Wonkette
Catfight, Pennsylvania-style! Several months ago, Arlen Specter made the very principled and selfless decision to switch parties so as to avoid an ugly primary battle with a “real Republican,” which is to say, a vicious and crazed wingnut who would win the GOP nomination and then lose the election to any Democratic candidate short of a goat. It was the perfect plan: Specter could stay in the Senate, as Democrat, as long as nobody ran against him in that party’s primary.
But a fellow named Democratic Representative Joe Sestak decided to gum up the works and has just been a bitch to Specter, all the time. Here is a recent exchange from their ungentlemanly feud:
“Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress,” Specter said in the statement. “His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process.”
To which Sestak responded:
“We’ve learned today that Arlen Specter can abandon his party, but he just cant [sic] quit making Republican swift-boat attacks on the integrity of Democrats who served in our military,” Sestak also said in the statement. He added, “My question to Arlen Specter is this: do you regret voting for George Bush and John McCain? Why should Democrats support someone like you who actively campaigned as recently as last year for politicians with values like George W. Bush?”
Ugh. This is going to be Lamont/Lieberman all over again, with poor Joe Sestak stuck riding the bus with the rabble in a few years.
Specter: Sestak a ‘flagrant hypocrite’ [Political Ticker]
Then Arlen Specter sang all eight verses of his new hit country song, “You put me out in Denver cause I wouldn’t suck your dick.”
This, I donated $50 to Sestak, which if you knew my balance sheet, is like ordinary lobbyists paying $4300 for a plate of rosemary chicken and over-steamed vegetables. I would have donated to statewide Democratic candidates in Texas, but why bother when a paper shredder does exactly the same thing without having to go on someone’s mailing list?
P.S. Not explicitly stated in your mini-story is the fact that Sestak avoided registration as a 35-year veteran of the armed forces, like Colin “Blow” Powell.
I just felt my 8th grade teacher smacking me in the back of my head reading Sestak’s respons
Not only does he use a contraction in formal writing, he lacks the common decency to throw in an apostrophe.
Does this man have no shame? [sic]
Sleestak v. Grumpy?
Cha-Ka no like.
If Specter, the serial adulterer of party affiliation, is criticizing someone for his own shortcoming, this can only mean one thing: he’s gonna switch again.
“But a fellow named Democratic Representative Joe Sestak”
What kind of parents would name their kid Democratic?
Uma Thurmon would wipe the floor against “S.P.E.C.T.O.R.”.
Sestak didn’t register as a Dem until 2006? Ummm, Arlen, you were a fucking Republican senator until this year.
I’m as liberal as you can get and I’m registered NPA because I don’t want to be on their god-fucking-awful mailing lists. Sestak would earn my deepest respect if he had claimed the same reason.
Sestak? Wasn’t that the name of the bad guy monsters in “Land of the Lost”?
CollegeStudent: Also, Shitsack (or whatever his name is) failed to form George W. Bush as a possessive (Bush’s) which makes more sense in context.
These jackasses who believe that English should be the official language of the United States should write in it. Wake up, you morans! [sic]
All of that rhetoric, when a simple “fuck you motherfucker” would have sufficed…
I think GOP voters in PA might go for a goat but not unless it was the GOP candidate.
zenferret: The kind of parents that would send their kid to Harvard Business for a postponed period of rebellion and generational angst? That kind.
All of which reminds one of young Hillary Rodham seeking out more ecstatic modes of being (just like everyone else):
http://tinyurl.com/lu6dkn
Specter wants to be backed by Dems but vote with Repigs. We already have enough of those people.
I can haz polytikle parti kung-foo fyghtin?
With a name like Joe Sestak, he should be peddling useless crap on TV at 3am.
“You, kid, get off my lawn”
“STFU I’m a veteran and you voted for Bush”
After the Great Moon War and the failed candidacy of Admiral Wurzelbacher, they will have to modernize the term “swift-boating” to “space-cruisering”.
