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Nazareth, Pa., United States

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Arlen Specter & Sunflower Seeds

Larry Kisslinger, veteran warhorse of numerous political battles on both sides of the aisle, must have one hell of a scrapbook. A very youthful Arlen Specter came to Bethlehem in 1985 to promote the Republican ticket, headed then by Larry's mayoral campaign. It also included council hopefuls like polka king Jolly Joe Timmer, who was then a youthful 187 years old and only a polka prince. Larry sent me the great pic you see here.

Arlen tried, but failed, to win the day. Only council hopeful Otto Ehrsam survived the Democratic buzz saw. Ron Angle insists he was Timmer's political consultant that year.

Timmer's campaign imploded when he was caught handing out forty year old sunflower seed packages and expired movie passes while going door to door. "Those seeds are good for at least ten more years," he growled as one voter was rushed to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. These days, Timmer still throws those seeds to the kids during Halloween parades.

On the bright side, this is when Timmer also shared the secret of long life with Specter. The Senator now takes one of these sunflower seeds every morning for medicinal purposes. "It's like aspirin," he claims. True, it made his hair fall out once, but he and Timmer both expect to live several thousand more years.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was Timmer, not Specter, who invented the Magic Bullet Theory back in 1963.

LVCI said...

Sunflower seeds- Better choice then Jolly Joe's Polish pickles!

While they are fine pickles, Specter already has far too many pickles of his own already.

Anonymous said...

Arlen Specter is a weasel and a stiff. He's going to be crushed in next year's primary. That will serve him right. His sitch to the Democrat party showed how weak his character is. He feared losing to Toomey in the primary and crawled under the D tent like a snake. Now Sestak will throw him back in the weeds where he belongs and he'll have lots of time to chew on sunflower seeds.

Anonymous said...

He's the Forest Gump of American politics, but you have to believe we're almost finally rid of him. He's never issued a statesman's caution about a single major issue in his career. He has no notable accomplishments except for showing up in strange situations, acting strangely. His guiding philosophy is to believe in whatever is politically popular in order to personally survive and feel relevant. He doesn't stand for anything that he's not willing to flip flop on for a carefully calculated price. He is one of the most putrid, arrogant, detestable political figures of our lifetime. Thank you for opportunity to ventilate.

P.S. Personally, he may be a swell guy. I'm only familiar with his public record.

Anonymous said...

Better Jolly Joe live a happy long life than that animal Angle.

Donald said...

God was that 1985? I had just moved all the way from Easton to Bethlehem that year. Thannks for the memory. It took a few more years before I got used to the more genteel way of Bethlehem politics

Bernie O'Hare said...

It was 1985. You can thanks Larry Kisslinger for that memory.