Joe Sestak

THIS CAMPAIGN season has been one of extremes: extreme candidates making extreme claims about what's wrong with the country and how to fix it. To us, the most extreme claim is that the government had no business spending $787 billion on the Recovery Act when the free market would have done a better job correcting the economic meltdown. Especially since the free, unregulated market helped cause the meltdown, triggered by banks that pushed toxic mortgages and then sold them bundled as securities.

SCRANTON - Former President Bill Clinton's signature campaign song was always "Don't Stop" (thinkin' about tomorrow) by Fleetwood Mac, and, on cue, the anthem blasted off the walls of the Scranton High School gym Tuesday as he campaigned for Democratic Senate nominee Joe Sestak. But mostly Clinton wanted to talk about yesterday - the budget surplus and 20 million jobs created under his administration. It makes no sense to elect Republicans whose policies created the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression because the Democrats have not fixed it yet, Clinton argued.

A heated dispute around Rep. Joe Sestak's Navy record has become a central issue in his Democratic primary Senate race against incumbent Arlen Specter. The best way for Sestak to resolve the issue would be for him to release his Navy records. The dispute centers on an ad by Specter's campaign that said Sestak was relieved of his post as chief of planning for the Navy because he created a "poor command climate. " That's according to a 2005 Navy Times article cited by the TV ad. Pentagon sources have confirmed the Navy Times report to multiple news organizations.

Pa. Seventh District Historically Republican, the district covering most of Delaware and parts of Chester and Montgomery Counties voted Democratic in the last three presidential elections. The Case for Sestak Retired admiral, U.S. Navy Democrat, 54 Wallingford This seat, held by Weldon for 20 years, is ripe for a change. Sestak, a career naval officer, is a political novice - and it shows. But he's benefited from the mounting ethical woes of the GOP majority on Capitol Hill, including Weldon's.

Last week, Sen. Arlen Specter's campaign bought thousands of ad minutes on Philadelphia black-oriented radio stations to air a clip of President Obama's praising him. And Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins made robo-calls to city Democratic voters saying that Specter has "proven he's on our team" by supporting the economic-stimulus and health-care overhaul. For Specter, surviving the Democratic Senate primary against Rep. Joe Sestak may well come down to his hometown, the city that launched his long political career in 1965, when he was elected district attorney - as a Republican.

In a response to President Bush's weekly radio address yesterday, Democratic congressional candidate Joe Sestak urged the Bush administration to "speak honestly" about the true cost of the war in Iraq. "For the cost of two days in Iraq we could screen 100 percent of all air cargo on passenger planes," said Sestak, a retired Navy admiral who is mounting a serious challenge to U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) Sestak returned to his hometown of Springfield, Delaware County, in January after earning three stars and serving tours of duty in the White House and Pentagon.

Labeling himself an underdog in an increasingly bitter race, U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) mounted a furious attack on Democratic opponent Joe Sestak in the pair's final debate yesterday. "My opponent can throw out all the crap he wants about my kids, but in the end, the people of this district will decide," Weldon told a mostly friendly audience at the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce event. The FBI is probing whether Weldon helped his daughter Karen and friend Charles P. Sexton Jr. land $1 million in contracts from a Russian energy firm and a Serbian family with ties to Slobodan Milosevic.

ARLEN Specter lost my vote when he ran an ad against Joe Sestak's military record, especially since he never served in the military. Also, no one is owed a government job forever. Specter has been feeding at the trough long enough. Give someone else a chance. J.W. Daniels, Philadelphia Arlen "Single-bullet" Specter lost. Now the real Democrats may thank their lucky stars. Mark. A. Vare, Philadelphia

In the Senate race, we endorse Joe Sestak for his support of key issues like: Sestak's military background adds strength to his arguments, made during Friday's debate, for banning assault weapons; Toomey's self-described (and contempible) view of gun contro l is "a steady aim. " Sestak believes the stimulus bil l should have been bigger; Toomey believes the free market would have corrected the economic meltdown. Sestak supports tax cuts for the middle class; Toomey supports making high income-tax cuts permanent.

It was the duel in Delco, the have-it-out in Havertown. Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, the Republican seeking to become the state's next U.S. senator, gathered a dozen supporters in Havertown yesterday to assail the voting record of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, his Democratic opponent in the Nov. 2 general election. Sestak, who represents Delaware County, sent 40 supporters to stand outside the event, waving signs accusing Toomey, who used to represent the Lehigh Valley, of being "R-Wall Street.

