Sestak Questions Obama Over Libya

Former Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak is emerging as a critic of President Obama’s decision to attack Libya.

Former Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak is emerging as a critic of President Obama’s decision to attack Libya.
The former congressman and admiral has been making regular cable news appearances since the conflict began Saturday, and said he’s worried the Obama Administration hasn’t spelled out what coalition forces are trying to accomplish through the attacks. “Are the costs worth our interest? Do we understand the risk we’re assuming?” he asked during an interview. Sestak argued President Obama’s objectives seem cloudy, pointing out Obama has said Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi needs to leave office, but has clarified that regime change isn’t the goal of the NATO mission.

The Democrat also said Mr. Obama hasn’t justified the attacks to Americans, and should have come back from his South American trip to do-so. “You know what? After two wars, almost a decade in each, I think it would have been worth the cancellation of the trip,” he said. “At such a moment in time, [Obama] should have been laying it out on a consistent basis for the public. What is going to happen, what the end-games are, what’s the risk environment we’re entering.”

The president has made several public statements about the mission, but has yet to deliver a nationally televised speech. He was in Brazil when attacks began Saturday, and will remain in South America until Wednesday.

This is an issue Sestak and the man who beat him, Republican Senator Pat Toomey, agree on. Toomey recently told Philadelphia CBS affiliate KYW-TV he’s against sending American troops to Libya, saying, “There are very many unanswered questions about what would the purpose be, when would we leave, what would we measure as a success, what would we do if and when Americans start being killed . . . I think there are too many unanswered questions right now for us to commit forces to Libya.”

Sestak is on "Thank You" Tour

The election is over, but Democrat Joe Sestak is still in campaign mode.
Sestak, who didn't run for reelection to the U.S. House because of his bid for the Senate, is in the midst of a 67-county tour, which he plans to finish in January.
He insists the barnstorming is about saying "thank you" to supporters from the last election, rather than an early jump on his next campaign.
In fact, Sestak says he's "disappointed" people are only viewing his visits through the prism of another election. He says officials from both parties are only focused on campaigning and politics, rather than supporting good policies, and references a conversation he had during the Democratic primary.

"One of the leaders in the Democratic Party in Harrisburg said, it's not your turn. I think they've forgotten about people. They're so intent at times up, on which of the two parties is going to win so the other one loses?"

Sestak calls his loss to Republican Pat Toomey "a split decision."

"And the fact we came so very close was because of people who believed. And voices of reason can get through, even in a sea of anger. And so how can you not go around and say thank you?"

Sestak says he hasn't ruled another Senate run in or out, but does want to continue "some form" of public service.
But for the immediate future, he's returning to private life.

Poll Shows Gov. Sen. Races Leaning GOP.

The latest numbers from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute show at least 5 point leads for the Republican candidates in both the US Senate and Gubernatorial race. The poll with a margin of error of 2.8 percent shows former Republican Congressman Pat Toomey holding a 50 - 45 percent lead among likely voters over Democratic US Rep. Joe Sestak in the race to be Pennsylvania's next US senator. In the Governor’s race, Republican Tom Corbett, the Attorney General, has a 52 - 42 percent lead over Democrat Dan Onorato. Onorato is the Allegheny County Executive.

Quinnipiac University Polling Institute Assistant Director Peter A. Brown says, "The candidates each hold their party bases pretty well, each getting more than 80 percent of the votes of their own party members." The difference comes among voters who identify themselves as independent. The poll finds Toomey leads Sestak among independents 52 - 39 percent and Corbett leads 53 - 34 percent among independent voters.
Digging a bit further into the numbers shows 6 percent of likely voters in the governor’s race are undecided and 14 percent of voters who name a candidate say they might change their mind. 17 percent of Onorato supporters say they may change their mind while 11 percent of Corbett backers could jump ship. Likely voters give Onorato a 40 - 36 percent favorability rating compared to Corbett's 51 - 25 percent rating. "It is difficult to see how Dan Onorato becomes Pennsylvania's next governor," says Brown.
The numbers are based on 1,244 surveys from October 25 – 30.

