Hello Everyone:

Here is the CNN article titled "Sestak: 'I intend to get in this race'" from May 27 where Rep. Joe Sestak talks about his intentions to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in a primary for his PA Senate seat:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/27/sestak-i-intend-to-get-in-this-race/

May 27, 2009

Sestak: 'I intend to get in this race'

Posted: 07:11 PM ET

From CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney

WASHINGTON (CNN) – "Democratic Rep. Joe Sestak told CNN Wednesday he intends to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter in a Pennsylvania Democratic primary pending a discussion with his wife and young daughter..."

I was glad that Wolf Blitzer got to interview Joe Sestak right in the middle of his daily 6:00 PM Eastern Standard Time political panel dialogue which John King was participating in. John King of CNN in my opinion is the sharpest, the most objective, and the most credible reporter in the cable news business today and I agree with his analysis of this potential Senate primary race:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0905/27/sitroom.03.html

THE SITUATION ROOM

North Korea Escalates Nuclear Moves; Challenging Specter

Aired May 27, 2009 - 18:00 ET

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: "Let me go right back to John King.

John, you know Pennsylvania about as well as any of the political reporters out there right now. In a Democratic Senatorial primary, at least looking at it right now, between Arlen Specter, who's been in the United States Senate representing Pennsylvania for decades, versus Joe Sestak, a relative newcomer, does not have the name recognition, what happens?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: An enormous challenge for Congressman Sestak, Wolf, because, as you noted, all of the forces, including the governor of Pennsylvania, are aligned against Congressman Sestak. Most of the labor unions have told the White House that they would go with the White House, although they're looking to Arlen Specter on a few key votes in the Senate first.

The African-American vote in the City of Philadelphia is the biggest constituency in a statewide Democratic primary. Arlen Specter has pretty good relations there. The governor was a former mayor there. I would watch Michael Nutter, the mayor of Philadelphia, to see if he would break with the Obama machine on this one.

But otherwise, it is Congressman Sestak up against a huge opposition. But it will be a fascinating race to see if grassroots Democrats say that even the president can't tell us what to do..."

John King analyzed this potential primary race exactly right in my opinion. If this PA Senate primary race takes place, then it will probably be Arlen Specter's huge name recognition and establishment support versus the strong Democratic grassroots support that I am sure Joe Sestak will easily get.

If Joe Sestak formally announces, then I would be on board with his Senate campaign right away. Joe Sestak in my opinion would be just as good of a Senate candidate right now as Jim Webb was in 2006!

Joe Sestak agrees with Gen. Clark on important foreign policy issues that I do not think Arlen Specter understands as well and Sestak was also a WesPAC endorsed candidate when he was running for Congress.

I was very active helping Jim Webb's Senate campaign and I see several similarities between Jim Webb's primary race against Harris Miller who was the 2006 Democratic establishment candidate and Joe Sestak challenging Arlen Specter who is the 2010 Democratic establishment candidate.

Jim Webb started out his 2006 primary race against Harris Miller with virtually no money but with a lot of grassroots support. That support was key to helping Jim Webb win as these three articles will verify:

http://blogometer.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/11/politics_parall.html

November 10, 2007

Politics - Parallel Party Pushes Democrats

the following article appeared in National Journal's 11/10 print edition

"Like the parties' official campaign committees, the Net-roots began the 2006 and 2008 election cycles by trying to identify House and Senate races where they could best help Democrats. However, instead of choosing the candidates with the best polling numbers and fundraising prowess, national Net-roots blogs such as DailyKos, MyDD, and Swing State Project relied on local blogger buzz to pick candidates -- often based on such factors as a candidate's early opposition to the Iraq war, veteran status, or embrace of economic populism.