THE LONGER the insanity (doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result) plays out in Washington, the saner Pat Toomey sounds. And as the freshman Republican in his third Senate year emerges as a leading voice on money matters, the better he looks. Why? Toomey is controlled, concise and sounds sensible. Contrast that with the angry-older-GOP of Mitch McConnell, John McCain and John Boehner. It's a contrast. With multiple polls putting congressional Republicans' job-approval ratings at 19 to 25 percent and President Obama's at 49 to 55 percent, it's a contrast Republicans should note.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz has hired the state party's finance director for her own political operation, an indication the longtime congresswoman is seriously thinking about a run for the nomination to take on Gov. Corbett in 2014. Aubrey Montgomery, whose fund-raising is credited with putting Pennsylvania Democrats on a sound fiscal footing, informed her colleagues she was leaving in an e-mail Wednesday night. "While my time as a PA Dems staff member will be coming to an end, my commitment to the operation we've built, and the reputation we've earned, will continue as I move into this new role," Montgomery wrote.

By Harold I. Gullan Much about the compelling 2010 race for one of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats could inform both of the current presidential campaigns. Among its lessons: Define your opponent: Republican Pat Toomey, the eventual winner, successfully did so. By investing much of his advertising budget early, Toomey branded Democratic nominee Joe Sestak as "too liberal" for Pennsylvania before Sestak could brand Toomey as "too conservative," putting Sestak on the defensive.

  So who's the real Republican running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate? Pennsylvania GOP voters are being hit with that question as two of the candidates in the April 24 primary bash each other for past associations with the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates. It's a charge of heresy that could resonate with Republican primary voters in a year when, analysts say, those voters seem more than ever to be seeking ideological purity. Candidate Steve Welch, a Chester County venture capitalist, has been on the offensive against rival Tom Smith of Western Pennsylvania, a former coal-mine owner who was a Democrat for decades and switched parties last year before starting his Senate campaign.

Arlen Specter, who turns 82 on Feb. 12, played a significant role in the American politics of a past generation, and he doesn't want us to forget. That, essentially, is the purpose of the former U.S. senator's new memoir - that and decrying "intolerance and political correctness" in Washington, dallying a bit in gossip (he recounts hearing a penis joke or two), and settling a few old scores. He recalls every triumph and every slight, particularly a snub from President Obama during his failed 2010 effort to win nomination for a sixth term.

In Delaware County, where Republicans have had a 32-year lock on county government, the question this year is whether Democrats can loosen that stranglehold. Up for grabs are three out of five County Council seats, the office of district attorney, and five Court of Common Pleas judgeships. Though it has held sway in Delaware County for decades, the GOP has seen its base slip dramatically over time, from 78 percent of registered voters in 1970 to 45 percent this year, just two percentage points ahead of the Democrats.

Straight-shooting, brash-talking, big of heart, deep of pocket, Joey Vento was a complicated simple guy who embraced America-first politics, hard work, homeless families, and Elton John. A self-made millionaire, Vento built up Geno's, his loud and proud cheesesteak business, from a dilapidated shop on the wedged corner of Ninth and Passyunk, a few blocks from his childhood home. When he died Tuesday at 71, at home in bed, having beaten back colon cancer but losing to a massive heart attack, he left the legacy of a man who didn't waste time worrying about nuance or consistency or whatever other people might think of him. He gained a national reputation for his famous sign asking patrons to order in English, and cannily fed his image as a commonsense voice of red-blooded Americans.

After being enticed to run by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2009, Joe Sestak was then urged to exit the race by the White House, the governor, and virtually every political boss in Pennsylvania to make way for Arlen Specter, the 30-year Washington veteran and recovering Republican. Perhaps they had forgotten Sestak had been a three-star admiral. The pace was numbing. Between January and the May 18 primary, the Delaware County congressman made 652 campaign appearances.

It spent more than $2 million on Pennsylvania's Sestak-Toomey race for U.S. Senate, and the Republican it backed, Pat Toomey, won. It staged an elections blitz, nationally, that was part of a vow to spend "significantly more" than the $36 million it put out to back candidates in congressional midterms two years earlier, in 2008. And along the way, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ruffled the feathers of a few of its members with the aggressive tactics. It left some local chambers fielding awkward calls and questions from businesses unhappy with the national group's work, which focused primarily on GOP candidates.

Those numbers from Philadelphia did not look good at all, and a ripple of alarm went through the war room late Tuesday. More Democrats than forecast had turned out to vote in the city, so aides to Republican U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey reworked their spreadsheets, looking for the path to victory. At 10 p.m., Democrat Joe Sestak was holding a sizable lead in the closely watched contest - until, bit by bit, Republican areas reported in with better margins than the Toomey team could have hoped.