WaPo's E.J. Dionne
tries to prop up Joe Sestak from Inside the Beltway. Somehow he hopes Pa. voters will confuse Pat Toomey with Christine "I'm not a Witch" O'Donnell. Maybe they will. What can you expect from people who cling to their religions and guns and hatred for people not like themselves. Or so seems to go the thinking of some liberals these days.
Dionne writes:
You might also imagine, from all the times he cites it, that Sestak's favorite book is Toomey's 2009 supply-side manifesto, "The Road to Prosperity," which endorses private accounts for Social Security and a moratorium on all corporate taxes.
"Congressman Toomey is not a witch," Sestak loves to say, "but his book is very scary."
Ha! As if Joe Sestak has bothered to read Toomey's book, much less understand it. It's obvious he's had some staffer comb through it for anything that his campaign believes can be used to scare voters. During a meeting with the Daily Times Editorial Board, Joe cited Toomey's use of the phrase "creative destruction" when it comes to jobs. Ooooh.
When I pointed out to him that wasn't Toomey's phrase, it was economist Joseph Schumpeter's to explain how a modern industrial economy works, Sestak was mystified. "No, it's in (Toomey's) book," he said. What's scarier? Pat's book or Joe's ignorance?
A Sestak victory would be an especially powerful tonic for progressives because the former admiral has been brave in supporting trials for the Guantanamo detainees...
Dionne is either being evasive here or dumb.
Everyone supports trials for Guantanomo detainees, just not civilian trials. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is a foreign terrorist captured on foreign soil and responsible for planning the 9/11 attacks. Sestak supported trying him in Pennsylvania, of all places. KSM should be tried in a military court. As ads for Toomey have pointed out, neither Ed Rendell, Bob Casey or Arlen Specter believe in civilians trials for foreign terrorists. Just Joe. It's not only unnecessary and stupid, it's dangerous. No wonder progressives want it.
If Joe wins next week, and he's still behind in the polls, it won't be because of "brave" stance on where to try terrorists. It will be in spite of it.
What comes across when you talk with Sestak is an utter lack of defensiveness. Democrats, he says, "should be proud of what they've done."
Lack of defensiveness. Hmm. He told us voting for the stimulus made him "sick." No wonder he didn't sound defensive to Dionne. He was talking to a like-minded liberal, and one that slurps up junk like this:
"You don't run a ship from the bridge," he says. "You run it from the boiler room." Leaders, he says, need to persuade voters "that we know who they are."
That might sound good to a Beltway pundit but it's complete baloney. Ship captains do run their ships from the bridge, not from the boiler room. The idea that as an admiral, Sestak spent most of his hours below deck making sure the boiler worked is patently ridiculous. And only a progressive could buy such bilge.
