Where did I hear this before? [Archive] - Ron Paul Forums / Liberty Forest

Tabby

08-15-2009, 04:59 AM

? Are we not allowed to quote text on this forum anymore? I come here to read, not for links.

Specter in Pittsburgh: ‘I put my neck on the line’

By Thomas Fitzgerald
Inquirer Staff Writer

PITTSBURGH – Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) told a wary audience today at the Netroots Nation convention of liberal bloggers and activists that he is the only Democrat vigorously defending President Obama's plans to overhaul the health care system before hostile crowds.

He spoke just before his primary challenger, Rep. Joe Sestak, took the stage to make his pitch and answer questions in a back-to-back bid for the influential ears of several hundred bloggers attending from around the nation.

"I carried the president's message," said Specter, who switched from the Republican Party in the spring and is seeking reelection to a sixth term in his new party. "I put my neck on the line."

Specter had just come off the road from four town-hall meetings during which angry protesters jeered and shouted him down about health care.

At the core of his candidacy, Sestak has argued that he is a true Democrat, that Specter cannot be trusted to vote the party's principles and that he enabled some of the worst policies of Republican President George W. Bush. Sestak also says he resents the party's establishment decreeing that convert Specter should be the Democratic nominee for senate.

"President Obama was not elected ... because of political calculation, because the establishment blessed him," Sestak told the group, making the sign of the cross in the air as he sought to align himself with the arc of Obama's political career. "He did it because of audacity. He's there because he took on the issues that were large, he tackled them."

National bloggers were among the earliest supporters egging Sestak on to challenge Specter.

Sestak said he was "150 percent behind" including an option for a public health-insurance plan to compete with private insurers in health care reform. "It's an economic necessity," he said. "Here you sit in Pennsylvania with two insurance companies . . . having 70 percent of the market. It's a cartel."

He took a shot at Specter, noting that Specter said in early May on "Meet the Press" that he opposed the public-option proposal and now says he is for it.

Asked by a moderator why liberal activists should trust him as a former Republican, Specter said, "I have a record of candor and honesty." He dismissed a study done by blogger and statistician Nate Silver that showed his Democratic party-line votes have increased dramatically since the Sestak challenge emerged.

"I'm not trimming my sails," Specter said. "I'll defend each of my votes one by one. I don't believe in these statistical generalizations."