A Sestak constituent responds to my post from last night …
Sestak is my rep. Nate might be an electoral-poll god, but he is way off on this. He cites silly ratings in his piece that don’t reflect reality. There is NO WAY Joe Sestak, had he been a Senator, votes for the Bush tax cuts, or Roberts, or Alito. Sestak voted for Obama’s budget; has an excellent labor record, and is superior Democrat in every way to the principle-free Specter. I work in an office in Sestak’s district that is 25-5 Democratic, and for years I’ve been pleading with people to take a hard look at Specter, whom they have consistently given a slide to as some sort of ‘moderate.’ Someone the other day said,
“Yeah, he’s a weasel, but he’s OUR weasel.’ And this person should know better. Very frustrating. Arlen self-preserves with this move, and the Old Boys Club applauds (Biden, Rendell, the execrable Reid, all the way up to Obama). ‘Clear the primary field’ my ass. I’d love if Sestak took Specter on and kicked his sorry ass.
I don’t want this to become some knock on Nate Silver, whom I’m a huge fan of. But I think it’s true that Sestak’s record to date compared to Specter’s, because of the different chambers they’ve served in, the particular district Sestak represents and how little time he’s served, is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. And as I said in the post last night, my only angle on this is that I’d like to see Specter at least have to make his case to Democrats in his state.