Toomey, Corbett Lead in Latest Poll

There are still a lot of undecided voters when it comes to the U.S. Senate and governor's races in Pennsylvania. A new poll from Franklin and Marshall College released today shows Republican Pat Toomey with a 40% to 31% lead over Democrat Joe Sestak in the Senate race. Still 26% of voters don't know which candidate they like better with about 9 weeks remaining till the November 2 general election. Pollster Terry Madonna says to catch up with Toomey in the frequency of TV ads.

The survey also shows Republican gubernatorial nominee Tom Corbett with a 38% to 27% lead over Democrat Dan Onorato. 4% of those polled said they would vote for someone else, but 31% are still undecided. Madonna believes that Onorato could be hurt by Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell's job performance rating of only 30%.
A potentially bad indicator for both Sestak and Onorato: at the moment Democrats are less likely to vote than Republicans. Only 37% of Democrats said they are likely to vote in November compared to 45% of Republicans.

Green Party Candidates Decry Sestak Challenge

Green Party candidates Mel Packer and Ed Bortz jointly launched their campaigns for the U.S. Senate and House today.

Packer’s announcement was shadowed by a challenge to his petition by Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak, who is also running for the Senate position.

Packer says Sestak is attempting to find enough invalid signatures on his petition to boot him from the ballot this November.

“It’s as simple as somebody putting down a zip code instead of the date, it’s as simple as someone listing the address where they live now as opposed to where they were registered to vote,” says Packer. “A good lawyer can sit down and find those, and will likely find enough to knock me off the ballot. These are just technicalities, and it’s an undemocratic process, and Joe Sestak is taking advantage of it as opposed to facing me in the open arena.”

Packer says since he has only about 50 to 100 signatures more than the required 19,084, it will be easy for Sestak’s staff to find enough errors in the petition.

The Green Party candidate called for the Democrat to withdraw his challenge, calling Sestak a “political coward.” He says if the challenge succeeds in getting him removed from the ballot, he won’t mount a write-in campaign.

Bortz received about twice as many signatures as the required 4,887 and his candidacy has not been challenged by Democrat and incumbent Congressman Mike Doyle. Republican Melissa Haluszczak is also running for the seat.

Clinton Stumps for Sestak

Former President Bill Clinton defended President Obama and the Democratic Congress, during a campaign appearance for U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak in Scranton.
Clinton only made a handful of references to Sestak during his half hour speech.
The former president spent the bulk of his time defending the federal stimulus bill, health care overhaul, and other Democratic policies that have come under fire from conservatives this election cycle.
Clinton told the crowd of several hundred that President Obama and the Democratic-controlled House and Senate are doing a good job, but just haven’t had enough time to completely turn the economy around.

"And you know that old rule, the first thing you’ve got to do when you’re in a hole is quit digging? Well, we quit digging. And now we’re building our way out of it. If you vote for these people who are running against guys like Joe Sestak, they’ll go up there and take the oath of office. They’ll have one hand on the bible and they got a shovel in the other hand. They want to start digging again."

At several points during the speech, Clinton argued he was a better steward of the economy than either President Bush, or President Reagan.
Clinton said he didn’t know much about Joe Sestak when the Admiral joined his National Security Council in 1994.
"But I knew enough to know that he was invaluable while he was there. Because I came in – I had been a governor. I knew what I was supposed to do on the economy. I had a lot to learn on national security. And thanks to Joe Sestak I learned a lot in a short time, and we did a pretty good job."

Sestak was forced to skip the rally because of a House vote on a federal medical funding measure that will plug a 600 million dollar gap in Pennsylvania’s state budget.

