Thursday, April 22, 2010

The truth about Sestak

I am no apologist for Sen. Specter (D-PA) - but this ad is spot on.



Well - Sestak is having a hissy fit over the ad - and responding lamely.
In response to the ad, Mr. Sestak said in a phone interview on Tuesday, “I was given a tough job in the Navy,” and was assigned to challenge the establishment.
Take a number shipmate. Here are the facts.

As we
covered here almost five years ago, the first day on the job you were fired by the Chief of Naval Operations (now Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mullen) for being a tool and a retention issue.
A source within the Navy Department said there were no allegations of misconduct on the part of Sestak. Rather, he said, the move is being made because of poor command climate.
Being that Sestak won't talk about it more - he is using proxies.

Former Skippy-san Battle Buddy and CNO Clark (who I might add was a founding member of the Food Trough) has decided to throw a little love at Joe - I guess he wants some more paying gigs,
ego strokes, and good will for his clients.
In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer this month, Admiral Clark defended the work of Mr. Sestak, who was described as his protégé: “He did what I asked him to do; I wanted straight talk, and this put him in the cross hairs,” Admiral Clark told the newspaper. “People are going to say what they want to say, but he challenged people who did not want to be challenged. The guy is courageous, a patriot’s patriot.”
That has nothing to do with the topic at hand Vern - pathetic - almost as pathetic as the Borg recruiting drive.
Sestak's campaign sought to rally veterans to defend him by recalling how the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth tried to discredit Democrat John Kerry's service in a Navy patrol vessel in Vietnam during Kerry's 2004 presidential race against George W. Bush.

About two dozen veterans gathered Wednesday in an American Legion Hall in Clifton Heights to rebuke Specter and demand that he stop running the ad.

"We're all here because we're enraged at the fact that someone, anyone in the United States today, would question someone with 31 years of service," said Robert E. Kelly, a retired Air Force lieutenant general who flew 119 combat missions in Vietnam.

"We ought to get our act together in this country and recognize that the people who are serving today, who served yesterday, and will serve tomorrow deserve our respect," Kelly said.
...
"It's not as flagrant. It's more subtle," Tom Clay, 61, a Vietnam veteran and former Army helicopter door-gunner from Media, said about Specter's ad. "But it's there. A veteran should not attack another veteran's record."

Mike Hall, commander of the Clifton Heights post, agreed. "Vets don't go against other vets like that. It's a brotherhood."
Yes - let's validate every stereotype of the mindless, easily led, incapable of independent thought vet. Pardon me if I don't take a glass of your kool-aid - click the Sestak link to get the history from here.
UPDATE: ....and yes, we can mark another Salamander Front Porch victory. After years where the only place that regularly discussed Sestak's false pimping of his "Retired former VADM" status - the mainstream media is not properly referring to him as a Retired RADM.

20 comments:

ShawnP said...

Hmmmmm wonder what Rear Admiral Sestak would say if I was on his staff and missed muster 127 times? Oh I'm sure it wouldn't be a big deal to Rear Admiral Sestak would it? I'm sure as a good OS I could be hungover 127 times over a few years and need some extra rack ops time.

Anonymous said...

And they showed Midshipmen as the background for the text about he's reassignment why?

Anonymous said...

Why did they use a picture of Midshipmen as one of the background images?

Skippy-san said...

Vern Clark wanted straight talk my ass-he promoted Sestak because he was exactly the kind of sycophant he was looking for. Him, Black Bart, and the rest of the crew............

Interestingly in Pittsburgh where I was last week-you hear very little about Sestak, my son said he had never heard of the guy.

Anon said...

The Vets gathered at the American Legion hall should ask for some of Sestak's old staff members to come tell a few sea stories before they jump out and speak to the press.  Hell, I've heard Sestak has a hard time keeping Congressional staff members because of his leadership "style."  I think I would have preferred to work for Rickover.

And I didn't know Sestak retired as a RADM.  Nice!  I like Mullen more and more every day.

Grumpy Old Ham said...

<span>"We ought to get our act together in this country and recognize that the people who are serving today, who served yesterday, and will serve tomorrow deserve our respect," Kelly said.</span>

Ok, General, I'll make you a deal.  I'll respect Duke Cunningham's service record, but not his subsequent actions.  Fair enough?

Salty Gator said...

haha when is LaFleur running for POTUS?

Skippy-san said...

"Prefer to work for Rickover"-there is a ringing endorsement.

Then again-Rickover actually produced something-albeit at a very high cost. Sestak has not produced anything except powerpoints.......