That led to several contested primaries. On the House side, the party openly campaigned against Net-roots favorite and 2004 nominee Jerry McNerney, instead supporting the more conservative Steve Filson, a former Navy pilot. McNerney defeated Filson handily in the California primary and went on to oust Republican Rep. Richard Pombo in the general election. Local blogs (notably Raising Kaine) gathered signatures and fundraising pledges to persuade Jim Webb to run for Senate in Virginia. They helped Webb to defeat the more experienced, establishment-backed telecom lobbyist Harris Miller in the primary and Republican Sen. George Allen in November..."

http://www.thinksouth.org/2006/06/senate-primary-could-be-watershed-day.htm

6.13.2006

Senate Primary Could Be a Watershed Day for Virginia Democratic and Progressive Bloggers

"In light of the recent attention that Democratic and progressive bloggers have garnered with the YearlyKos event in Las Vegas, a Webb victory could signal a change in the guard of Virginia’s politics and signal a coming sea change throughout the Southeast as the politics of moonlight and magnolias gives way to Macs and microchips. Given the anti-establishment stridency of the pro-Webb cadre, a Miller victory could close the door to many of the more vocal and creative bloggers who fought for Webb. Regardless of the outcome, Democrats and progressives can ill afford to ignore the prominence of blogging as a medium of political discourse and information..."

http://www.netrootsrising.com/2008/08/jessica-vanden-berg-on-the-webb-campaign-and-the-netroots/

Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 5:59 am

Jessica Vanden Berg on the Webb Campaign and the Netroots

Feld: "What do you think were the most significant elements that came together to produce such a strong grassroots/netroots movement for Wes Clark?

Jessica Vanden Berg: It was the war. I started working for Bob Graham in May 2003…he dropped out in October. [There were] a lot of similarities between Graham’s and Clark’s foreign policy positions. Graham didn’t have a netroots following, Clark did. Clark was a 4-star general, a commander in war. Clark was a person who could get us out of Iraq. Clark’s background was so different from what Democrats had at the time. Same thing with Jim Webb. Both had Republican ties with strong military connections...

Vanden Berg: Without the grassroots, we would NOT have gotten Webb on the ballot. There was SO much to do. We could have paid to get signatures, but we didn’t have the money..."

I believe that if Joe Sestak formally announces a Senate primary campaign against Arlen Specter, then he will probably be able to get about the same level of grassroots support that Jim Webb got in 2006.

Joe Sestak in my opinion would be heading into this Senate primary race against Arlen Specter with more advantages than Jim Webb went into his primary race against Harris Miller. Jim Webb started out his primary race with little name recognition and with virtually no money. Joe Sestak already has some serious money to run with, he probably has more name recognition in PA that Jim Webb had in VA when he started out, and Joe Sestak is obviously much closer to Democratic positions on the issues than Arlen Specter is which will definitely come out in the debates!

So the bottom line question in my opinion is will Joe Sestak's strong grassroots support be powerful enough to overcome Arlen Specter's name recognition, his Democratic establishment support from Obama and Ed Rendell, and Specter's ability to raise a lot of money because of that establishment support? I honestly do not know the answer to that question right now.

I would definitely have much more confidence in Joe Sestak's Senate votes (especially on foreign policy) than I would have with Arlen Specter's Senate votes. Democrats in my opinion are rolling the dice with Specter because if he wins another term, then he can vote any way he wants to on any issue for the next 6 years and nobody will be able to stop him from doing that short of the Democratic Senate leadership threatening to punish him by taking away all of his seniority on every committee that he is on for as long as he is a Democrat in the Senate!

Joe Sestak in my opinion can also correctly criticize Arlen Specter for running away from his problems with Rush Limbaugh and with the far right wing fringe base of the Republican Party instead of showing some leadership like how Colin Powell and Tom Ridge did by going on national television to publicly take on Rush Limbaugh in order to at least try and implement some positive changes within the Republican Party before leaving it to become a Democrat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BVlJSMmD-Q&feature=related

Colin Powell Takes On Right Wing Republicans And Rush Limbaugh On Face The Nation (7:42)

NewsPoliticsChannel
May 24, 2009

"Colin Powel discusses right wing republicans, Rush Limbaugh, and more on face the nation. 5/24/09."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqT016LaqEU

Tom Ridge Goes After Rush Limbaugh (2:43)

Speakmymind02
May 24, 2009

"Tom Ridge on State of the union with John King"

All I have really seen Arlen Specter publicly do so far to try and challenge the extreme right wing fringe base of the Republican Party was talking back to Laura Ingraham on her own talk radio show (Laura Ingraham is a bigger name in extreme right wing talk radio but not as big as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity) and giving a correct one-time speech when he left the Republican Party:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/10/specter-to-ingraham-dont_n_165648.html?page=8&show_comment_id=20708600#comment_20708600

Specter To Ingraham: "Don't Give Me The Wine And Dine Baloney, Young Lady" (AUDIO)

February 10, 2009 12:23 PM

[LISTEN.]

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=ydnz4z6USU (2:32)

Ingraham to Specter 'Is It Nice to Be Wined and Dined?'

Posted: February 09, 2009
Posted By: Jpoor
Views: 21,281 | Network: BMI

http://www.specter2010.com/news6.html

Statement by Senator Arlen Specter

April 28, 2009

"I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the Party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view... Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right..."

I have not seen Arlen Specter do much more than this to try and change the GOP before he left it which is something that I think he should have at least tried to do because he may have been able to get a coalition of GOP moderates together in a movement to fight back against the Rush Limbaugh wing of the Republican Party!

While it is true that Rush Limbaugh ordered Arlen Specter out of the Republican Party back in February "because we're cleaning up we're getting rid of the Republicans in name only," Specter in my opinion should have been a key person who was taking the leadership role that Colin Powell has taken so far by going on national television to publicly take on Rush Limbaugh and the extreme right wing Republican Party fringe in order to try and get some support to implement positive changes before just picking up and leaving the GOP when he knew that he could not win against Pat Toomey in a Republican primary:

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/17542

BREAKING NEWS WITH ANALYSIS: Arlen Specter to become a Democrat

Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on April 28, 2009 - 1:03pm.

It is interesting that in this same CNN panel dialogue about Joe Sestak, John King also correctly answered the question of how powerful that the Rush Limbaugh wing of the Republican Party is:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0905/27/sitroom.03.html

THE SITUATION ROOM

North Korea Escalates Nuclear Moves; Challenging Specter

Aired May 27, 2009 - 18:00 ET

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: "Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, how much power -- how much influence do they still have among Republicans?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They have significant influence over a small slice of the Republican Party, the 20 percent or so that is the most fervent Republican base..."

While it is true that these ideologues in the fringe base of the GOP are in the vast minority of the country, they are still the activists who take orders from Rush Limbaugh and they mostly control Republican primaries. That is the main reason why Arlen Specter was having such a hard time running against Pat Toomey in his Republican primary race before he left the GOP!

Here is the CNN video link of Joe Sestak's interview with Wolf Blitzer about challenging Arlen Specter:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/05/27/joe.sestak.intv.cnn (3:47)

Sestak intends to run 3:47
Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak talks to Wolf Blitzer and answers questions surrounding his possible 2010 senate run.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/05/27/joe.sestak.intv.cnn (3:47)

Right below is the CNN transcript of this dialogue.

I think that Joe Sestak is running for the Senate for all of the right reasons, he is a much better candidate than Arlen Specter is, and he has a lot of legitimate issues (especially foreign policy) to run on!

It will be very interesting to see how Arlen Specter votes in the Senate while he is being challenged in a primary and if the Washington and the Pennsylvania Democratic establishments try to interfere and get in Joe Sestak's way. I would hope they remain neutral, let each candidate run on their own records and merits, and then allow the PA Democratic primary voters decide who their Senate nominee will be!

The good news in my opinion is that if Joe Sestak can win the Democratic Senate primary against Arlen Specter, then he should be able to beat a far right wing Republican candidate like Pat Toomey in the 2010 general election as easily as Bob Casey beat the far right wing ideologue Rick Santorum back in 2006!

I will be ready to help Joe Sestak if he formally announces just like how I helped Jim Webb in 2006!

