Arlen Specter vs. Sean Hannity

It’s been a while since we mentioned Arlen Specter here. No longer on the ballot after losing the Democratic primary, the lame-duck senator is, alas, not exactly news fodder for us at pa2010.com Central.

But the Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat had an interesting interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News this week.

Things got heated at times during the 21-minute interview. So we thought we’d flag it for you.

See the video below.

August 4, 2010 at 10:03 am | Comments (3)

The Sestak-as-crazy-campaigner meme returns

Less than a month after he knocked off the state’s greatest political heavyweight, it looks like Democrat Joe Sestak is once again being scrutinized for the fact that he runs with an unorthodox political organization.

During the run-up to the primary, we here at pa2010.com did as much as anyone to advance this storyline, pointing out that he doesn’t technically have a campaign manager and airing skepticism…

June 15, 2010 at 11:15 am | Comments (30)

Sestak still hitting party leaders

Democrat Joe Sestak’s victory in the Senate primary last month doesn’t mean he’s done criticizing his party’s establishment for backing Arlen Specter instead.

Sestak, in an interview on PBS, said it was “wrong” for President Obama and others to back Specter.

“There’s no more kings, there’s no more king makers in America,” Sestak said the “Travis Smiley” show. “And if the Democratic Party should stand for anything when they are trying to get me out…

June 8, 2010 at 2:42 pm | Comments (36)

Lame-duck Specter can still make a difference

When Arlen Specter lost the Democratic primary last week, he joined the growing ranks of lame-duck senators—lawmakers in the country’s most powerful deliberative body who will be out  permanently come 2011.

Specter made a lot of Democratic turns in the last year, promising to be a leader on a whole set of issues still on the president’s agenda for 2010. Many people are wondering if Specter will still deliver. For my part,…

May 27, 2010 at 2:39 pm | Comments (16)

Specter takes Sestak on a lunch date

Any bad blood has been laid to rest—or at least enough so that Arlen Specter can introduce Joe Sestak around.

The New York Times reports that Specter brought the congressman who ousted him last week to the Senate Democrats’ weekly lunch Tuesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid joined other Democratic leaders in rallying behind the man they were working against just days ago.

“He is a man who has spent 31…

May 26, 2010 at 9:50 am | Comments (20)

Rendell loves The Campaign Group—but still hates the ad

PHILADELPHIA—Gov. Ed Rendell sure had a lot to say about The Campaign Group in the days before and after last week’s Senate primary. To any cable pundits that would listen, Rendell would say the Philadelphia-based consulting shop, which counts him as a client, was basically the only reason Joe Sestak stood on the precipice of victory. He would call it “my ad agency,” and say hiring media gurus Neil Oxman, Doc Sweitzer and J.J. Balaban…

May 23, 2010 at 3:36 pm | Comments (18)

Why Specter lost (and Sestak won)

There have been countless postmortems examining the fall of Arlen Specter at the hands of Joe Sestak.

But there’s no such thing as over-analyzing in this business, so here’s our take.

It’s the party, stupid

On the national level (and even on these pages), Specter’s loss has often been interpreted as part of the anti-incumbent wave sweeping the country. While that was likely a factor, the core of what happened was much more simple: Specter…

May 21, 2010 at 5:30 pm | Comments (49)

One more reason Sestak won

We just offered up the latest (and hopefully last) of many Senate primary postmortems. But there’s one more factor worth noting:

Joe Sestak’s campaign press team.

Sure, they weren’t the best, or even that good, at pushing back against emerging narratives and attacks. But if they did one thing exceedingly well, it was at getting their boss media penetration at the local levels in every little corner of Pennsylvania. They had…

May 21, 2010 at 5:21 pm | Comments (21)

Arlen Specter’s perfect storm

The political world watched almost stupefied as the national melodrama played itself out. The pre-primary polls told the startling story while the astonished pols read the increasingly clear tea leaves: Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania’s longest serving U.S. Senator, arguably the state’s most skilled and luckiest politician, was losing. And he was losing to an opponent few had heard of just about a month earlier, losing despite substantial advantages in money and party endorsements, losing despite support…

May 19, 2010 at 4:02 pm | Comments (49)

Toomey to Sestak: Take a vacation

Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey had some congratulatory words for his Democratic opponent Joe Sestak Tuesday night, and some advice, too: Why not take a vacation?

In a video message delivered after Sestak knocked off Senator Arlen Specter, Toomey noted that he and Sestak have debated twice before, share a mutual respect for one another and can offer Pennsylvanians clear choices come November.

“We get along well with each other, we…

May 19, 2010 at 8:43 am | Comments (9)