- by Taylor Marsh
Swiftboating Joe Sestak hasn't worked, so get prepared for Crazy Curt to go over the top.
Rep. Curt Weldon has already gone after former Admiral Joe Sestak's daughter, when she was fighting a malignant brain tumor.
He went after Sestak when he was showing his support for fallen veterans.
Crazy Curt simply can't pass up an opportunity to swiftboat his opponent. And I know quite a bit about swiftboating, because I cover it regularly.
But now that Sestak is dead even -- one point ahead in one poll -- you can bet it's only going to get worse.
Sestak is leading Weldon 44-43 in a Franklin & Marshall College Keystone Poll that will be released today, falling well within the 4.7-percent margin of error. The poll of 430 voters refutes a recent Republican poll that showed Weldon leading by 19 points.
Democrats greeted the numbers as proof that Sestak has begun to have an impact on the electorate through nonstop campaigning and his first TV ad that hit the district two weeks ago.
"No one campaigns harder than Joe Sestak," said his senior campaign adviser, David Landau. "I just don't know when he sleeps. He has more energy and more drive than any candidate I have ever worked for."
However, Curt Weldon has a problem. After almost two decades in the House not even his own Republican Party trusts him with any authority. Maybe it's because he goes off half cocked all the time; like when he wanted to take his shovel and go dig for WMDs in Iraq.
Or maybe it was his tin foil hat theory about Able Danger, which has now been completely and thoroughly debunked by the DOD's Inspector General. Nice that Curt made the U.S. taxpayers pay for a hearing and an investigation. Here's what military analyst Bill Arkin had to say about Curt Weldon's shenanigans.
... The IG (Inspector General) found no evidence that Able Danger or any other government entity had identified Mohamed Atta or other terrorist cells involved in the attackes of Sept. 11, period. "None of the Able Danger team members, who were in a far better position to describe Able Danger findings" than Shaffer or Weldon, including the Air Force commander of the unit, agree that Mohamed Atta or other Sept. 11 hijackers were ever identified, the IG says. They found not only inconsistent statements from Shaffer and other witnesses who previously have spoken up in the media and in conversations and testimony before Weldon, but also witnesses who later changed their statements and disavowed memories and stories attributed to them by Shaffer and Weldon.
For offenses that are redacted from the IG report on privacy grounds, Shaffer's security clearance was revoked by the Defense Department in February 2006. Some will take this to mean that Shaffer is an honorable whistleblower whose life and career is being ruined by the system. My sense, after reporting on the Able Danger story for over a year is that if anyone is to be blamed, it is Congressman Weldon: he cynically has used Shaffer & co. to pursue a fantasist political agenda. He is indefensible. ...
The Final Verdict on Able Danger, by William Arkin
Laura Rozen has a piece out in the American Prospect that is equally critical.
A case in point: Last year, with Weldon's support, an Italian-led consortium, AgustaWestland-Lockheed, won a $1.6 billion Navy contract to build the next generation of presidential helicopters over a U.S.-led consortium. As part of its bid, AgustaWestland, the helicopter subsidiary of Italian defense giant Finmeccanica, expanded its Philadelphia plant operations.
But there was more to the deal than jobs for his district. According to Harper's magazine reporter Ken Silverstein, AgustaWestland hired another Weldon daughter, Kim, to work in its public-relations department. Furthermore, another Finmeccanica subsidiary, Oto Melara, hired the real-estate agent, Cecelia Grimes, as its lobbyist. Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense says Weldon promoted Grimes' lobbying clients in other ways. "Her clients were being profiled at congressional hearings that [Weldon] ran," Ashdown recalls.
Observers say Weldon is a perfect reflection of the political machine he has represented over the years. "Delaware County is, if not the most powerful, then one of the oldest and most successful political machines in the United States," says former Weldon opponent Dave Landau. "And Weldon is only a functionary of the machine."
Anger Management, by Laura Rozen
The House's most erratic member, Curt Weldon, may finally hit a wall.
I've been studying Weldon ever since he started swiftboating Joe Sestak. But when Rocco Polidoro of Republicans for Sestak asked why Weldon never served his country, it really peaked my interest. We still don't have answers on Curt Weldon's shifting stories on that one.
So now that the race is a dead heat, with Joe Sestak actually ahead in one poll, hold on to your seats, because Crazy Curt is in a fight for his political life.