Things are Getting Interesting in Pennsylvania
The latest polls in the Keystone State are all the news today and it’s all bad for slime ball Arlen Specter.
The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows 48% would vote for Toomey if the election were held today. Just 36% would vote for Specter while four percent (4%) prefer a third option, and 12% are not sure.
These figures reflect a dramatic reversal since June. At that time, before the public health care debate began, Specter led Toomey by eleven.
The early betting has always pitted turncoat Specter against the conservative Toomey next November. But with Specter tanking this rapidly, perhaps we should look a little closer at Specter’s primary challenger Rep. Joe Sestak.
Sestak is a Naval Academy graduate who served 31 years in the surface fleet and has two advanced degrees from Harvard. So far so good I guess. But I found several articles referring to his military service and they sometimes called him a retired Vice Admiral (three star) and other times a Rear Admiral (two star).
Here at TAH we pride ourselves on being as accurate as possible and I wanted to get the Admiral’s rank correct. What I discovered is a very interesting story that will certainly become much bigger news if Sestak manages to upset Specter in the Primary.
Louis Jacobson did a bio of the good admiral for Real Clear Politics in June 2009.
However, Sestak’s Navy career ended in a less-than-ideal fashion. In July 2005 – within a week of Adm. Michael Mullen’s swearing-in as chief of naval operations – Sestak was dismissed as deputy chief of naval operations due to a “poor command climate,” according to the Navy Times. (Mullen was later named chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, meaning that the two men now periodically face off in Congressional hearing rooms.)
For those unfamiliar with how senior officers can get “reassigned”, suffice it to say that this is a major bombshell headed for the deck of the USS Sestak!
You see Sestak was a Vice Admiral and Deputy Chief of Naval Operations but got fired. Realizing his career was over he opted to retire. He retired prior to serving the minimum amount of time at the Vice Admiral rank and so was retired as a Rear Admiral.
Back to the “poor command climate” cited reason for being shit canned.
As a rule being relieved for “poor command climate” means you are grossly incompetent or a douche bag of biblical proportions. Given his education and experience it is unlikely that competence was the issue and believe me reaching that level of douche-baggery in the Pentagon is no small feat.
Perhaps his first term in the House of Representatives gives us some insight.
However, Sestak’s subsequent management of his Congressional office has only solidified the perception that he is a taskmaster with a prickly streak.
According to Legistorm, a website that tracks Congressional staff salaries, Sestak has run through 61 staffers since he was sworn in. By comparison, three other Pennsylvania Democrats elected to the House in the same year – Reps. Chris Carney, Patrick Murphy and Jason Altmire – got by with just 25, 26 and 28 staffers, respectively, over that same period.
A relief for cause does require a special Officer Evaluation Report which Sestak will of course never release but damn, that would be some good reading.
If you live in Pennsylvania and Sestak gets by Specter you can look forward to seeing way more about this story in a mailer next summer.
Interesting times.
UPDATE!
509th points out that CDR Salamander has a ton of good dirt on this particular scumbag.
Read it all here:
http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/search?q=sestak
Category: Politics
Go to CDR Salamander, he’s covered Sestak’s rank issue comprehensively.
Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing. The ‘mander has the gouge on Sestak.
I didn’t even need to read who wrote this story. As soon as I read douche-bag, I knew it was COB. Good research and interesting insight. Thanks for letting us know.
As a former Sailor, and the son of a retired Senior Chief, it really pains me to say this: the upper echelons of Naval leadership have produced some of the biggest screwups, screwballs, and letdowns in my lifetime. Stansfield Turner, Jimmy Carter, Bill Crowe, Jeremy Boorda…and as a Soldier now, I pay a lot of attention to the same thing in the Army. WTF??? What is it with the cranial-rectal inversion (politically speaking) that happens when people put on a star? Or are all of them purely “political admirals” (or generals) now? Dammit, someone go dig up George Patton, Chesty Puller and Bull Halsey.
CS,
Part of the problem is that we allowed the GOFO’s to become to embedded with contractors in the procurement systems. Those GOFO’s who are tasked as project managers are no fools. They are usually close to retirement and understand that it’s very easy to land a cushy post-retirement job with those same folks whose projects you are managing. If the company gets the bid, and lands a great contract and rakes in the dough, odds are that post-retirement you’ll be rewarded by them with a nice job and a hefty salary. That corrupts the whole process and skews the interests of the GOFO away from the needs of the service and towards the needs of the GOFO.
The solution is to prohibit post-retirement employment by project managers and their staffs for “X” number of years. That likely won’t happen, but it would be a good start.
respects,
Country Singer, not to take the Army off the hook, remember Wesley “the Weasel” Clark and Colin Powell.
AW1, I totally concur!
Upnorth, I was thinking of them (and others), just didn’t take the time to name them…incidentally, the USAF isn’t immune either: General “Doc” Foglesong is a great example. He did great things and very damaging things while president at my alma mater, Mississippi State, from which post he abruptly stepped down. Rumor, and I stress RUMOR, among alumni has it that one consideration in his resignation was to work behind the scenes in the Obama campaign. He was appointed by Obama to chair the U.S.-Russia Joint Commission on POW/MIAs.
“Doc” Foglesong ranks right next to McPeak as one of the most hated USAF generals of all time. If you want some good reading on Doc, check this thread out:
http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/index.php?/topic/13965-the-foglesong-thread/
As a Pennsylvanian, I’m voting for Toomey. Sestak has shown me very little in his time as my representative.