Sestak cancels on IBEW Union?

[PADEMJES12]

Confidential sources tell me that Rep. Sestak had arranged to have an event at the IBEW Union Hall in Pittsburgh, but cancelled on them relatively late in the process. It costs about $1500 to reserve the Union Hall for an event, and the event was relocated to a smaller location where it was pretty much free. If true, the decision to back out on reserving the Union Hall and IBEW... builds upon my earlier concerns that his candidacy is not viable, perhaps from a fundraising perspective, but particularly because of questionable campaign decisions such as to back out on IBEW. Questions remain. Did IBEW lose money over this because it was shown to be reserved to Sestak and someone else couldnt use it? Was it disorganization... or to save a couple bucks?

However, if it was to save the money, im not too sure how this will go over well with IBEW...... because Sestak has spent $12,000 per month to have his brother and two sisters on his campaign staff for years.

I am more concerned from a perspective, making sure we have a viable candidate with a campaign that knows what they are doing. Sure, I think Specter is becoming that candidate for the dems... but I think we need to be coming together, as opposed to fighting it out and have the possibility of tearing each other down. Instead, we need to be building each other up. For example, Congressional Republicans are beginning to take notice of some of Sestak's comments as fodder to hammer away at their Democrats.

http://www.klineforcongress.com/...

Sestak in the story said that he also genuinely likes Toomey, and even appeared with him at a joint town hall event on healthcare. This is them drinking together after at the pub.

http://www.thebrewworks.com/...

Pat Toomey is to the right of Rick Santorum. Im not sure who is made this decision for him to appear with Toomey, but it comes across as somewhat risky because they help Toomey with moderates and isnt very bright or considerate on behalf of Democrats.

[Born Free]

1. Please post your sources

PADEMJES12;

I can't find anything in the news or Google about the IBEW other than links to your post here on DU. I did find some things on the Sestak facebook page about Pittsburg today, apparently picking up a few more endorsements.

Joseph Sestak Jr. Enjoyed meeting with a passionate group of Pitt Dems. Headed downtown to proudly accept the endorsement of Pittsburgh's State Sen. Jim Ferlo, City Controller Michael Lamb, City Councilmen Doug Shields & Bruce A. Kraus, & 14th Ward Chair Barbara Daly-Danko. Honored to have their support in building a coalition for new leadership in Western PA. 2 hours ago

Joseph Sestak Jr. Just wrapped up a small business event with representatives from the National Association of Women Business Owners. Making a stop at the VA before heading to University of Pittsburgh for a townhall with the Pitt College Dems.
5 hours ago

Joseph Sestak Jr. Southside stop begins our Pittsburgh trip. City Council's Doug Shields & Bruce Kraus here. Announcing their support with others tomorrow. Yesterday at 4:48pm


About half way down the Google search was an interesting article on the straw poll from August that I did not read about prior to today.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/26139.html

"The online poll of 252 attendees, which took place Thursday and Friday at the annual gathering of progressive bloggers and activists, found that 48 percent supported Sestak for the Pennsylvania Democratic Senate nomination, compared to just 10 percent who backed Specter. "





Google search did have this :


http://www.examiner.com/x-10379-Pittsburgh-Progressive-Examiner~y2010m1d11-Senate-candidate-Joe-Sestak-gets-local-Pittsburgh-endorsements-today?cid=channel-rss-Politics



Senate candidate Joe Sestak will get a number of local endorsements from area Pittsburgh politicians today. I think the biggest name in the press release is Pennsylvania State Senator Jim Ferlo. City Controller Mike Lamb is also a bit of a coup. Lamb doesn't often go against the machine. He has also secured the nominations of two city councilmen and one ward leader. I guess one question: Is this it? If Arlen Specter wins the primary, then he would immediately revert to his Joe Lieberman status as a dealbreaker in all probability. As Sestak has pointed out Specter hasn't been helpful in previous attempts to help. There should be more local democratic party officials attending this. On the other hand, if you're disappointed with the Democratic Party and sense that it stands for nothing I suppose Specter will find much support locally. Its not like being a lifelong Republican would disqualify you from being a democrat. I suppose this is why Democratic "Majorities" in the house and senate don't really mean very much. "Sigh" as they say...