Mitch Dworkin

http://www.securingamerica.com/

http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16039
RESOURCES: Speeches, Articles, and Career Highlights to help define Gen. Clark!
Submitted by Mitch Dworkin on July 7, 2008 - 2:51pm.

http://www.securingamerica.com/ccn/node/7191
Listen to Gen. Wes Clark fight for Dems on Sean Hannity's radio program: An excellent example for all of us to follow and what we all need to be doing to help fight back against extreme right wing Neocon smear propaganda!

--------------------

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0905/27/sitroom.03.html

THE SITUATION ROOM

North Korea Escalates Nuclear Moves; Challenging Specter

Aired May 27, 2009 - 18:00 ET

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: "All right. Hold on, guys. I want to change subjects for a moment, because Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak is joining us right now.

He's been in Congress only a short while. But correct me if I'm wrong, Congressman, word is now emerging that you have decided definitively to challenge Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senatorial nomination?

REP. JOE SESTAK (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Wolf, I personally have made a decision that I intend to get in this race with one other item. I haven't sat down and had the time to sit down with my 8-year-old daughter or my wife to make sure that we are all ready to get in.

And I say that, if you don't mind, because when I got in this after getting out of the military 31 years in the first race two years ago, my daughter had a brain tumor. And we needed to make sure we were getting in this to pay back for this great health care we have been given, together, as a unit. And so that's where the final decision will be made, with us as a nuclear family.

BLITZER: And assuming they say yes, you're going forward, despite the fact that the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States have both said they support Arlen Specter in his bid for reelection?

SESTAK: Interesting point. As I said weeks ago, Wolf, I was disappointed that the Washington political establishment had decided to anoint someone for Pennsylvanians. And so I said I would wait and listen. And I've spent the last weeks going around Pennsylvania to see if others felt like me.

I heard two things. One is, Joe, we'll make the decision. You should get in. Number two is very similar to what you just said. Arlen's got a lot, after four or five decades, of connections and money, so don't get in. No.

BLITZER: Has anyone...

SESTAK: That actually will be more to get in.

BLITZER: Has anyone from the White House urged you not to get in?

SESTAK: I haven't had a call from anyone, except Senator Menendez, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called once or twice. We traded phone calls. But not in the last week. So I haven't ever connected with anyone, nor should they. I'm pretty low on the totem pole. And they're fighting two wars overseas and one here at home.

But this is about us Pennsylvanians. And we need health care, not just in this next year, but through 2016. And that next four to six years, for my Pennsylvanians and for my daughter and for me, are very important to make sure that whoever is carrying the mantle of leadership forward is someone who will be with us consistently in this fight for the right issues.

BLITZER: When you spoke to our John King on "STATE OF THE UNION" a few weeks ago, you weren't sure that Arlen Specter is a Democrat.

Are you convinced he's a Democrat now?

SESTAK: I don't think that a D next to your name makes you a Democrat. But I actually think there's something more important. Arlen has done some good things in the past. This is about the future, though, and not the status quo or the past. It's whether Arlen will fight for the right issues, Democrat or Republican. He derailed -- helped derail health care plans without an alternative in the '90s.

Maybe he's changed, but I'm not sure we can take that chance. And so that's why I'm not sure he's for, more importantly, the right issues, Wolf. And that is -- I haven't -- I haven't heard at all from him, out there in the public, that is. And I honestly believe that when you look someone in the eye to see the cut of their gib (ph), we have to ask the question -- will he be with the right policies that our president presently has put out there to retool our economy in health care and education through 2016?

There's too much doubt in my mind not to have the intent right now to get in this race, pending just a little bit of time with my family to make sure we're all together. Like the military, it's going to be a deployment for a period of time.

BLITZER: All right. Congressman Sestak is a retired U.S. admiral, so he knows something about the U.S. military.

Thanks very much, Congressman...

SESTAK: Thanks...

BLITZER: ...for joining us.

SESTAK: Wolf, thanks for having me..."