U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak says that he isn't holding out for a deal. He's arming up for the fight of his life. The former three-star Navy admiral, who took down Rep. Curt Weldon in 2006, is crisscrossing Pennsylvania in the dead of night as he prepares to challenge five-term Sen. Arlen Specter, the consummate political survivor, in the Democratic primary.
Some critics have called it a kamikaze mission, an act of hubris by a second-term Democrat who doesn't know his place. Others question whether he'll make good on the threat, or if he'll pull out when the right offer comes along.
Sestak isn't hearing it.
"What's moved me into this is I didn't like the deal that was made," he said of Specter's defection to the Democratic Party, and the way its leaders immediately embraced him as their candidate. "I don't believe in deals. Do you think I'm going to take a deal to get out?"
It's a bold statement from a guy who can afford to make them. Having transitioned directly to Congress after 31 years in the Navy, Sestak, 57, doesn't owe many favors to politicians and power brokers, which makes it nearly impossible to rein him in, even in the face of such a daunting challenge. His closest advisers are relatives.
"Joe is like a ballplayer who is loved by the crowd," said Cliff Wilson, chairman of the Delaware County Democratic Party. "When he gets out on the field the crowd goes crazy, but back in the dugout he's not the most popular guy with the teammates."
President Obama, for one, is backing Specter. So is Vice President Biden, who helped lure Specter away from the GOP in what Washington Democrats see as a major coup - and a potential filibuster-breaking 60th vote in the Senate. Pennsylvania's junior senator, Bob Casey, is standing by his colleague.
Gov. Rendell thinks that Sestak would "get clobbered" in next year's Democratic primary, ticking off the reasons why Sestak has "practically no chance" against Specter, who is well-known across the state and likely will have an inexhaustible supply of campaign cash.
"What in God's name is he doing?" Rendell exclaimed.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, Sestak is getting into the race, and it appears that nobody can talk him out of it - not even the president himself, nor Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, a master arm-twister.
"I hope in the general election to have their endorsement," Sestak said in a lengthy interview this week at his office in Media.
So, why risk a promising political career to run against Specter, now a Democratic incumbent?
Sestak said he simply doesn't trust Specter, the longest-serving senator in Pennsylvania history, to support Obama's agenda on health care, the economy and education. And he's finding that others - in Congress, on the Internet and across the state - feel the same way.
"I'm concerned about the flight risk of Arlen," he said of Specter, 79, a longtime Republican until he switched parties in April. "After this election, will he be there consistently on the important issues in the way that Pennsylvanians need him to be?"
And, as Sestak has said probably hundreds of times by now, Specter's "anointment" as the Democratic candidate really raised his hackles.
"This isn't right," he said.
Democratic sources told the Daily News that, prior to Specter's party switch, Sestak was being courted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to challenge the Republican nominee - most likely Specter or Pat Toomey - in the 2010 general election. Now, the committee is seeking to clear the field for its newest member, to avoid a contested primary.
"As a general rule, we like to avoid primaries," said DSCC spokesman Eric Schultz.
Schultz declined to comment on whether the DSCC had attempted to recruit Sestak as a candidate, as did Sestak, who abhors inside-the-Beltway politics.
Early polls give Specter a massive lead over Sestak, who has little name recognition outside his Delaware County-based district.
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