Digging through those links I ran into the web page "the Real Arlan Spector"

http://therealspecter2010.com/therealarlen

The Real Arlen Specter has been a long-time Republican for 45 years and has spent the past 29 years in Washington, DC. The Real Arlen Specter spent the last eight years proudly voting, over 2,000 times, in support of the Bush Administration policies that undermined our standing around the world, and at home caused this savage recession. The Real Arlen Specter has stood with his fellow Republicans George Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Rick Santorum ... time after time after time.

During the past 45 years, the Real Arlen Specter has dedicated himself to keeping a Republican majority in the Senate, and keeping Republicans in office in Pennsylvania. He's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Republican Senators like Rick Santorum, Jon Kyl, Mike DeWine and Orrin Hatch. He's raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Pennsylvania’s Republican Party and officials.

The Real Arlen Specter campaigned for, raised money for, and personally voted for George Bush & Dick Cheney, and for John McCain & Sarah Palin. He chaired the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign in Pennsylvania. The Real Arlen Specter recently said that he voted for John McCain & Sarah Palin because "they were the better choice."

Lifetime rating from the AFL-CIO of 61%

“I think is a bad bill and I am opposed to it”

- Arlen Specter, April 28, 2009

“I said when I made the switch I’m still against . Democrats are all for it, Republicans are all against it and I’m the critical vote.”

- Arlen Specter, ‘Meet the Press’ May 3, 2009




********

During the democratic presidential primary, the talking heads on TV said the campaigns were going too long, too many debates too much arguing , the talking heads on TV suggested it would only hurt the democratic candidate. In the beginning many were suggesting Clinton had it sewed up, but they were wrong, so was she. Democrats don't always follow their leaders in lockstep as republicans tend to do, it is who we are. It's easy to know about Specter, he has a record for everyone to see and he has said that he is not going to change the way he votes just because he is now a democrat. It's also easy to know that in the beginning he has a better advantage with name recognition, but as more an more people start reviewing the candidates they may not find Arlan Specter is the best candidate to represent the democratic party in Pennsylvania .

[JPZenger]

2. It is great to have a civil discussion with your opponent

Too much political debate today involves screaming and name calling. If Sestak and Toomey, who are political opposites, are able to sit down and have a rational discussion with each other, I say great. We can learn a great deal from people with opposing viewpoints.

[PADEMJES12]

3. Your deflecting Sestak bailing out on a Union...

I hope they didnt lose any money because of his cancellation and relocation to a smaller and cheaper facility. Of course, it may have been necessary with the small crowds of 20. Ill leave that to your diligence to find sources. However, maybe he bailed because alot of the Unions wont be supporting him and he's trying to go on the cheap?

[PADEMJES12]

4. JP---

I do agree with you that bi-partisanship is a good thing. However, its a little naive to think Pat Toomey is interested in bi-partisan. He's interested in one thing... "No" and breaking President Obama as Jim Demint pledged. Senator Specter tore Jim Demint a new one on Fox news. Sestak is propping Toomey up and he doesnt even know it.

[Born Free]

5. "Straw Man"

One of the things the bush team was great at doing was creating "political straw men " or "straw man" , they would take an argument or situation and and then offer a close imitation, or straw man, version of the same and begin an entire argument to knock down the "straw man". One of the more infamous one for many of us here at DU were the attacks on AL Gore saying he claimed to have invented the internet - I still hear that one. This entire thread smells a lot like another "Straw Man" tactic (perfected by Karl Rove) created here on DU by PADEMJES12 to bash Sestak, yet again.

