Tag: pennsylvania

Specter only beating Sestak only among Democrats who don’t know both.

Nobody loves a traitor.

A little while back Greenberg* Quinlan Rosner put out a poll that showed Specter leading 55-34 over Sestak in the primary. Interestingly, (via DoubleplusUndead, via @JustKarl), one hope for Sestak is apparently that he actually leads Specter among Democrats who know both candidates, 52-44.  The difference is due to the fact that Sestak is only known to about 30% of the PA Dem electorate.

Full disclosure: I don’t care who wins this primary, just as long as it’s won ugly, expensively, and with a lot of promising political careers permanently blighted by petty spite and bitter grudges.  That being said, both candidates have complications:

  • Sestak – more accurately, Sestak’s supporters – are probably assuming that getting his recognition numbers up will not erode his lead among voters aware of both.  That may be justified; on the other hand, most of the voters aware of both are probably also more committed or ideological Democrats.  Assuming Sestak runs, how more moderate and conservative voters will react once they take a good look at him will be interesting to see.
  • Specter’s major problem?  If  you believe this poll, he faces the problem that if he wants to win the primary he has to start voting the Democratic party line on everything.  No more contrary votes for him, which is going to make it problematical when/if he gets out of the primary to face Pat Toomey**.

This is not the primary campaign that the VRWC contemplated happening a year ago, but it’s got its points.  Believe the internals of that poll, and either way Toomey will be facing a candidate that’s going to be squarely identifying himself with a Democrat who’s more palatable to his base than, perhaps, the Pennsylvanian electorate.  And it’ll be interesting to see just how the parties are perceived next year, because even right this second they’re not really all that far apart…

Moe Lane

*Yeah, the same guy that gave Rahm Emanuel free rent while Emanuel was doing DCCC business with his company. And whose wife put up that legislation designed to gut the organic food industry. What’s your point?

**Who, by the way, comes across as pretty sharp when you talk to him.

Crossposted to RedState.

PA Assassination Ad noticed, yanked, continues to loom over publishers’ heads.

That last part?  Deservedly so.  I first heard of this story yesterday, via Tapper.  While the subject matter itself is easily the most appalling part, I would like to note for the record (like Glenn Reynolds) that it’s not exactly comforting to know that we have historical illiterates running our newspapers.

Personally, I hope that the current President follows in the steps of J.Q. Adams, Van Buren, Hayes, and Taft.

Moe Lane

PS: Welcome to our world.  It was a fun eight years, let me tell you.  Real knee-slapping, in that special ‘root canal without anesthetic’ sort of way.

Crossposted to RedState.

BREAKING: Feds subpoenaing Visclosky’s office. [UPDATED]

[UPDATE] And welcome, Instapundit readers. What I said below, and I suspect that a few of you may find this upcoming bit of DVD news of interest.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Hot Air readers. And may I say that there’s a part of me that hopes that Pelosi tries to quash this? It’s a lovely time of year for a gutter war.

I was tempted to go with the headline “FEDS RAID VISCLOSKY!” solely to give some of our lurkers acute acid reflux, but really: this is quite good on its own:

Feds subpoena Rep. Visclosky’s offices

Federal law enforcement officials have subpoenaed the congressional and campaign offices of Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) to get information about a former defense lobby firm raided by the FBI, according to Visclosky.

Certain Visclosky employees have also been sent grand jury subpoenas requesting documents related to the PMA Group, a lobby shop with strong ties to the Indiana lawmaker. Visclosky’s former chief of staff, Rich Kaelin, was a high-profile lobbyist at the firm that closed its doors at the end of March.

Continue reading BREAKING: Feds subpoenaing Visclosky’s office. [UPDATED]

Jack Murtha (D-PA) gets a primary opponent.

I was first tipped off to this by the NRCC’s blog: Jack Murtha is going to have a primary opponent. For those who were wondering: Murtha did not have a primary opponent in 2008. Or 2006.  Or 2004*.  You have to go back to 2002 to see the last time that anybody tried to challenge him, in fact.

From the Post-Gazette’s blog:

Today, former naval officer Ryan Bucchianeri announced he would run against Murtha for the Democratic nomination for the 12th District congressional seat next year. The Monongahela native graduated from Ringgold High School in 1993 and then the U.S. Naval Academy, before receiving a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Bucchianeri won’t win the primary, of course – the netroots will be the only ones who might give him the money that he needs to make a successful challenge, and they’ll never support an unapologetic war veteran over a man who calls Marines murderers, particularly when the latter is also a crony of the Speaker of the House.  But that’s all right.  The fact that he’s getting one in the first place tells us that he’s more vulnerable than he’s been.  So we go after him next year.  If that doesn’t work, 2012.  If that doesn’t work, 2014.

Eventually we’ll get him.

Moe Lane

*He didn’t have an opponent in the general election, either.

Crossposted to RedState.

Joe Sestak to challenge Arlen Specter in primary.

It’s not ‘official’, but unless Sestak is sufficiently a practical joker as to send his supporters handwritten phony fund-raising notes, it’s happening. Guess that means that Arlen Specter is going to have to face a tough primary battle after all.

Meanwhile…

Moderate Pa. Republicans warming to Toomey

Moderate Republican leaders have stopped publicly pushing to recruit a less-conservative alternative to front-runner Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, a sign that he has begun to calm concerns about his electability.

Toomey has redoubled efforts to court skeptics in the party establishment in the two weeks since former Gov. Tom Ridge declined to enter the race for the GOP nomination despite the pleadings of prominent moderates.

Karma. It’s what’s for dinner.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Shorter Murtha aide: We’re coming for you, Bill Russell.

Politico reports: John Hugya, Chief of staff for Representative John Murtha (D, PA), threatened his Congressman’s last (and future) electoral opponent on at least two occasions.

John Murtha opponent says aide threatened him

The Republican who challenged Rep. John Murtha in 2008 says a top aide to the embattled Pennsylvania Democrat threatened to have him recalled to active duty in the U.S. Army so he could be court-martialed for engaging in politics while serving in the armed forces.

Bill Russell — who challenged Murtha in 2008 and intends to do so again in 2010 — said Murtha chief of staff John Hugya made the threat during a National Rifle Association event in mid-March.

Ret. Col. Gregory Ritch, a former Army Reserve officer
who served as Russell’s commanding officer, said he heard Hugya make a similar threat in January.

Hugya, who has a bit of a nasty mouth to him – not surprising, given that he works for a politician who likes to call Marines ‘murderers‘ – is probably safe enough from actually being fired and/or censured. This is partially because the comments themselves are the sort of thing that you can get away with saying once, and often twice: as they say, politics ain’t beanbag. More importantly, Murtha is an integral part of Speaker Pelosi’s House machine. She’ll do nothing about this, of course.

You can, though.

Crossposted to RedState.

Murtha’s Nephew under the media microscope.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

When a newspaper is associating pictures like this:

ph2009051103495

……to stories about said politician’s nephew: well, articles like this are almost redundant.

Nephew Mentioned Rep. Murtha in Dealings as Contractor

Robert C. Murtha Jr. has made a sizable living for years working with companies that rely on Pentagon contracts over which his uncle, Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), holds considerable sway.

He has maintained that his uncle played no role in his defense-related work, much of it secured without competition. Newly obtained documents, however, show Robert Murtha mentioning his influential family connection as leverage in his business dealings and holding unusual power with the military. The documents add to mounting questions about Rep. Murtha, whose use of federal earmarks to help favored defense companies and his relationship with a former lobbying firm are under scrutiny by federal investigators.

The visual cue is fairly obvious, after all. Continue reading Murtha’s Nephew under the media microscope.

Arlen Specter desecrates Jack Kemp’s corpse.

I guess that Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) really is happier in his new party:

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

…because he’s certainly picked up from them the trick of using safely dead people to push a partisan talking point. Jack Kemp isn’t even buried yet; and he had nothing to do with the current political situation, you disgusting piece of partisan slime. I don’t expect truly civilized behavior from you anymore, but I did foolishly think that you could be trusted to show more delicacy than a hyena at the passing of a former friend.

Yes, ‘former’ friend. I have liberal friends; if one of them should die before me, I won’t be using his or her death to push the GOP’s agenda. That’s because I’m a decent human being, and you’re not.

In short: thanks for leaving my party. Don’t ever come back.

Moe Lane Continue reading Arlen Specter desecrates Jack Kemp’s corpse.

On the Specter switch.

I have nothing really to add to either this or this, except to note that:

a) I’m not particularly surprised;
b) The Republican primary in PA next year just got a lot more straightforward, while the Democratic one is now going to be significantly less so;
c) The Democrats are rapidly running out of reasons why they can’t pass their hearts’ desires.

And, oh yes:

d) Elections have consequences, and we’re about to have a year and a half of some. Please keep that in mind in November 2010.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.