John said...

That ad is the first good thing Sphincter has done in many years!

Sestek's flunkies must have waited until late at night and bought a few rounds at the VFW post before getting the geezers to opine thusly about an issue that was misrepresented to them.

Further comments on Sestek are unfit for publication on a family friendly blog.  Sphincter too.

JimmyMac said...

Excuse me Vern.....Does anyone for one second think that ADM Mullen, who fired RADM Sestak his first working day as CNO (Change-of-Office was on Friday and Sestak was fired Monday morning) didn't talk to his predecessor (ADM Vern Clark) about Sestak's "command climate"?  Well guess what?  Obviously they did and the decision they both made was for ADM Mullen to fire him as a STATEMENT his first day in office.  And by the way, a good friend of mine worked for Sestak then...he drove his family van to the Pentagon Monday morning and slept in it Monday - Thursday nights, then drove it home for the weekend to see his family.  He lived 10 miles from the Pentagon but the hours were so crushing, he decided to sleep in is van, shower at POAC, and eat fast food....."command climate". 

C-dore 14 said...

JM, Of course Mullen and Clark discussed this...they had dealt with Sestak before.  According to my sources, when Mullen was VCNO he had Sestak in to discuss the need to change the way he dealt with people.  My sense is that he was interested in helping Sestak, who had been his DESRON Commander for over a year and who, despite his flaws, is smart, aggressive, and well connected politcally.  When Mullen returned from being CINCSOUTH he saw that little had changed and the ax fell.

ponsdorf said...

Well, hmm, Spector could have used Sestak's record in Congress without even mentioning his time in the NAVY. That would have been the high road.

Reckon I'm one of those 'mindless, easily led, incapable of independent thought' vets. 

I'd agree that comparisons to Kerry are ridiculous - in many, many, ways, but I'll leave it at that.

Casey Tompkins said...

So, what, ponsdorf, no one's allowed to point out the man got fired for being a jerk? Or have we crossed the line from respecting our veterans to idolizing them in some hagiographic way?

By the way, on Sestak's own congressional web page, we see "Born and raised in Delaware County, Joe Sestak spent 31 years serving our nation in the U.S. Navy, rising to the rank of three-star Admiral." That's pretty dishonest don't you think, since he didn't hold that rank long enough to retire as an O-9?

Or am I taking the low road by pointing out that dishonesty? :-E

ponsdorf said...

Perhaps I wasn't clear; I said only that Spector COULD have made his case without mentioning Sestak's time in the Navy. 

ShawnP said...

Having worked with Sestak as a CDR at the War College. I can see why people wanted away from him in the worst way. We all were or in the Navy and know that means long hours away from family and home. However when those hours go on and on for nothing more than saying we worked long hours is nonsense. After all how many times can you redo a Power Point to say the same thing over and over.

Skippy-san said...

Well tehcnically he did rise to three star admiral-before being kicked back down the hill a bit.

Casey Tompkins said...

Skippy-sama, too true. My point was that Sestak didn't retire as an O-9, but as an O-8. Doesn't lying on your resume usually get you the boot in civilian world? *DONT_KNOW*

Casey Tompkins said...

P-man -no disrespect- but from over here it looks like you're tap-dancing around the issue you raised. Either it's dirty pool to mention someone's service, or it isn't, and your original post seemed to point to "dirty pool." If it's not, then why raise the bloody point in the first place?

I can see how the record can be mishandled; I recall at least one claim that Kerry (practically a baby-killer) shot some poor boy in the back, when the real story was that a young VC fired a B-9 at his boat, and the LT. pursued said soldier, terminated him, and recovered another loaded B-9. This is hardly a war crime.

On the other hand, Kerry was quite free in his varied accusations of atrocities against his brother warriors, so I expect he deserves a special BF award. :-D

ponsdorf said...

I guess that I'm still being unclear. I do regret that.

Sestak may well be a jackass, but in a political campaign 'the high road' would be to make that point based on current behaviors rather than dredge up what are, in essence, past sins. I expect no/zero/nil 'high road' behavior from Spector, but that doesn't  modify my opinion that Sestak's current conduct should provide ample ammo. A mention of the turn over rate of his staff, for instance.

A loose comparison might be Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne. A case might be made that dredging up selected bits of history offers a sort of sympathy angle for some voters.

Skippy-san said...

Hey-don't get me wrong-I'm no fan of Sestak at all. I am still stunned that he is a Congressman at all, much less a candidate for Senate. I was just pointing out that our boy was hanging his bio on what the meaning of the word "is" is.