Arlan Specter does have some good things he has done.He has a 61% rating with the AFL-CIO , so that means he did vote for the working families more often than against them, and who knowns, maybe that is the best working families can expect during these trying times. Maybe we democrats do expect too much, maybe the base should be happy with what is going on today, maybe democrats should accept this is the best we can do for our causes. Maybe unions members should forget one of the first major votes Specter made after becoming a democrat was against the union's rights to organize.

I did not know too much about Sestak other than he is well like by Ed Shultz and on Ed's show fairly often. I like Keith, Ed and Rachael on MSNBC . When I saw too many threads started by PADEMJES12 constantly using anything to bash Sestak, I started looking more into Sestak and Specter and have become more supportive of Sestak. I thank PADEMJES12 for turning me into a Sestak supporter.

[MH1]

26. No source, nothing in the news = bullshit smear

I searched the news and found NOTHING about this.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JPZenger]

7. The tag team continues.

Daviddiano - why has everyone one of your 7 of your posts on DU been attacks on Sestak?

[Born Free]

8. Daviddiano

Daviddiano,

Thanks for the compliment, although I have been using these forums from back when Al Gore was running for president , I was never too active. Your suggestion that my posts look professional is quite a compliment.

While we are taking a moment to get personal, why do you not show people how long you have been a member here at DU?
I also noticed that PADEMJES12 also hides his information that would include when he signed up here at DU..

I did find the original post but on Google but when I tried to go to it it was no longer available but it does still show up on Google cache:

Sestak cancels on IBEW Union comment on Dail Kos:

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:Ckr7pL1f5ysJ:www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/10/18569/1360+daily+kos+Sestak+cancels+on+IBEW+Union&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

it's from : dwjess55's diary :: :: and is looks identical to the post that starts this thread.


This is Google's cache of http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/10/18569/1360. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on Jan 11, 2010 05:08:53 GMT. The current page could have changed in the meantime. Learn more


These search terms are highlighted: daily kos sestak ibew union These terms only appear in links pointing to this page: cancels
Daily Kos
Sestak backing out on IBEW?
by dwjess55
Digg this! Share this on Twitter - Sestak backing out on IBEW?Tweet this submit to reddit
Sun Jan 10, 2010 at 08:56:53 PM PST




When I click on the link I get the following from Daily Kos

Sorry. I can't seem to find that story. j 1 k 1 l

Tags: Joe Sestak, PA-Sen (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions

Permalink | 21 comments


It is possible that you need access to read the posts and I don't usually visit the Daily Kos website.




As you may be new here, I think there might be some type of ruling that if you copy an article you are to give credit to the author.

On the other hand it may be dwjess55's at Daily Kos that is using PADEMJES12 post, either way it gives the appearance of
Plagiarism



Plagiarism, a "Straw Man" with a poster that frequently bashes Sestak using another Sestak bashers comments as a reliable news source , I know I have seen that behavior before but usually on the right - maybe you are correct, someone has been drinking the "kool aid".

Any member of DU that is interested interested can feel free to read any/all of my 1000+ messages to decide if it is me.

[daviddiano]

12. Not "hiding" info

Born Free-
Unlike YOU, I'm posting under my real name. I probably have the default privacy settings or wasn't paying too close attention.
If it really matters to you, I created the account back in Sept 2009.

I'm not really crazy about this site and it's layout, so I'm not particularly active here.

I spend most of my blogging time on PA2010 blog. It doesn't require a login and it's more of a news site, with comments.

As for dwjess55 and PADEMJES12, maybe they are friends or share info. You'll have to ask them.

I write my own stuff and I don't care if people repeat my arguments if they are trying to make the same points.

[PADEMJES12]

10. not sure... maybe Diano is giving Sestak his own medicine....

in the sense that every one of Joe's coffee talks have been negative attacks on the Democratic leadership and Specter. For someone who
doesnt pay attention to Specter, Sestak sure attacks him alot. Joe can pay attention tomorrow, when Specter receives the endorsement from
the Philly Building Trades Union.

