toomey? very sad.
Can’t wait to see all the Dems stop using your product because u r such an a@@.
In any even, just thought you would like the star wars marathon…when’s the next trek convention?

sick-
I’m the broken record?

You come on here with nonsense about my TV watching and snacking habits (which you make up with the intent to be derogatory).

The issue is that Sestak is a liar and is willing (even eager) to damage the Democratic party to advance his own position. Since Sestak is running on “character”, his lack of it is an issue.
The legality is probably a non-issue because it’s so widespread the fox would be guarding a chicken house filled with other foxes. But, the character issue may well haunt Sestak.

My recommendation is to chalk the PA Senate race up as a loss/sacrifice and spend those $$millions$$ where they can tip the balance of other races.

What is the lie Dave? Thank God that Democrats don’t take your advice. Why don’t you just join the republican party,you seem to enjoy doing their dirty work for them.

Diano, do the Party a favor by using your time and energy to support another candidate down ballot. we have plenty of good Democrats running this November. i am sure you can find one you look. We all know you don’t like Sestak and we’d appreciate it if you were to put your energy in a more positive direction.

*like*

Bill and TB -
From http://www.dkosopedia.com/wiki/DailyKos_FAQ#Dealing_with_trolls:

“Directly responding to an argument a troll makes is a waste of time; trolls tend not to be interested in actual debate…”

And from http://www.ehow.com/how_4530595_deal-message-board-trolls.html

“There’s one rule in dealing with trolls on message boards: don’t feed them. Trolls get off on pushing people’s buttons and causing trouble. Don’t give them the satisfaction. Ignore the troll and hopefully he will go away.”

Bill-
“What is the lie Dave?”
Sestak’s original claim that he was offered a high ranking federal job.
unpaid advisory position not equal to job.

The Republicans don’t need my help as Joe has offered them far more fodder than I ever could.

TB-
I do plan to continue helping down-ballot candidates. However, all the money begin wasted on this Senate race would be better spent on those races.

Bruce-
Good point. There are too many trolls, like Bill, who are here to cover-up Joe’s deceptions, disloyalties, and shortcomings, rather than engage in debate.
They don’t realize that Joe is not a magic unicorn crapping rainbows.

Gee Dave when you come out from under your bridge maybe you can offer something different from the same garbage youve been posting for the past few months, something other than Sestak’s a liar, Sestak’s destroying the Democratic party by running for the Senate, Sestak’s gonna be indicted any day now, etc… you something lucid, something relevant, I’m sure if you really,really, try hard you can shut off that endless loop in your head and come up with something.

Bill-
something other than Sestak’s a liar???
But, Bill, that the big problem. He’s running as a holier than thou douche-bag, who is trying to claim he is honest and honorable.
For almost 4 months he claimed he was offered a high-ranking federal job now he’s claiming it was really only an unpaid advisory position. One of those two stories is a lie. Actually, I suspect he was offered (and asked for) various positions paid and unpaid.

Sestak’s destroying the Democratic party by running for the Senate
Yep. sure is.

Sestak’s gonna be indicted any day now
I haven’t really talked about this issue much lately, especially with “any day” in a while. I still think some political scandal is going to come out of it. I put the pros in charge of looking into it, and no one’s come back either proving or debunking it.
Which is strange, but look how long “job-gate” has dragged on with all the reporters looking into it (and we still don’t have a satisfactory answer). Stories never break as fast as we like when we wait for them.

DD–guess you’re upset because you won’t be able to huckster off your vote-o-matic product to the down balloters because they won’t have any money because all the campaign cash will be invested in helping the top of the ticket (Sestak/Onorato) draw out voters who will straight ticket in the Dem down balloters, all without your vote-o-matic product’s help?