Sestak: 5000
Spector: 0
I’m as liberal as you can get and I’m registered NPA because I don’t want to be on their god-fucking-awful mailing lists.
D.I.T.T.O. I live in San Francisco and I’m seriously thinking of registering as a Republican just to give my mail box and answering machine a break. Not to mention the 100 emails a day begging for money. Enough already. Besides, if I register Repub but vote Dem, that’s really got to screw up their demographic.
DangerousLiberal: Strunk/White 2012.
Hmm, it seems that the “Sleestak” jokes have already been made.
Everybody should be glad we have servicemembers who aren’t actively political. Cuz after all, they have all the guns.
norbizness: HaHa. Colon Blow.
Sestak’s from my hometown and even though it’s a conservative district, he was still able to take down the hackalicious Curt Weldon, something for which we should all offer our gratitude to. If he takes down Specter, he will truly be a God amongst men.
CollegeStudent: Ha!
SmutBoffin: Holy crap: Colon Blow is real? I thought Larry David made it up.
Good name for Powell though, that lazy rat bastard who decided he’d rather be comfortable than right.
Sestack vs Spector? I … I just can’t choose.
They are both such honorable, experienced, principled, WHINY LITTLE BITCHES.
It would have been so much cooler if the Sleestaks just ate Will Farrell at the end of the first reel.
SmutBoffin: I had no idea it was a real product now. I was referring to the late 80s/early 90s SNL commercial where it was a cereal that had the fiber of 30,000 bowls of Oat Bran.
CollegeStudent: That would make the “conservative base” even angrier than Obama/Biden. Readin’ and writin’ is for damn libruls.
norbizness: I was looking for the SNL skit at first, but then I went with the (pseudo?-)product on that site.
flushtwice@colonblow.com?
“Poop Pics, Must See”?
Joe Sestak will be the only thing that forces Specter to vote like a Democrat. For that alone, I’m grateful to him. Plus, Joe’s a lot easier on the eyes than Arlen.
Suh-lee-seh-TAKKA!
Wait, if Sestak is like Elwin Tinkletweeburger, then that must mean Spector = Michelle Bachman. Yep, sounds about right to me.
It’s not like Specter WANTED to sign on with the Dems. Miss Lindsey and Miss Orrin kicked him out of their sewing circle because he secretly hearts the scary black man who lives over on Pennsylvania Avenue. But now that he got an autograph and a kiss on the cheek, he wants to go back. Embroidery is more fun than politics and Miss Lindsey knows all the gossip about that bad, bad governor of South Carolina.
Now I’m going to have to give Joe Sleestak some of my monies. We Lizard People will not be denied.
Thankfully, this cannot play out like Lamont/Lieberman, as the Connecticut Republicans were willing to play dead in that one. Here, if Specter tried to go independent, he would still have to run against a Wingnut and God. And God just doesn’t back down like that.
And I do like the guy that left his party of over 40 years calling a guy who didn’t declare his party while in the military a hypocrite for not declaring a party. Next Specter will be blaming Sestak for having Land of the Lost coming out this year to make Sestak sound like a cool name.
norbizness: So, Sestak is a secret Democrat just like Colon Powell? Thank God I have Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to give me insights like this. I had always thought that everyone in the military were Republicans or Gay.
I live in Sestak’s district and the feeling I get is that he’d kick Spector’s ass in this part of the state; it’s the other parts of PA, like the northeast, center and west where he has a name-recognition problem.
CollegeStudent: Infinite grammatical win.
Also, is it too much to expect at least one “Yo Mama” between these two? Oh, Pennsylvania, you continue to disappoint!
“Yeah, well YOU’RE less of a Democrat than I am!”
“I know you are but what am I?”
“I SAID, YOU’RE less of a Democrat than I am!”
“I am rubber, you are glue…”
“MOM!!!!!”
Joe Sestak here, for OxyClean!
Apply for the jobs that are open… loser.
cal: It does seem like it, especially vis-a-vis the Minnesota Lizard People brouhahah. I guess I should’ve checked to see how many previous “Sestak-Sleestak” posts/comments had been made before submitting mine.