[daviddiano]

13. Not just coffee talk

All Sestak does is trash Specter. Sestak's not offering anything except "fear" that Specter can't be trusted to vote Dem.

[daviddiano]

11. ALL my posts are against Sestak

JP-
Sestak's my congressman. I worked hard, with a lot of other Dems, to get him elected because he promised to use his military street cred to push Bush on timetables and accountability on an anti-war platform.
Sestak vote FOR the Iraq funding without any timetables. He screwed the peace-movement and completely deceived us.
He voted to fund Cheney's office (one of a handful of turn coat Dems).

Sestak has repeatedly screwed over the local party and candidates. He has done more damage than good.

I hunt the web looking for opportunities to expose him.

Does that answer your question?

[JPZenger]

9. Examples of how pressure from Sestak Makes Specter Vote With Dems

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/12/824411/-PA-Sen:-Specters-Support-Of-Johnsen-Didnt-Happen-In-A-Vacuum-

The above link describes two cases of how pressure from Sestak's primary challenge has helped push Specter to vote with the Dems. If he gets re-elected, Specter can go back to his historically independently-minded self, and may no longer be a reliable Democratic vote on key issues.

[Born Free]

14. thanks daviddiano

daviddiano,

thanks for clarifying your personal situation and that you search out anything about Sestak. Although I have never had enough animosity toward any individual in my lifetime to do such a thing, I can understand that you may feel a need to do it. As long as you use legitimate arguments it is worthwhile. As JPZenger has written, the primary process is a way to make sure all views and ideas are discussed. I am also happy you distanced yourself from PADEMJES12, as I am sure you can see using identical posts on various sites with a created "straw man" to start a line of attack is misleading, he then uses one copy of his post to support his claims in another forum. Unfortunately PADEMJES12 has a questionable history on these forms that you can easily review. I don't think PADEMJES12 does much good for Specter, as I posted previously, he actually turned me more towards Sestak. This latest thread takes it to another level for PADEMJES12, and it appears he is now hoping to hide behind you, I hope you have enough intestinal fortitude to not support those types of tactics. It did appear to me that you were a team, he started the straw man attacks and you come in to back him up.

There is a big difference between pointing out a candidates voting record and just creating straw man attacks. I have posted many times and even now have project vote-smart.org on my tag line because I think everyone should learn as much as possible before making a decision, they should not just read rants posted on various forums and they should not be pressured into voting a certain way. I don't hate Specter, I just believe that Sestak is the better choice, and I don't think the race is over yet. I do understand that many times a politician can have every intention of doing one thing but find out he or she must change their original plans. One of the major problems the bush team had was they could never accept they made a poor decision and change course, much like the guy going down the wrong road, but refusing to turn around. This does not mean a politician should constantly change from one view or another. As I posted, with Specter it is easy, he has a long history and a long voting record and chances are he will not change, likewise he is the easy candidate because he is well known and much like Joe Lieberman, . has the support of the establishment . On the other hand Joe Sestak is still unkown to most, but the longer the primary goes on the more people, including myself will learn about him.

[PADEMJES12]

15. Born Free....

Whats worse, Sestak going on the cheap and backing out on IBEW or me reporting that he did? As I said, I hope IBEW did not lose
any money from this maneuver.

Born Free... its not hard, the event was originally posted at IBEW and then switched to a smaller and CHEAPER location.
Born Free has had Sestak kool aid stains from the get go. He's the one in the bunker with Joe eating up tales of Sestak
comparing himself to George Washington. However, welcome David, Im sure we all welcome your commentary.

b/t Born Free, expect a post soon on Specter's endorsement from the Building and Trades Union, a 77,000 member Union.

