National Democrats Continue To Try To Bully Sestak Out of the Senate Race

Pittsburgh Live reports:

Word out of Washington, D.C., is that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the political wiseguys from the Obama administration plan on "visiting with" Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Joe Sestak.

Their objective is clear: Get him off the stage and out of a primary race against incumbent (and now Democrat) Sen. Arlen Specter.

"I have received a call" from DSCC chairman Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Sestak said, "but we keep missing each other."

So the battle lines are drawn: Sestak is not inclined to be pushed out of the race, and Menendez's marching orders from the White House are to shove, not just push.

"Joe Sestak is a very credible candidate," said Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia-based political consultant. "If Specter would have stayed in the GOP, I believe Sestak would have been the Democratic nominee."

Honestly, I'm a little ashamed of the DSCC and everyone else in the Democratic establishment -- including President Obama, who has seemed to make a habit out of intervening in primaries on behalf of the more conservative candidate -- for doing this. Heck, even Pennsylvania's Governor has jumped into the mix. Maybe he should spend more time governing his state and less trying to play a Corleone in a bad Godfather spinoff.

Democratic voters deserve a choice. Specter was not elected as the Democratic candidate, he just made himself the candidate. Trying to the usurp the choice of Pennsylvania's Democrats is intensely undemocratic, which is particularly ironic given the party's name.

Shame on the establishment Democrats. I'm not even that much of a fan of Sestak myself -- though he's strong on some labor issues, he's been a strong vote for the corporate wing of the Democratic Party too many times, and honestly, with Specter's insane amount of name recognition, he probably would beat Sestak easily -- but I think the voters deserve a choice, and if he stands up to this bullying, I might just throw him some support just for actually believing in democracy.