PA-Sen: More Hypocrisy from Arlen Specter

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One of recent Republican Arlen Specter's weak but frequent lines of attack against Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak is that Congressman Sestak has missed a handful of votes in the House. Now, given the hundreds of procedural and substantive votes, most Representatives miss some votes here and there. Still, Congressman Sestak's 94% attendance record in 2008, for instance, is very strong. Nevertheless, Specter has, over and over again, harped on Congressman Sestak's attendance record.

August 4, on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:

Specter, on Sestak: "He's missed 105 votes; worst record of any Pennsylvania member of the House of Representatives. He's AWOL, been absent without leave. If he were still in the Navy, he would be court martialed. Now he wants to be promoted. How can you be promoted with a voting record like that?

August 9, on CNN's State of the Union with John King:

''He talks about his military record. If he was still in the service, he would be a court martial, and he's been AWOL,'' Specter, appearing on CNN, said of Sestak, who has missed 15 percent of votes in 2009, ranking him 10th among the chamber's 434 members.

So apparently Specter thinks missing work, even to meet with constituents, is bad. OK, fine. Then how does Specter justify this?

Coaxing Arlen Specter into switching parties and running for re-election as a Democrat was a major coup for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is bending the Senate's schedule to accommodate a presidential fundraiser for Specter Tuesday afternoon in Pennsylvania.

Reid announced Friday that the Senate would hold no votes after 3 p.m. Tuesday. His office later said that the scheduling decision was meant to accommodate a long-planned fundraiser that President Obama is headlining in Philadelphia to benefit Specter's campaign.

The move could delay efforts to finish work on the fiscal 2010 transportation spending bill, which the Senate began considering Thursday.

Because of Specter's fundraiser, the entire U.S. Senate is shutting down Tuesday afternoon, delaying important transportation legislation. After spending over a month weakly misleading voters on Congressman Sestak's attendance record, Specter is getting the principal to close the entire school early one afternoon to accommodate his political campaign. Just more hypocrisy from Arlen Specter. Hey, Arlen, for an encore in hypocrisy and dishonesty, why don't you create a website that looks like it's raising money for cancer research but actually sends all contributions right into your campaign coffers? Oh, right, you already did that.

http://www.senateguru.com/diary/1070/pasen-more-hypocrisy-from-arlen-specter

[burning rain]

1. I recall that "Hardball" interview.

After castigating Sestak, Specter called him "a fine congressman" and said, "He should stay in the House!" Arse! Needless to say, I'll be voting for Sestak in the primary. He was also polling better against Toomey than was Specter, last I saw.

[invictus]

2. K&R

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3. "the entire U.S. Senate is shutting down Tuesday afternoon" because of Specter

and Obama.

(I think you should have bolded that line so people could jump to the point - lots of folks don't read whole paragraphs)

I strongly support Obama but on this I DO NOT understand.