Here's a clip of Sestak stating in reverse order his polling decline... from Delco Times and not responding when
he was asked why he took the money and ran out of the 7th, abandoning ship. What is it 23 now. Emphasis was put by Sestak on one released
a few months ago, a Rasmussen Reublican pollster... one showing him down four. He still seems to be hanging on. This of course, from someone
that just received a 4800 campaign donation from Dick Scaiffe Mellon. Talk about a straw man.... I think you just summed
up what Sestak is for Toomey.

http://www.delcotimes.com/video/video-news/?media=9040422

They must have cut it off after two minutes or so.

[daviddiano]

16. Sestak gets worst the more you learn

Born Free-
I understand what it's like to be fooled by Joe and his empty promises, phony spin on his credentials, and his disregard/disloyalty to the local party Dems that carried him at the beginning.
I think that Sestak is a very weak candidate who puts on a good show and first impression. But, he's really like a small dog that barks and yaps a lot to sound bigger.

His campaign is in complete disarray. He's been actively searching for a campaign manager for months and been turned down by professionals that don't want to work for him. He has no infrastructure outside of his district, and even less appeal. The local politicians and party people that are in-the-know routinely trash him in private, but are afraid to speak out publicly against him for fear (genuine or imagined) of retaliation.
I think they are wrong not to challenge Sestak openly (because there are more of them than they realize). Sestak already doesn't give money to help local candidates. It's not like he can turn off a dry spigot. So, I feel he has little leverage. Though, out of spite, he could easily publicly endorse a challenger to whomever "betrays" him.

His "experiment" to bring military style work values to Capitol Hill has been an unmitigated disaster. He has the highest staff turnover rate of any congressman in history. He pays his staffers the least, and works them the most. His 10,000 plus constituent requests that he handles are often handled badly. I met someone last week who told me it took him almost 2 months to get his issued handled because the got a series of successive staffers who quit, and the ball kept getting dropped between each one.
Sestak's style of overworking his employees is what got him canned in the Navy. In the military, people can't just quit and walk away, or Sestak would have experienced similar turnover there.

As for PADEMJES12, he (or she) may be picking up on some ideas from posts I make on other blogs. If his style turned you off to Specter and onto Sestak, then it was ineffective, possibly because it's more second-hand (or third hand from some of my second-hand stories).

The real progressive activists I know are not really supporting Sestak, because they know he's a phony. However, some are offering him supportive talk for two reasons:
1) They know he's a loser, but they want him to keep pushing Specter to the Left on key votes. So, they want Sestak to stay in the race longer.

2) Bryan Lentz is running for Congress to replace the seat Joe is abandoning. After Sestak screwed us on the War votes, some of us approached Lentz to challenge Sestak to a primary in 2008. That's how badly we wanted to get rid of Sestak and get a real progressive like Lentz in. So, there is an incentive to keep shining Sestak on until it's too late for him to drop his Senate bid and enter the Congressional primary.

The bottom line is that Sestak's a bad politician who is even more selfish and in-it-for-himself that Specter could dream of being. Frankly, Sestak needs to be stopped now. He can't be trusted with 6 years in office without accountability at the ballot box.

[JPZenger]

17. David, I give you credit for posting under your real name

http://www3.allaroundphilly.com/blogs/delcotimes/gils/2009/04/david-diano-and-me.html

[daviddiano]

18. JP

Gil Spencer is a right-wing ideological opinion writer for the local Delaware County Times.

He often engages in what I consider to be racist, anti-gay and bigoted rhetoric. After one particularly egregious set of anti-gay remarks, I confronted Spencer (on his blog) and failed to get a satisfactory response. I then contacted Spencer's editor and alerted him to Spencer's statements. Spencer then banned me for going around his back, rather than confront him openly (even though I had done exactly that on the blog).

Because I am one of the few posters that regularly bests him and calls him out for his statements, he "permanently" banned me from his blog, unless I would "apologize".
This is the only "apology" he will ever receive from me:
http://padelcowatch.blogspot.com/2008/10/why-gil-spencer-can-go-fuck-himself.html

Even before that, he would selectively delete some of my posts. In the blog post you linked to, Spencer mischaracterized me and refused to post my rebuttal to his misstatements about my history on his blog.

Though I was banned, Spencer attributed to me almost every anonymous post that opposed him (even some that are clearly Sestak supporters). I guess all liberal arguments look the same to him. Though I must admit, I did see a few that sounded like I had written them. One time I was helping my brother deal with an attachment in his gmail account, forgot to log out, and inadvertently posted several times under his ID (which I didn't realize for a while because Gil screens the postings and there is a half-day turn around, so I didn't see the mistake until the next day).

The contradiction was that I was banned, but that he was allowing posts that he believed were mine. Confronted with this logic, he claimed that he had lifted the ban and I was allowed to post again (until he banned me again).

Anyway, since I was banned from the blog, I called out Spencer on his bigotry in a letter to the editor, which was published under the title: "Is Gil Spencer a bigot?"

Currently, his blog is a virtual wasteland. Almost all of his topics have zero comments. (Back when I posted there, my threads always got double-digits, and at least once we crossed 100).

If YOU and other Dems go on there and post against his right-wing rhetoric, he will probably accuse you of being me.

[Born Free]

19. thanks for the heads up...

daviddiano,

I thought your first post was far more hostile than it had to be when sharing ideas with another democrat,
and I sensed something more was going on here . You, dwjess55 and PADEMJES12
win ... I give up

JPZenger : thanks, I enjoyed your comments as well.

[JPZenger]

20. David

David:

I can understand how blog wars can get out of hand. That is why I'll stay out of them.

[Number9Dream]

21. Quite the unsubstantiated smear

If you stick around, you'll discover that credibility on DU depends on providing links and citing your sources. Your attacks on Rep. Sestak didn't contain a single link or cited source.

Just a few of your unsubstantiated statements regarding Sestak:

"...been turned down by professionals that don't want to work for him"

"...people that are in-the-know routinely trash him in private"

"He pays his staffers the least, and works them the most"

"...someone who told me it took him almost 2 months..."

And on and on...

"Someone told me"? The journalistic excellence of Faux News.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence that neither of the user names being used to cheerlead for Specter are fond of citing sources.

My favorite was a couple of months ago when pademjes stated that "Sestak and Toomey were staggering around drunk together". When several DUers called bullshit, pademjes just changed the subject.

No credibility here. Added to ignore list.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[PADEMJES12]

23. I wished DayDreamer would show a little concern

for IBEW possibly losing money as opposed to questioning whether or not sestak cheaped out on them to save 1500 bucks.
Of course, nonetheless, if you only had 20 people show up like he's had...

David, if you are from out east, is this something sestak would typically do?

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MH1]

28. sorry, hearsay, no source = no credibility.

You obviously hate Sestak. Still you should confine yourself to allegations that you can back up with sources.

[daviddiano]

34. What sources do you have?

MH1, you hide behind your anonymity.

I live in the 7th District. I was there in 2006 from day One, when Sestak announced. I set up the computers in his office out of the boxes.

I watched how we all pitched in to help and how his campaign shafted local Dems and other candidates. When I asked about doing combined lit-drops with the legislative candidates, his field director said to my face, "Screw the other candidates. Sestak's the only one that matters."

I witnesses how chaotic and disorganized the campaign was, but it had a lot of people energy. They were tripping over each other and the left hand didn't know what the right was doing. They won by overwhelming force. True. But, they caught so many luck breaks, they had no idea what was done for them. Their campaign style simply doesn't scale up.

In Sept 2007, I asked Richard Sestak if Joe would help us by hosting fundraisers. His response was: "Why should he? It's not his contest. No one here did anything for him."

I was there. I am posting under my own name. Is that enough "source" for you?

