Not since Kathy Griffin called herself a "celebrity" has someone stretched the truth so far. On Sunday's "MEET THE PRESS", congressman Sestak continues to push that he is a "Washington outsider". David Gregory has no problem in pointing out the conflicting logic of the congressman's political positioning.
MR. GREGORY: All right, we're going to come back to this with our guests in just a moment. I want to take a moment now to turn to Pennsylvania's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, Congressman Joe Sestak.
Congressman, welcome to MEET THE PRESS.
REP. JOE SESTAK (D-PA): Good to be here. Thanks, David.
MR. GREGORY: Nice to have you here. You had a very important victory in Pennsylvania, taking on Senator Arlen Specter, the incumbent, and you won. And when you spoke on election night, this is what you said.
(Video)REP. SESTAK: This is what democracy looks like, a win for the people over the establishment, over the status quo, even over Washington, D.C.! (End Video)
MR. GREGORY: Congressman, you sound like the ultimate outsider. The only problem is you are a congressman. OK? You were running against the establishment.
REP. SESTAK: Ah.
MR. GREGORY: You voted for TARP, for the bailout. You voted for the president's stimulus plan. You voted for the president's healthcare plan. Exactly which establishment are you not part of, that you're running against?
REP. SESTAK: Oh, I did vote for those because they were needed. But as John F. Kennedy once said, sometimes the party asks too much. And when they did something that I didn't agree with because it didn't help Pennsylvania working families, I'll stand up to the party. That's what I did. It doesn't mean whether you're part of an establishment or not. It's whether you stand up for what's right.
MR. GREGORY: Well, which, which element of the Obama agenda that was his priority did you stand up to?
REP. SESTAK: Oh, I did--I honestly think that this president has done great, good things. But I don't think we've gone far enough in terms of helping small business. My party has to recognize business is a good word when you have small in front of it. And to give a 15 percent tax credit to small businesses for every new payroll job that's created, we could, according to Economic Institute, soak up five million of the eight and a half million unemployed in two, two and a half years. In short, we need to do even better than what we've done. And as was mentioned earlier, the market's good. There's really good private markets out there. We just need fair rules. And before the rules kind of favored Wall Street, not those in state.
Little doubt that Congressman Sestak's Republican opponent will use his own words to hang himself with. Let's hope that the voters in PA can see through the congressman's attempt to weasel some distance between his campaign rhetoric and the facts of his actual voting record.
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