Big Philadelphia News From Tuesday: PretzelCheeseSteak introduced. Also, Sestak Beats Specter, Trivedi Beats Pike

-by Doug Kahn

Joe Sestak beat Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania Tuesday, and that’s a really good thing for progressive Democrats. I supported Joe when he ran for his House seat (PA-07) in 2006, in the district that includes most of Delaware County.
 
Arlen had been pretty liberal lately, but you can’t think he’d be a reliable Democrat after reelection. Sestak praised his legacy of public service, so just for balance I want to pause to remember we can thank Arlen for saving the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. He did that by eloquently lying about Anita Hill, a former employee of Thomas’ at the EEOC and witness to his unfitness to be a judge at any level.
 
The first house I remember living in is in PA-07, in Rose Valley, PA. My parents had Democratic meetings there, and I remember Kennedy phone banks managed by my father. In January 1961 a neighbor walked by and said they’d just seen my dad on TV, in a crowd scene from the inauguration; actually, he was ten steps away, behind a snow bank trying to shovel out the Mercury. Some of the Delaware County Dems made it to DC on a special Pennsylvania Railroad train that left from Chester. Dad never made it out of the driveway, much less to Chester Station. Until recently, most things haven’t gone right for Democrats in Delaware County, Penna.
 
Next door, the candidate to whom I gave two maximum contributions lost, and I’m relieved. Manan Trivedi beat Doug Pike in the Democratic primary in PA-06, and I think that’s good too, because Manan seems to be reliably progressive. That’s the district that’s next to Sestak’s, where we’ve been trying to pry Jim Gerlach out and just keep missing, time after time. Gerlach’s percentages in his 4 elections, starting in 2002: 51.4, 51.0, 50.6, and 52.1.
 
I have kind of an unhealthy preoccupation with the past, and Doug Pike’s father was someone I admired. Otis Pike was a Republican Congressman from Long Island, NY who, aside from being Howie's congressman when he was in college, ended up running the House investigation of the CIA and the FBI in 1975.
 
The spooks had been spying on all of us commie anti-war nuts, as well as fomenting coups and bumbling assassinations, and Seymour Hersh wrote about it in the New York Times. That was back in the days the Times owners displayed character. You know, before they censored news stories about domestic surveillance for almost a year because Dick Cheney came down and told them to. Before they participated in the destruction of ACORN, before they got into the habit of promoting edited videos. [See Breitbart, also Blumenthal.] 

Congress investigated. The Senate committee was headed by Frank Church, and they managed to get along with the intelligence ‘community’ quite well. They did good work, issued reports. (This is how we ended up with FISA in the first place.) Otis wasn’t exactly charmed, and wouldn’t put up with the lies and arrogance. His staff wrote a scathing report, but the House thought it was too hot, and wouldn’t release it. So somebody leaked it to Daniel Schorr and the Village Voice; Schorr would never say who it was. A hero. 

Last July I met Doug Pike, and imagined a similar person. They sent me the packet he and his campaign put together to take to the DCCC.
 
One of the things it said was this: 

“George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's green light to torture is a dark chapter in American history that weakened U.S. national security. This must never happen again.” 

Pike asked me to look over the issue statements that would go up on his campaign website, make comments from the point of view of a progressive, and I’ve been queasy ever since.
 
On Iraq:

“We must remove our combat troops from Iraq safely and with honor.”  

This was my advice:

“With honor is code which will definitely alienate those who oppose the war, who are dissatisfied with Obama's performance on withdrawal. If you want people my age to think 'Richard Nixon', this'll do it.” 

He didn’t take my advice. (Who does?) And by last August 5, the torture statement had changed to this: 

“[Pike] believes that the Bush Administration?s misguided use of torture has damaged our international standing and diminished our national security, by alienating our allies and emboldening our enemies. These outcomes have made us less safe and must never happen again.”

 
So, torture is ineffective and makes us look bad. This is a case where the absence of certain words is the significant finding. Torture is wrong. I think Manan Trivedi knows that, and says it. And he was and is against our war in Afghanistan. Apparently, this kind of thing sounded good to Democrats back there. Very good news.
 
I wonder if they have pretzels stuffed with scrapple? Just a thought.