BTW, new Rasmussen poll out today. Sestak's dropped to 21 points behind

For this Rasmussen is been an outlier pole showing Sestak 8 points better than the other polls, so Sestak is really about 30-points behind.
Even if you believe Rasmussen, Sestak went from 4 points down in October, to 13 points in Dec and now 21 points in January.

This is the polling signature of a campaign in collapse.

If you want to use your own name or have an actual source, feel free to respond. Otherwise, please don't waste my time with your lack of knowledge.

[Number9Dream]

25. Begin OP with "Confidential sources tell me..." - LOL

"CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES TELL ME..." Not many DUers would have the nerve to begin a post with "Confidential sources tell me". Are you f*%king serious? Do you think this is the Hollywood Tattler? Are these the same confidential sources who told you about Sestak and Toomey "staggering around drunk together"? Confidential sources tell me (insert any fiction here). Once I stopped laughing at that, I couldn't bring myself to read the rest. I would have unreced it just for the "confidential sources", except that all these unsubstantiated Sestak smears are just getting more DUers to support Joe Sestak. Thanks, keep it up. Back on ignore.

[MH1]

27. If you learn from factual sources, Sestak gets better the more you learn

People should go to non-partisan sources like vote-smart.org and the candidates' voting records to learn, not form opinions based on smears posted on an internet discussion forum.

Those who do, and look into Specter's history (Anita Hill anyone? EFCA? check out his LCV score; and so on), then look at Sestak's overall history and voting record, will come away knowing that Sestak is the more progressive choice across the board.

[PADEMJES12]

29. they should start a page for the cheapest politicians

so Sestak could tout his high ranking after stiffing the IBEW and then not even
buying the coffee in Greensburg.

[MH1]

30. again, unsubstantiated smears

unless you have found a link?

[PADEMJES12]

32. No link necessary as it is personal first hand knowledge

relayed to me by several sources on the coffee that attended the event itself. What is unsubstantiated is you contention that sestak gets better as time goes along. As i said again, I hope IBEW didnt lose money over this... over not being able to rent out the Union Hall to other folks who wanted it when Sestak had scheduled his event there and then moved it, not wanting to pay the 1500... or perhaps it was too large for a crowd of 20.

[MH1]

33. "relayed to me by several sources" is NOT "first-hand"

you do know that, right?

Also, I did provide a source - vote-smart.org. People can go to that site and review Sestak's and Specter's ratings by a great many well known issue organizations on a wide variety of issues. Sure, you could call it "unsubstantiated" or speculation on my part, that DU readers would find that Sestak is better than Specter from those scores, but people can go to the link and check for themselves. I am not asking anyone to rely on my opinion or hearsay.

edited for typo.

[daviddiano]

35. More than just his votes

MH1-
There is much more to Sestak than just his votes. You are NOT taking into account his campaign promises to supporters, how he runs his congressional office, how he treats local party members, how he conducts his fundraising, etc.

However, if you really want to examine his votes, don't do it in a vacuum.

http://progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?member=HI1&search=selectScore&chamber=House&zip=&x=50&y=8

On his Lifetime record on crucial progressive issues/votes, Sestak is progressive only 72% of the time.

Sestak is ranked 162nd as a progressive. He also votes less progressively than the makeup of his district.

Sestak's liberal votes have been enough to get him elected, but he appeases the Republicans too often.
Sestak's a 30-year military guy, who went in directly after attending private Catholic school, and since he's been in, has consistently voted for more war, and government invasions of privacy (wiretaps and telecom immunity). He got a max donation from Richard Mellon Scaife.
He was registered as an Independent until he determined the way the wind was blowing and ran for office. This guy has future conservative written all over him.

He's is NOT a liberal Democrat.

[MH1]

31. and frankly, I am going to vote for the guy who will serve me best

if there is any truth to your claim at all, it would very likely be the result of miscommunication. Sestak is too smart to knowingly piss off the union.