NLRC Open Convention in PA

The National Right to Life Committee opened its three-day national convention Thursday morning and the group’s leadership is optimistic about the future. NRLC President Wanda Franz says recent studies show more Americans are calling themselves “pro-life” and the number of abortions performed in the US continues to fall even as the number of women of childbearing age increases. She says it all points to a changing mood in the nation. A mood they hope to be able to tap into in the November elections. NRLC Political Director Karen Cross says that new mood is already showing up in the political arena. She says the last few months have been exciting to watch. “Every week its almost like Christmas for me,” says Cross. She says many of the races pit candidates with clearly defined differences when it comes to abortion issues. That includes the US senate race in Pennsylvania between Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey. Toomey is strongly Pro-life, Sestak is Pro-choice.

The National Right to Life Committee leadership is also praising some state level gains made in the last year including a law in Oklahoma that will force those performing abortions to display the ultrasound in a place where the woman can see the image. Other states with ultrasound viewing laws only force the procedure provider to offer the pregnant woman the opportunity to see the image. NRLC State Political Director Mary Spaulding-Balch says that is a slight difference from other ultrasound viewing laws but one that clearly makes a difference. “In the states where they are offered the opportunity to view there has not been a single challenge and yet when Oklahoma simply changes the language to the point that the ultrasound must be displayed it is challenged by our opponents,” says Spaulding-Balch. That law is to go into effect in October.

The group is also taking an interest in the confirmation of Elena Kagan. NLRC Executive Director David O’Steen says his organization will “very actively oppose” the nomination of Elena Kagan to the US Supreme Court. Hearings for Kagan begin Monday. The Committee has already sent a letter to all members of the Senate asking that Kagan be rejected. The letter lays out an argument that Kagan was key in defeating the partial birth abortion bill during the Clinton administration. He says Kagan’s writings show she strongly argued with the president that he should not support the bill saying it was unconstitutional and that pro-choice groups “will go crazy.” O’Steen says those writings also show that Kagan is a “social engineer” and will be more interested in driving change if she is added to the court rather than defending the constitution. The letter to the Senators reads in part, “she believes that ‘it is not necessarily wrong or invalid’ for appointed judges ‘to mold and steer the law in order to promote certain ethical values and achieve social ends.’” O’Steen says the NLRC Federal Legislative Department will be lobbying members of the Senate Judicial Committee but they will be, “choosing people to speak with based on, of course, the anticipation of success and Arlen Specter (D-PA) is history… it seems he has been rejected by both parties now.” The letter says Kagan will “treat the US Constitution not as a body of basic law that truly constrains both legislators and judges, but rather, as a cookbook in which may be found legal recipes that will allow the imposition of the policies that Ms. Kagan deems to be justified.”

Offer to Sestak Came from Bill Clinton

White House Counsel Robert Bauer denies that anyone from the White House offered Congressman Joe Sestak last year if he would drop out of the Senate Democratic Primary race in Pennsylvania clearing a path for the renomination for Republcan-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter.
Bauer issued a memorandum saying that allegations of improper conduct "rest on factual errors and lack a basis in the law." However, Bauer admitted that the White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel enlisted former President Bill Clinton to offer Sestak an option of serving on a presidential advisory board while remaining a member of the U.S. House and avoiding a divisive primary race. Bauer said that the advisory position would have been unpaid and he said Sestak declined.
Sestak mentioned in a television interview that the White House had offered him a job if he would give up his challenge to incumbent Arlen Specter. But then Sestak refused to say who made the offer, or what the job was. Senate Republicans have been asking for a special prosecutor to determine if federal laws were violated.

Rendell: White House, Sestak Need to Explain "Job Offer"

President Barack Obama says the White House will soon explain what, if any, job offer an administration official made to Congressman Joe Sestak in order to get him to drop his primary bid against Senator Arlen Specter.

"I can assure the public that nothing improper took place. But, as I said, there will be a response shortly on that issue."

