Hillarysworld

"LANCASTER, Pa. – Sen. Arlen Specter compared Rep. Joe Sestak’s missed votes in Congress to going AWOL while serving in the Navy, drawing gasps from the audience at a Democratic candidate forum Friday evening.

“I’m going to ask him in his last minute to explain why he missed 127 votes. I’m going to ask him to explain why he has the worst voting record of anybody in the Pennsylvania delegation, the ninth worst of 435 candidates in the Congress. I’m going to ask him if he was AWOL in the Navy, if he wouldn’t have been court-martialed instead of looking for a promotion,” Specter said, visibly perturbed during the closing statements portion of a tense hour-long debate.

“That’s low,” blurted out one woman, seated in the third row. Other Democrats whispered under their breath and shook their heads. 

Specter and Sestak, who are vying for the party’s blessing in the U.S. Senate contest, are both seeking to pin down an official endorsement from the hundreds of party members in attendance here for this weekend’s Democratic Days event.

For most of the face-off, a jacket-less Sestak rolled up his sleeves and pummeled Specter for his 2,000 votes with President Bush and the “politically convenient” party-switch he made nine months ago. But Specter’s sharp final rebuttal may have been more designed to demonstrate to Democrats in the room that he’s prepared for the brawl that’s expected with likely Republican nominee Pat Toomey.

“I prefer to discuss the issues, but I’ve had so many barbs today, I think I’ll inject that myself,” Specter said. “You know my record. If you think he can beat Toomey, think again. If you think I can beat Toomey, you’re right,” he added, spurring a round of applause.

Sestak pointed out that Specter has already tried to avoid a match-up with Toomey in the Republican primary.

“Talk about toughness, I wouldn’t have run away from Pat Toomey in the Republican primary. Arlen Specter said, ‘well, I’m going to switch parties because I could not win,’” Sestak asserted.

“Pat Toomey, Republicans know will be out for Arlen Specter. He betrayed them,” he said, lowering his voice for dramatic impact.

In an interview with POLITICO afterwards, Sestak acknowledged he missed a significant number of votes over the last year.

“Did I miss votes because of going around in July deciding whether to get in and also because my father was on his death bed in June, July, August, September? Yeah, okay, I did,” said the 31-year Navy veteran, whose father passed away in September. “And I’m sure he missed his votes for good reasons. My overall voting is 94 percent. We keep our office open seven days a week. I passed more legislation than any other congressperson or senator last year.”

“The thing is, what results do we have? I passed more bills than he did last year,” Sestak went on.

On Saturday, the Democratic State Committee is slated to take an endorsement vote, which is widely viewed as a key test of Sestak’s ability to carve into Specter’s establishment support."