Democracy Has Prevailed.

April 21, 2010

More On Arlen's Attack Ad

Yesterday the OPJ wrote about a blogpost at Potter's Slag Heap.

Potter's post described a new attack ad by Arlen Specter:
Not for nothing is Arlen Specter known as a fierce campaigner. This morning, I caught his latest attack ad (viewable here) on Democratic rival Joe Sestak.

The ad refers to Sestak as "No-Show Joe," citing some 127 votes he's missed in Congress. (Team Specter has even helpfully crafted a Web site on the matter.) It also attacks Sestak at the very heart of his campaign -- by challenging his military service.

Specter's ad notes that Sestak, a three-star admiral in the U.S. Navy, was removed from a command post for creating a "poor command climate."
It is a pretty sleazy attack, if you ask me.

In any event, with a little digging, we find a little more to this story. From a blog at the NYTimes, we find a link to this piece at the Philadelphia Inquirer where we read:
In 2001, as a two-star admiral, he was assigned by his mentor Adm. Vern Clark, the top officer in the Navy at the time, to revamp the Navy for the future. Clark and Sestak believed in a more nimble, sleeker Navy to fight terrorism. Sestak scoured the budgets and proposed deep cuts to the fleet, using computer technology to link fewer ships more effectively.

The plans struck fear around the E-Ring, where Sestak was also earning a reputation for driving his 100-member planning staff hard. He would show up sometimes at 4 a.m. and stay until 9 or 10 p.m. He was infamous for calling staff meetings at 9 p.m. on Friday and demanding that everyone return by 10 a.m. Saturday.

In July 2005, Adm. Mike Mullen, now Obama's Joint Chiefs chairman, took over as the chief of naval operations and, on his first day, relieved Sestak of his post, citing "poor command climate."

Clark, in an interview, said he now worries he did not do enough to protect his protege.

"He did what I asked him to do; I wanted straight talk, and this put him in the crosshairs," Clark said. "People are going to say what they want to say, but he challenged people who did not want to be challenged. The guy is courageous, a patriot's patriot."

Indeed, the Navy is slowly moving toward a smaller fleet, as Clark and Sestak envisioned.
That's what was meant by "poor command climate" I guess.

Arlen's a sleaze - there, I said it.

4 comments:

Clyde Wynant said...

The old canard; "_______ didn't show up for x-number of votes" is dragged out each election season. It is, in most cases, a pretty meaningless stat. Most people have no idea how many essentially boilerplate votes are taken each year, and how little it matters if one Congressman or another is there or not -- but that doesn't stop the consultants from crafting commercials like this... I just wish people would learn better, but sigh, I don't see it happening.

And yea, I agree about Arlen....

Social Justice NPC Anti-Paladin™ said...

Specter is wrong about Sestak's
Rank.
Of course Sestak misleads people about his former rank he was a Vice Admiral but retired as a Rear Admiral because he did not have enough time in rank.
Joe, you got fired because of the way you treated your Staff (AKA Command Climate)
a bunch of Beltway spin Crap. Joe Sestak, RADM USN (Ret.) {that is two stars}was fired by the then CNO now CJCS because he ran his shop exactly opposite to "military tradition." He chewed up and spit out good people to the point that he was a detriment to good order and discipline, a veritable hazard to navigation in even the galley slave environment of The Pentagon.
That said I hope Sestak wins because he is a gun grabber and will be easier to beat in the General election.

Blue Number 2 said...

Stay classy Arlen.

Specter will lose to Toomey if he wins the primary.

Joshua said...

I got my own reasons for voting against Sestak if I were registered in PA, but Arlen is making it really hard on me. Maybe a pox on both their houses. Then again, I am grateful for Arlen championing NIH funding, so maybe a lesser pox on his house.