DELCO DAILY TIMES: Clinton brings ‘A’ game to make push for Sestak

William Bender, Of the Times Staff
October 6, 2006

RADNOR — After surviving last month’s “conservative hit job” on FOX News, Bill Clinton went on to tell host Chris Wallace about a Democratic Navy admiral running for Congress in Pennsylvania. Clinton paid the admiral a visit Thursday at a big-money fund-raiser to help him defeat U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, who remains one of the former president’s most vocal critics.

“I will not make a single stop in this campaign season that means more to me than this one — not one,” Clinton told a crowd of nearly 900 at a rally for Joseph Sestak at Valley Forge Military Academy.

A Sestak victory would not only help the Democrats rebuild their House majority, but muzzle a Republican congressman who blames Clinton for doing irreparable harm to America’s national security during the 1990s. Weldon still carries around a diplomatic pouch with Soviet missile-guidance components he says Iraq acquired because the administration failed to enforce arms treaties.

But Clinton wasn’t talking much about Weldon Thursday. He was talking about Sestak, who served as director for defense policy on his National Security Council and has the best chance of turning the 7th District Democratic since 1986.

Clinton predicted that Sestak would pick up some votes from Republicans disillusioned with the performance of President Bush and Congress.

“It isn’t conservative to add $3 trillion to the national debt,” Clinton said, criticizing the “radical, right-wing ideology” he said led to the Iraq war and the concentration of wealth and power in America.

“If you have an ideology, you know the answer already, so the evidence becomes irrelevant,” he said. “That’s why they govern and campaign by attack — assertion and attack — because evidence and argument are the enemies of ideology. And there are serious consequences to this, and you see them in Iraq, you see them in Afghanistan, you see them on stem-cell research.”

Weldon spokesman Michael Puppio said Clinton’s visit is evidence that Sestak was sent to the district as part of a Democratic scheme to unseat the congressman, who is in line to become chairman of the powerful House Armed Services Committee in 2008.

But his campaign is not concerned about a Clinton endorsement having an impact on the Nov. 7 election, despite the fact that the former president twice carried Delaware County.

“He didn’t have coattails in this district in 1992 or 1996 when it meant something, when what he had to say with regard to foreign policy or domestic policy actually meant something,” Puppio said. “So I don’t believe his appearance here will sway voters either way. He was here to raise money and he did that.”

Sestak later said he appreciated the support from his “former boss” — a clear jab at Weldon, who was campaigning over the summer with retired four-star Adm. Robert J. Natter, to whom the Democrat once reported.

At a press conference after Clinton’s speech, Sestak was peppered by the national and international news media — including Australia’s “Dateline” — with questions about the Iraq war.

While Weldon has proposed a plan in which U.S. generals would set the timeline for the withdrawal of American troops, Sestak insists that all troops must be out of Iraq by the end of 2007.

“Right now, we’re in the midst of a civil war,” Sestak said, adding that a date certain would force the Iraqi government to end sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

Weldon opposes that approach, saying it would allow insurgents to “lay back and wait until we leave.” He said his plan, presented to the Bush administration last year, would depoliticize the withdrawal, “which should not be done by armchair politicians back in Washington looking for votes at election time.”

Sestak’s campaign was still counting the money Thursday evening, but at $300 a head and $2,100 for VIPs, Thursday’s event likely raised at least $250,000, minus expenses.

“We could not have asked for a better showing from President Clinton,” spokesman Ryan Rudominer said. “He definitely brought his ‘A’ game.”

Sestak had $1.53 million cash on hand at the end of September; Weldon had $1.12 million plus $500,000 in pre-purchased TV time, the campaigns said this week.