Specter loses, White House loses, democracy wins
Posted by Thomas Nephew on May 19th, 2010
Looks like those trendlines weren’t lying:
Rep. Joe Sestak, riding a call for “new blood” in Washington, defeated incumbent Arlen Specter in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary Tuesday, ending the career of the longest serving senator in Pennsylvania history.
With 79 percent of precincts reporting, Sestak had received nearly 53 percent and Specter about 47 percent, according to unofficial returns. Specter conceded.
–Sestak ousts Specter in Democratic primary, Fitzgerald, Nunnally, Philadelphia Inquirer
Observed MSNBC:
“The vote also was a defeat for President Barack Obama, who supported Specter when he abandoned the Republican Party last year.”
Well, don’t do that next time, Barry. Obama has a very bad habit of mixing himself up in primaries on behalf of DINOs (Democrats In Name Only): Specter, Lincoln (forced into a runoff against progressive favorite Bill Halter), Lieberman. If he’s wondering who he has to blame for sharing in Specter’s defeat, he should go find a mirror.
With Specter, even “DINO” is a bit charitable for a guy who sometimes forgot he wasn’t still a Republican, and who said up-front when he switched parties that his opposition to EFCA wouldn’t change. Some warn, of course, that Sestak is no reliable progressive either; as the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne pointed out a couple of days ago:
While Sestak does enjoy some support from progressive online groups, it’s impossible to cast the race as a left-vs.-center showdown, especially since Sestak supported Obama’s surge in Afghanistan while Specter, trying to curry favor on the Democratic left, opposed it. “We should not engage in the laborious and problematic task of nation-building,” declared the newly dovish Specter.
But how long would Specter’s new found dovishness have lasted in the absence of a challenge? How long would any position at all ever last with Specter, who did extended Hamlet routines about FISA and the Military Commissions Act before voting for them, and supported the Employee Free Choice Act before turning against it? The one constant thing about Specter was his desire to stay in office, and Pennsylvanians were right to vote him out of it. When Specter switched to the Democratic Party last year, I wrote:
But the basic point is that Specter and the Democratic poobahs (apparently Joe Biden and Harry Reid chief among them) who coaxed the senator into switching sides have shoved aside the people who ought to really matter when political parties grow or shrink: the voters — yes, even the Republican “base” voters — who choose the candidates of each party, and then test their strength against each other in the general election.
On Tuesday, the voters struck back. Democrats everywhere — even Barack Obama, even E.J. Dionne — should reflect on that and then welcome that. And then they should stop playing games trying to get the odd Republican senator to cross party lines, and start sticking up for the people who voted them into office. And then they should decide to trust Democratic voters instead of making deals over their heads. Obama can start by keeping himself out of the Arkansas runoff between Lincoln and Halter.
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UPDATE, 5/18: Added my 2010 ActBlue donation page button; Sestak and Halter are my two choices so far.
UPDATE, 5/20: E.J.Dionne today: “That Specter’s support collapsed so quickly everywhere outside Philadelphia suggested how weak he probably would have been against conservative Republican nominee Pat Toomey. Party leaders who backed Specter can nonetheless be relieved that voters picked the stronger candidate for November.” Which says what about those leaders?
EDIT, 5/21: links added to stories detailing Obama’s support for Specter and Lincoln (2 stories).
Category: Post. Tags: democratic party.
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May 19th, 2010 at 10:05 am
Wow! That is amazing. He is an impressive person. What happens to his House seat now?
May 19th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
It goes up for grabs in the November general election. The race will be between Bryan Lentz (D), Pat Meehan (R), and Jim Schneller (I), according to uselections.com.