Arlen Specter: Sestak ready to challenge

by Mark Silva

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania acknowledged that his chances of claming his own party's nomination for reelection next year were "bleak'' when he announced recently that he was moving back to the Democratic Party -- which he had left as a much younger man, before five terms in the Senate.

But now Specter can count on a challenge within his newly readopted party as well: Philadelphia-area Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat and retired admiiral who was only recently elected to Congress, said today that he intends to seek the party's Senate nomination.

"I personally have made a decision that I intend to get in this race, with one other item,'' Sestak said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer this evening. "I haven't sat down and had the time to sit down with my 8-year-old daughter or my wife to make sure that we are all ready to get in,'' Sestak said of the one remaining wrinkle.

"And I say that, if you don't mind, because when I got in this after getting out of the military 31 years in the first race two years ago, my daughter had a brain tumor,'' Sestak said. "And we needed to make sure we were getting in this to pay back for this great health care we have been given, together, as a unit. And so that's where the final decision will be made, with us as a nuclear family.''

The fact that the White House already has lent its endorsement to Specter's reelection bid as a Democrat next year will not dissuade Sestak, he maintains. Sestak supported Democrat Hillary Clinton over President Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania primary elections (Sestak and Clinton are pictured in a file photo above from the AP).

One potentially strong Republican contender, former Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, has decided not to seek the Senate seat.

"I was disappointed that the Washington political establishment had decided to anoint someone for Pennsylvanians,'' said Sestak, who had indicated before that he was "inclined'' to run. "And so I said I would wait and listen.

"And I've spent the last weeks going around Pennsylvania to see if others felt like me,'' he said. "I heard two things. One is, 'Joe, we'll make the decision. You should get in.' Number two is very similar... 'Arlen's got a lot, after four or five decades, of connections and money, so don't get in, no.'''

The White House has not asked him to sit it out, Sestak said, and, while the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, has called him, they haven't had a chance to talk about it.
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"I'm pretty low on the totem pole,'' Sestak said of the Obama administration's concerns. "And they're fighting two wars overseas and one here at home.''

"But this is about us Pennsylvanians,'' Sestak said today. "And we need health care, not just in this next year, but through 2016. And that next four to six years, for my Pennsylvanians and for my daughter and for me, are very important to make sure that whoever is carrying the mantle of leadership forward is someone who will be with us consistently in this fight for the right issues.''

Here, courtesy of CNN, is a transcript of the rest of the talk:

BLITZER: When you spoke to our John King on "STATE OF THE UNION" a few weeks ago, you weren't sure that Arlen Specter is a Democrat.

Are you convinced he's a Democrat now?

SESTAK: I don't think that a D next to your name makes you a
Democrat. But I actually think there's something more important. Arlen
has done some good things in the past. This is about the future,
though, and not the status quo or the past. It's whether Arlen will
fight for the right issues, Democrat or Republican. He derailed --
helped derail health care plans without an alternative in the '90s.

Maybe he's changed, but I'm not sure we can take that chance. And
so that's why I'm not sure he's for, more importantly, the right issues,
Wolf. And that is -- I haven't -- I haven't heard at all from him, out
there in the public, that is. And I honestly believe that when you look
someone in the eye to see the cut of their gib (ph), we have to ask the
question -- will he be with the right policies that our president
presently has put out there to retool our economy in health care and
education through 2016?

There's too much doubt in my mind not to have the intent right now to get in this race, pending just a little bit of time with my family to
make sure we're all together. Like the military, it's going to be a
deployment for a period of time.

BLITZER: All right. Congressman Sestak is a retired U.S. admiral,
so he knows something about the U.S. military.

Thanks very much, Congressman...

SESTAK: Thanks...

BLITZER: ...for joining us.

SESTAK: Wolf, thanks for having me.