Sestak wants critical TV ads pulled

U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak frequently tells supporters at campaign events that he would rather risk his job than shirk a principle.

The Delaware County Democrat says it is for that reason that his campaign has been demanding that television stations across the state, and Comcast here in Philadelphia, pull ads created and funded by private groups attacking his run for the U.S. Senate.

But by attacking his attackers, does Sestak help draw attention to their claims?

That seemed to be the case with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is running an ad on 21 TV stations in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Scranton and Johnstown that says that Sestak voted 100 percent of the time with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on "job-killing" legislation on health care and energy.

Two stations in Pittsburgh pulled the ad for one day, but the resulting media coverage only helped spread the message.

Sestak is also asking Comcast to pull an ad being run in Philadelphia by the "Emergency Committee for Israel," formed this month in the offices of the same Washington, D.C., public-relations firm that pushed for war in 2002 through the "Committee for the Liberation of Iraq."

That ad claims that Sestak "raised money for an anti-Israel organization the FBI called a front group for Hamas," the Palestinian group that funds terrorist attacks on Israel.

Sestak said his campaign asked Comcast to pull the ad because it is "harming Israel's security."

"This was not any kind of political calculation," Sestak said. "For me, this was purely based on how I look at Israel, which is always about security and not politics."

The ad cites - but does not quote - a 2007 speech that Sestak made to the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. In that speech, Sestak called himself a "strong supporter" of Israel and terrorism a "corruption" of Islam.

"This is why it is my, and your, just duty to condemn not just terrorism - as you have done - but also condemn the specific acts and specific individuals and groups by name associated with those acts, such as Hamas and Hezbollah," Sestak said.

A group of Jewish supporters gathered outside Comcast's headquarters Monday, calling the ad a distortion that could hurt Israel while harming Sestak.

"I think it is deplorable for any political campaign to try to make Israel a wedge issue," said Mark Aronchick, an attorney active in national Democratic politics. "It is simply wrong to do. It doesn't help Israel. It doesn't help American understanding on the complexity of the problem."

Michael Goldfarb, a former spokesman for U.S. Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign and an employee for the public-relations firm where the Emergency Committee for Isreal is based, said the ad was due to go off the air earlier this week but was extended to broadcast television in response to Sestak's attempts to have it pulled.

"This is something we decided to do, mainly because we saw the ad was having an effect, and we were outraged that they tried to get our ad taken down through legal threats," Goldfarb said.

Goldfarb said the committee measured the effectiveness of the ad, which asks viewers to call Sestak's office, by the attempt to have it removed from television.

Sestak's staff said his office has received 56 calls and 13 e-mails from people who saw the ad, with some asking for more information and others offering support.

Goldfarb refused to comment on who is funding the committee or paying for the ad. By law, the committee is not required to disclose its funding source.

Former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey, Sestak's Republican foe in the Nov. 2 general election to replace Sen. Arlen Specter, last week defended the Chamber of Commerce ad while deriding Sestak as "hyper-sensitive."

But Toomey didn't want to talk about the Emergency Committee on Israel on Monday, when asked about the ad by a member of Jewish Americans for Sarah Palin.

"We'll have further opportunities to discuss the very different views that Joe Sestak and I have with respect to Israel, and in particular the need to support Israel's very legitimate security needs," Toomey responded.