Pennsylvania Democrats Want A Primary, Not An Anointment

Despite the blandishments and siren song of Democratic Party hacks Ed Rendell and Joe "I used to live in Scranton" Biden, registered Democrats in Pennsylvania would prefer to make up their own minds about who the party's nominee for the U.S. Senate should be. As Chris Bowers at OpenLeft pointed out yesterday, "only 28% of Pennsylvania Democrats would prefer an uncontested primary for Senate next year," which is what Rendell and Biden are pushing. 63% feel certain that the democratic process will be better served-- as will the Democratic Party-- if Republican-turned-Democratish Arlen Specter has to justify to them in a primary why he should get the party's nomination.

Our old friend Joe Sestak intends to make certain the Democratic voters get a vigorous primary battle-- despite promises from Biden, Rendell (and his machine), Harry Reid and even Barack Obama to campaign for Specter and participate in hoodwinking voters into believing he's now a Democrat.

Last night Chris Matthews discussed the Sotormayor confirmation battle with MSNBC's resident crazy old white male racist guy, Pat Buchanan, and despite a brand new poll showing only 28% of Americans oppose Sotomayor's confirmation, the racist claimed that not one single Republican would vote for her. An anonymous, and more realistic, Republican senator on the Judiciary Committee-- probably Chuck Grassley or Orrin Hatch-- predicted to The Hill late yesterday that she will be confirmed with as many as 15 GOP votes. Certainly Specter will be a "yes" vote. But do Pennsylvania Democrats want their senator working behind the scenes-- and working with the lobbyists who have bankrolled his career-- to water down all the important legislative approaches that differentiate the party that supports working families from the party that supports special corporate interests? Concerned Pennsylvania Democrats are keeping careful-- and transparent-- track of how Specter votes on important issues.

Sestak knows that Specter has been a captive of the banking interests and medical-industrial complex for years and years, "It's whether Arlen will fight for the right issues-- Democrat or Republican. He 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... We have to ask the question, ‘Will he be with the right policy that our president presently has put out there to retool our economy and health care and education through 2016.’... I don't think that a "D" next to your name makes you a Democrat." Watch him on CNN: