I am a fairly high level Democrat here in Pa. Specters party support as a candidate is very low. Sestak, Schwarz, or any REAL Democrats enter the race, our county org supports them. 24 years of Arlen is enough, plus labor is sharpening their knives...

I welcome Sestak to run, but stupid utterance:

"In the military, we just don't leave fights."

made as if it has any relevance to politics, will not get him far.

And IMO he has a few caution flags to deal with:

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/rep.-sestaks-staffers-keep-jumping-ship-2007-09-04.html

Specter is 78 years old and has no discernable policy goals. He wants another term for no other reason that that his ego is bound up with being a Senator. I dont trust him worth a damn and certainly don't want to hand him another six years of waffling, this time under the Democratic banner. I really hope Sestak will challenge him.

Every time something like Specter's move happens it strengthens the argument of people who say, "there's no difference between the parties, politicians are all the same." That's not always true, but Specter, Traitor Joe and others who switch with the wind make that claim harder to refute.

Sestak's shot at Specter comes amid grassroots grumbling that the deal Democratic leaders struck to get Specter to defect from the GOP cost the party a shot at putting a real liberal in the seat in 2010.

The Democratic party is not and has never really been liberal. It has had a few liberals and progressives in it from time to time. But as a whole the party has never really been liberal. Think of how much resistance it initially gave to civil rights, ending the Vietnam War, how hawkish it has always been and that more than a few of it's members became what we currently refer to as neo-cons.

Ten degrees left of center when times are good. Ten degrees right of center when it effects them personally

C

I think we are jumping the gun here:

Putting pressure on Spector is wise. He can't vote with the GOP and expect support in a Dem primary. PA voters are trending blue, and Spector better vote with them or else.

But *if* he holds up his end of the bargain, he would be stronger against Ridge.

"Carrots and sticks", not "sticks and sticks".

The people who want to kick Spector out immediately without seeing how he'll vote are acting a little like the GOP and their unhinged loathing/purging of moderates.

I know this isn't as fun a position as joining in the Two Minutes Hate of Spector, but it is the wise one. What do we have to lose???

1) We get Spector's vote more often than not from 2009-2010
2) We keep the threat of a challenge to keep him in line
3) We look like a moderate, big tent, mature party, in contrast to the GOP purgers

Or we can blow it by tipping our hand, forecasting to Spector "we'll kick you out regardless" so we lose leverage and he starts acting like a Lieberman, we lose a 60th vote on key legislation ....

A couple of points:
First, Specter can't win in Pennsylvania without labor. Period. Specter cannot get the support of labor with his current position on health care reform and especially on EFCA.
Second, the establishment Democrats and the traditional media had nominated Hillary Clinton a good couple of years before the actual primaries began and had her annointed as the Democratic candidate all the way up to past the halfway point in the primaries.
Third, it's worth mentioning that the netroots and individual donors not only funded Obama but broke all records doing it.
Let them annoint dear old Arlen if they wish. If, (and when), he pisses Progressives off enough to push Sestak into the Democratic primary, we will be pissed, primed and ready to fund him against Specter.

I agree with the wait and see approach for Specter AND Sestak. I think it's great that Sestak is applying pressure of Specter to move left. If he does, great, Sestak remains in the house until the next cycle, then runs for the Senate as an even stronger candidate. If Specter doesn't fall in line and instead undermines Obama's agenda, it will be easy for Obama, Rengell and Biden to pull their support and back Sestak. Something for now, something for later.

"Benedict Arnold" is pretty harsh. I'd suggest he dial it back.

Right on! Specter is a poison-bill. Take him in and you'll find yourself supporting all sorts of conservative lunacies, first-for-it-against-it diatribes and an ego way out of proportion to what the man actually delivers. Let him go quietly into the night!

"whether he'd been on the receiving end of establishment pressure"

Interestingly: Support for Specter does not entail pressure against other candidates. This would be a nice fine line for Obama. Did anyone besides Obama offer "full support" and if so, were there any conditions, explicit or implicit?

Ben Nelson is all the conservative Dems need. Although, I still think it was a master stroke to take Arlen in and let him switch parties. It will only be harmful if they really support him in 2010 rather than an actual Dem. Although, I don't think he or Tom Ridge could beat Sestak if he decides to run!

No discernable policy goals? On the same day he announces he is switching parties, he introduces legislation in the Senate to create a $1 billion dollar agency to speed biomedical discoveries into therapies. Maybe the survival he is concerned with is as much personal as it is political. I'll admit I wish he stayed off of the Sunday shows (The SNL make-up guy is probably experimenting with latex jowls at this point) but cut the guy a break. Rather than standing with the Republicans and playing chicken with the prospect of a global depression he votes with the Democrats. At this point he knows he is so damaged with the RePubs that he switches parties to ensure he can broker both universal health care and true medical advancement for Americans diagnosed with cancer. Wow - working to avert a depression and trying to offer hope to millions of Americans - what a jerk!

Real Democrats should never forgive Spectors role in covering up the conspiracy in the Kennedy Assassination.

His groundwork probably was instrumental in facilitating both the Nixon and both Bush presidencies.

"The Single-Bullet Theory (or Magic-Bullet Theory, as it is commonly called by its critics) was introduced by the Warren Commission to explain how three shots made by Lee Harvey Oswald resulted in the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy. The theory, generally credited to Warren Commission staffer Arlen Specter[1] (now a U.S. Senator), posits that a single bullet, known as "Warren Commission Exhibit 399" (also known as "CE399"), caused all of the non-fatal wounds in both President Kennedy and Texas Governor John Connally. (The fatal head wound to the President was caused by a bullet other than this alleged "Single Bullet").

According to the single-bullet theory, a one-inch-long copper-jacketed lead-core 6.5-millimeter rifle bullet fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository passed through President Kennedy’s neck and Governor Connally’s chest and wrist and embedded itself in the Governor’s thigh. If so, this bullet traversed 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, and approximately 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone. The bullet that is supposed to have done all this damage was found on a stretcher in the corridor at the Parkland Memorial Hospital, in Dallas, after the assassination. The Warren Commission found that this stretcher was the one that had been used by Governor Connally.[2] This bullet became a key Commission exhibit, identified as CE399. Its copper jacket was completely intact. While the bullet's nose appeared normal, the tail was compressed laterally on one side.

In its conclusion, the Warren Commission found "persuasive evidence from the experts" that a single bullet caused the President's neck wound and all the wounds in Governor Connally...."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_bullet_theory