But he really flopped last time he tried, didn’t he–beating Specter but not winning against Toomey? He seems to have little charisma.
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I don’t know where I got the impression you were a lefty which is not a bad thing but I just thought you were. Yes I am sure his conservatism is part of his military background but he is a decent man.
I am a fan of Schumer but just because one is familiar with people on Wall Street does not necessarily make them bad. Barney Frank whom I love, says Schumer is getting a bad rap and in fact voted for Dodd-Frank. His stance on the Iran deal is just posturing. He will not go against the President. Congress likes their power as you know
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Living in the Land of the Lost!
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If Schumer and Tester are against Sestak, I’m for him. The Senate doesn’t need any more Republican Lite, Wall Street weasels on the “D” side of the aisle.
The DSCC distributes campaign funds like a corporate board voting themselves raises - never a serious electoral strategy. The DSCC is a vehicle for lobbyists to curry favor and is NOT for contributions from Democrats wanting to win control of the Senate.
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Apparently the majority of voters in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania agreed with you. Sestak should have stayed in the House longer. It’s not all about constituent service and working your staff mercilessly. He had a reputation for being very difficult to work for.
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There are some things about Sestak that many of the commenters here don’t seem to realize.
First, the man is, by all accounts, impossible to work for. He churns through staff at an unbelievable rate because he’s a crazy boss. He’s so bad, in fact, that the U.S. Navy demoted him for creating a terrible work environment. Seriously, think about that: the military, an organization predicated above all else on order and discipline, demoted Sestak for being too much of a hard-ass. He’d likely be unable to get anything accomplished as a Senator because he can’t manage staff appropriately; unfortunately that matters a lot. It’s pretty comical to read people here talk about how “nice” he is. He went through like 4 office managers in a couple of years when he was in the House.
Second, he just doesn’t know how to run a campaign. Part of the reason the establishment is so pissed at him is that the race against Toomey was his to win, and he blew it. He has inexperienced family members running his campaign, and proudly so, because they are “outsiders”. Unfortunately, you need experienced people who know how to campaign effectively. That’s probably the biggest reason the establish Dems are trying to get someone else: Sestak will probably run another poor campaign, and would be in jeopardy of losing a prime pick-up opportunity.
BTW, I don’t work in PA politics and this isn’t sock puppetry – I just know people who do.
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This makes no sense at all. Anyone with a brain in their head knows that one, Specter was a Republican who switch parties in a desperate attempt to keep his job. And secondly, he was going to lose regardless.
Sestak is a former Admiral who could be a lot more than a Senator - VP or Presidential candidate in years to come…
Bad analysis. He lost by only a percentage point or two in 2010, an off year election when there was a Republican tidal wave.
Yours is the only comment here that makes sense to me. It seems like nobody else here noticed the poll last week that showed Toomey leading Sestak 48-35. Not only does that show Toomey with a surprising amount of support for someone who has been so incompetent and pissed off so many people, but it shows how many on the Democratic side want someone other than Sestak. Losing last time was, frankly, inexcusable. Someone else needs to be given a shot. Just because Schumer backs someone against a previously-failed candidate doesn’t necessarily mean they’re his lapdog.
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I sent Sestak turkee back in the day and damnit, I’ll do it again. Sorry national dems, until you punt Debbie Wasserman from her national role, you are dead to me.
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Screw that. I’ll support any reasonably liberal candidate who doesn’t have a track record of failure. DWS and Sestak are both disqualified on the latter grounds.
Seriously? Sestak?
Why do we keep doing this to ourselves?
Schumer showed his true colors in 2006 when he supported Lieberman, after Bullshit Joe lost the primary to Ned Lamont. Plus Schumer never met a bank he did not love, regardless of how many individual New Yorkers the bank had raped.
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I’m one of those people and I was purely talking about the way he comes across in interviews. He’s way too conciliatory and understanding, which makes him look like a pushover. In interviews, he comes across kind of like Harold Ford. A Republican could scream, “OBAMA ATE MY BABY!” and Sestak’s response would be, “I take you at your word. I’ve personally never seen the president eat any babies and don’t believe he makes a habit of it, but that’s just been my personal experience.”
I worked for him in the early 2000s (before Congress) and would never give the guy a penny. Had some great idea but no clue how to treat people.
There was a joke on the Hill among the other Representatives - if you need a good Staffer, just hang around outside Sestak’s door for half an hour and you’ll find someone. He simply doesn’t know how to treat people. I was fortunate enough to have two layers of people between him and me, and it was still painful.
I like Joe Sestak, and will send a check his way again.
In case they didn’t notice, Shapiro already has a job, and if he abandons it to run for Senate he’ll be screwing my county royally. Not that Schumer or (WTF???) Tester have to live with those consequences. I wish to hell these puppetmasters would stay the fuck out of my state’s business. They haven’t yet stuck their fingers in it and made anything better. Screw them.
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Joe Sestak rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral, presumably on the basis of competence since I’ve never heard that anyone ever commended him for his people skills. He was fired from his very senior position by Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney;s defense secretary, in part because Sestak made no secret of his belief that cuts in defense spending were possible and, in part, because apparently tact was not one of his most obvious qualities.
It was my understanding that while in the House of Representatives, Joe Sestak supported most of the ideas that I support and opposed most of the ideas that I oppose, which to me was more important than whether he was kind to his staff (though obviously both qualities would have been nice). In comparison, in misguided and unreciprocated sentiments of polity, Harry “Weak” Reid gave away the store to the Republicans on every possible occasions, and on some occasions he helped to load the getaway truck.
I don’t know anything about this other guy, who apparently no longer holds any office (which wouldn’t seem to me to be much of an asset for a statewide race). But it’s long past time that the leaders of the Democratic Party started paying attention to the interests of the American public than to the interests of carriers of affluenza, especially those who play both sides – D and R – against the middle … class.