The Unbearable Silence of Spencer

It's always a good laugh to read The Daily Times political coverage during election season, but there is a particularly interesting trend this year. If you review Gil Spencer's editorials and visit his Daily Times blog, you may notice a topic he seems to be avoiding - Delaware County politics.

Sure, he's chimed in on some local controversies here and there, but we haven't read his usual hatchet-jobs on Democratic candidates. I suppose Gil must be used to the fact that Vitali will be in his seat as long as he wants, but where are his screeds against Sestak? Maybe he's too pissed off about a potential Obama presidency and those nasty people beating up on poor Sarah Palin, or maybe he's lost track of Craig Williams, what with all that cross-continental traveling the man's been doing. Maybe he's auditioning for that national pundit career he's always wanted.

Maybe he knows which way the wind is really blowing and doesn't want to have to taste his own foot again.

Spencer speculates on potential GOP candidates for 2008

In DelcoTimes' Gil Spencer's latest rant about Joe Sestak, he peeks into the minds of the Delco Republican power mongers who are not pre-determining for the voters of the PA-7 region who they will put up against Joe Sestak in the 2008 election.

Spencer talks to John McNichol, recently retired from his Delaware County patronage job, now spending time trying to figure out how Sestak defeated their top elected official Curt Weldon last year, and plotting Sestak's demise. McNichol talks about two potential candidates: real estate developer Tim Pulte and attorney Steve Elliott. Spencer speculates that McNichol prefers Pulte. Spencer quotes McNichol: “The family has a ton of money,” McNichol says, and the candidate would have his own “personal fortune” from which to draw.

It's nice to know that McNichol is holding with long-standing Republican traditions. It would be disturbing to see the local GOP machine appoint their candidate based on something like positions on the issues or track record for service. Anything but complete self-interest and power-mongering would be a complete break with the local GOP ideals!

As far as Spencer's attacks on Sestak in his latest diatribe, he says, "Unfortunately, Democratic congressmen like Sestak have a vested interest in seeing America fail in Iraq." You have to wonder why editor-in-chief Phil Heron allows Spencer to continue to shoot himself in the foot with junk like that.