Mr. Obama fielded a question about the issue yesterday during a press conference.
The pressure on Sestak and the White House to come clean on the issue has been growing in recent days.
A group of Senate Republicans has called for a special prosecutor to look into whether any laws were broken when the administration official allegedly offered Sestak a job last year to quit the race.
Sestak’s opponent, Republican Pat Toomey, says the Democrat needs to “be more forthcoming” about the issue, and even Democratic ally Governor Ed Rendell says Sestak or the White House needs to explain what happened.

Senate Campaign: Bailouts Versus Failed Policies

Joe Sestak and Pat Toomey say they’ll present voters with two very different choices for Pennsylvania's next U.S. Senator over the coming months.
Sestak and Toomey insist they like and respect each other, and they’ll run a clean campaign, without personal attacks.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t hammer each other on the issues.
Speaking in Pittsburgh, Toomey said Pennsylvanians will have “as clear a choice as possible” when they vote for a new senator in November.

"If you look at the agenda that they’re pursuing in Washington – serial bailouts of failing companies, nationalizing whole industries, spending on an unprecedented scale. Deficits and debt that was can’t afford, cap and trade, card check, government-run health care. Joe Sestak is 100-percent in favor of all of that. I’m opposed to all of that."

Sestak says a vote for Toomey means reverting back to the “failed policies” of the Bush Administration that sent the country toward a recession. "I really do like Pat Toomey. I think he’s got principle. But I passionately disagree with his ideas. And I think you’re going to see that that’s what the debate is going to be about. It is going to be, what are the best ideas to move our nation forward? I believe Pat Toomey’s ideas will actually be moving us back to where we’ve come from."

Toomey and Sestak held two debates during the primary. Sestak says he expects the two nominees will hold several joint appearances between now and Election Day.

Sestak Upsets Specter

Arlen Specter's bid for a sixth, 6-year term in the U.S. Senate has failed. The 30 year senior Senator from Pennsylvania lost the Democratic Primary to Congressman Joe Sestak of Delaware County. Sestak received 54% of the vote to Specter's 46% capping a big rally by the former Navy admiral who trailed Specter in the polls by 20 percentage points 2 months ago.
It was Specter's first election since he switched from the Republican Party 13 months ago. In his victory speech, Sestak called the vote a win for the people over the establishment, the status quo and even Washington, D.C.

In a brief concession speech, Mr. Specter thanked those who had supported him. "It's been a great privilege to serve the people of Pennsylvania," he said. "And it's been a great privilege to be in the United States Senate, and I'll be working very, very hard for people of the Commonwealth in the coming months."
The vote was also a defeat for President Barack Obama, who supported Specter when he defected from the GOP. Governor Ed Rendell, who also endorsed Specter, said he was disappointed because he thought Specter had the better chance of defeating Republican nominee Pat Toomey in November's general election.

Specter, Sestak Criss-Cross PA on Final Day to Campaign

With the Democratic Senate race in a virtual dead heat up on the eve of Pennsylvania’s primary, the national media is focusing on the race, and waiting to see whether Arlen Specter’s party switching gamble will pay off.
The final Quinnipiac poll today has Joe Sestak leading Specter 42 to41 percent with 16 percent undecided. The final Muhlenberg College tracking poll over the weekend shows Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak tied at 44 percent each.
Specter has the backing of the Democratic establishment, and three decades worth of accomplishments to tout, but Sestak is doing all he can to out-hustle the incumbent.

"Am I working my toes off from now until then? Absolutely. Because until that ball is in the end zone, you just keep on working. But look – I understand and I respect the establishment. I just disagree."

Sestak made his remarks in Philadelphia’s Love Park, where he greeted voters on Friday afternoon.
A few blocks away, Specter held a press conference in a high-rise office tower with Governor Rendell, Mayor Michael Nutter and members of the city’s black clergy.
He says he’s seen his political obituary written before, and he’s confident going into Tuesday.

"I counted them up: I’ve been in 14 contested election. Six have been within three points. I’m still in the lead in key polls, but the poll that counts is next Tuesday."

Specter says he may have switched from Republican to Democrat last year, but he’s always been consistent when it comes to bringing back federal dollars and resources for Pennsylvania.