Biden, Pelosi hold Philadelphia fund-raiser for Lentz

In a Monday visit to Philadelphia, Vice President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed Republicans for the country's current economic problems and bolstered the campaign coffers of a Democratic congressional candidate who faces a tough Republican challenge this fall.

At a fund-raiser for Democrat Bryan Lentz, who is running to replace U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) in the Seventh Congressional District, Biden said that the previous Republican administration had left President Obama an economic mess that Democrats have worked hard to fix. With little to no help from Republican lawmakers, Democrats have created jobs and staved off a "worldwide depression," he said.

Biden said it was disingenuous for Republicans to point fingers at Democrats over the deficit after it ballooned for eight years under President George W. Bush.

"For them to talk about deficits is like an arsonist talking about fire safety," Biden told about 200 people who had paid at least $1,000 to attend the luncheon at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center Hotel. He later described the previous administration's economic policy as "a Ponzi scheme masquerading as a vision."

Biden and Pelosi are the highest-profile Democrats yet to stump for Lentz, 46, a two-term state representative from Swarthmore whose race is thought to be one of the most competitive in the nation this year. The event Monday raised $250,000, to be split between Lentz's campaign and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to the DCCC.

Local Republicans and tea party members, who support limited government, did not pass up a chance to hammer the Democrats while two of their top leaders were in town.

The Pennsylvania GOP launched a website Monday called PuntPelosi.com, with an eye toward raising money for Republican candidates they hope can wrest away enough House seats to snatch the majority from the Democrats in the House. About 20 tea-party activists protested outside the event, shouting "Fire Pelosi!" and "Take back Congress!"

Lentz's opponent, Republican Patrick Meehan, sought to capitalize on the negative reaction Republican voters seem to have toward Pelosi: A recent poll showed 74 percent of Republican voters strongly disapprove of Pelosi's performance, according to the Washington Post.

Last week, Meehan ran an ad on radio and the Internet calling the fund-raiser "the Nancy Pelosi political circus." On Monday, Meehan, a former U.S. attorney from Drexel Hill, called Lentz a "rubber stamp" for Pelosi's agenda in a statement issued by his campaign.

In her remarks, Pelosi defended the Democratic leadership's work in Congress. She said there will be more jobs created in the first eight months of 2010 than were created during the entire eight years of the Bush presidency.

But after losing 81/2 million jobs, the recovery will take time, she said.

"We are taking the country in a new direction, and if they [Republicans] want to argue with success, we stand ready to make our case with the American people," she said.

Biden said Democrats needed to take the next four months to sell their successes to voters.

"What we did is working, and the American people are just now beginning to see it," he said.

Pelosi may be a divisive figure, but she and Biden have brought Lentz something he'll need for the race this fall: money. Lentz trails Meehan in cash on hand, with Meehan reporting about $1.1 million and Lentz about $789,000, according to federal campaign-finance reports filed last week.

Lentz said Monday that he trusted that voters in the Seventh District, centered in Delaware County, would be able to parse out where blame belongs.

"They don't have amnesia," Lentz said. "They don't forget who ran up the debt, they don't forget who started the war in Iraq, they don't forget who let the wolves run Wall Street."