Rep. Joe Sestak wants to be President Barack Obama’s biggest ally in the Senate — but first, he wants to campaign against him and the entire Democratic establishment.
“Maybe we should try to have the congregation pray together before you have a schism,” Sestak said. “It’s what I did in the Navy. We had disagreements, but you walk in together with comity and try to achieve the mission at hand.”
The Pennsylvania Democrat has had plenty of disagreements with how things are done within the Democratic leadership, beginning with his first campaign for Congress in 2006. But his public campaign against it started when Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) switched parties in April and gave Democrats what was effectively a 60th vote in the Senate.
Almost immediately, Sestak lined up a challenge to Specter that threatened Dem hopes of a lasting filibuster-proof majority. Now that 60 is gone, thanks to a massive upset in Massachusetts, he’s banking on the same brand of enthusiasm that stripped his party of its most treasured vote in Congress.
In an interview with The Hill, Sestak, 58, said the result in Massachusetts blazed “in neon lights” what he has been seeing since shortly after Specter switched parties. He said the message is that voters want a change in how politics are done, not just which policies are pursued.
“If the Democratic establishment had been listening, they would have heard it, which is: ‘A pox on both your houses in Washington,’ ” Sestak said.
The two-term lawmaker says he holds no grudges over the establishment’s efforts to get him out of the race. He said recently that the White House tried to get him to step aside by offering him a job, but he has declined to elaborate.
He said the details aren’t important, but his campaign is willing to make hay of the situation. Shortly after the job offer revelation, it launched a hard-hitting Web video featuring Obama supporters pleading with the president to back Sestak.
Sestak says he’s not going to be a yes-man for the president and he’s willing to hold him and the Democratic establishment accountable. He even took the chance to needle a potential future colleague in Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), over the “Cornhusker kickback.”
“Someone made a deal in Washington for a 60th vote, and Democrats were euphoric, initially, about it,” Sestak said. “But that’s where the wheels started going off the track, and the train got completely off the track when Ben Nelson and the other senators, almost through extortion, gave their votes up for their special interests.”
Read the full article here in The Hill
Tags: Arlen Specter, Arlen Specter for Senate, Joe Sestak, Joe Sestak for Senate
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