Hmm… *boop-dee-boop-bop-CLICK*
Wonkette search > “Sestak/Sleestak” = zero posts
Google search > “Sestak/Sleestak/Wonkette” = one direct hit from here, where there are some related. (Oh, and I made one
here.)
So, a Lizard Person challenges a nearly-extinct dinosaur for the right to represent a state largely populated by unevolved mouth breathers, and we should avoid a joke referencing three of the main characters from Land of the Lost?
I guess it was a little lazy, and too obviously on the nose. Even though it hadn’t exactly already been made…
Anita Cocktail: Sestak is Slovenian. In northeast PA tey loves tem hunkie, polack and uke names. In teh Pittsburgh area, also. In central PA, not even sweet little baby Jesus could get elected if he were a democrat.
As far as Specter is concerned, everyone still thinks of as a Repug.
He was on Andrea Mitchell’s program this afternoon and came off a little too solicitious and infomercial-ly.
I would dub him Rep. Cheese-slacks.
Ugh. This is going to be Lamont/Lieberman all over again, with poor Joe Sestak stuck riding the bus with the rabble in a few years.
Lionel Hutz Esq.: Thankfully, this cannot play out like Lamont/Lieberman…
Actually, Pennsylvannia has a “sore loser” clause that prevents the loser of a primary from running in the general election, so once Sestak takes out Specter, the bastard will be gone forever.
And for anyone who might undecided, keep this in mind: Specter has had three or four positions on the Employee Free Choice Act in the past year. Sestak is a cosponsor of EFCA in the House.
S.Luggo: Don’t forget anti-Semitism. I grew up in the northeast (with a name ending in -ski, even) and nobody does anti-Semitic like my forbears.
the fact that specter backed bush is enough reason for the admiral to take him down.
Hedley Lamar: is there more? .. should I wait??
snideinplainsight: They tested that version. Popcorn sales fell off 18%, so no go.
snarkistani refugee: Not Joe’s fault. That’s the only form of communication Mitchell comprehends.
How progressive of Pennsylvania to have two fierce openly-gay top candidates for the Senate race…especially a former seaman…
S.Luggo: I’m from Western PA and half my school had names like Sestak, Slezak, Slitski, and Slovene. My best friend’s name was Skrinjar. And believe me, when they go to the polls, like goes for like.
I’d hit it.
Spectre vs. Sleestak. Is EVERYTHING a comic-book election now?
Take Specter down!
Independent style…
The American Ruse
I agree with the posters here who say the comparison with this race and the Lieberman/Lamont one is false…
I’ve seen Sestak and he does come off as a little ponderous and not very exciting speaker, but it’s way to early to count him out, even with Rendell and the O machinery behind Specter…if I lived in Pennsylvania, that would be a strong motivator to vote for Sestak.
I predict Sestak will run as a warrior and a man of the people, and he’s got plenty of material that he can use to bash Specter with…
GO JOE! I predict a Sestak win!
Ex Navy and I would not trust Specter one iota. It’s that fucking snake Joe Liberman that me so pissed about this whole party switching, vote changing political system. Crybaby whinny Joe Liberman and cobra venom in the back Arlan Specter tarnish the American political system in the worst possible ways. I may be a bit naive, but neither one of them should be trusted in any position of power.
I’m kind stuck here. Arlan is a republican, but could be forced to vote as a democrat to save his skin. But wait! There’s more. He wants to run as a democrat, but still be able to vote as a republican.
Now I hear that Joe Sestak wants to be a democrat, but vote like a republican. Sorry Joe, but I can’t support you just yet. We have one party traitor now in the form of Max Baucus and we can’t afford another one.
I want to have a man like Joe Sestak on my six, but not if he is going to be the same as Specter.
Got too many already.
S. Luggo: Sestak is actually a Slovak name. Here in the 7th District Joe likes to have summits on various topics. Maybe he can discuss teaching geography at his next education summit.