Biden campaigns for Sestak, predicts Democrats to keep control of Congress

Vice President Biden, speaking at a Philadelphia fund-raiser Monday for Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, predicted that Democrats would retain control of both houses of Congress because voters will not want to go back to the "Ponzi scheme masquerading as a vision" that was the Republicans' economic policy.

Earlier in the day, former President Bill Clinton campaigned for Sestak in Wynnewood, saying Democrats needed more time to dig the country out of the economic mess left to them.

In Harrisburg, Republican Senate candidate Pat Toomey attacked Sestak as an extreme liberal, challenging him to return a contribution from a group that Toomey said advocates one world government.

Biden, during his appearance at the Union League, said the GOP launched two wars, enacted a new Medicare prescription-drug benefit, and gave tax cuts to the wealthy, without paying for any of it. Although he supported Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary, Biden said that he had always been impressed with Sestak, a House member in his second term who was a Navy admiral.

"I have campaigned for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of candidates," Biden said. ". . . Some folks I campaigned for were OK, some were great, but I can say I have never campaigned for a man with more character, integrity, and capacity" than Sestak.

Sestak's campaign declined to say how much money the event raised but welcomed the help, as the Democrat has been trailing Toomey in the polls and in cash on hand.

Biden charged that Toomey was a "poster boy" for what he described as the discredited Republican approach to the economy, favoring privatization of Social Security and loose regulation of Wall Street.

In Harrisburg, Toomey took aim at Sestak for accepting contributions and an endorsement from a "radical group" that advocates global governance by establishing, among other things, a global tax.

Citizens for Global Solutions has donated $9,200 to Sestak since 2006, Toomey said at a news conference at the GOP state committee headquarters. The Republican noted that Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) had returned a contribution from the group when its views came to light in 2006.

"We've got a lot of reasonable debate in this country about the appropriate level of taxation on different entities, individuals, and business - but calling for a whole new level of taxation imposed on Americans by some global body is, to say the least, well outside the mainstream of Pennsylvania political thought," Toomey said.

Don Kraus, the group's chief executive officer, in a statement called Toomey's comments "factually inaccurate and grossly misleading." He said the group supports the United States paying its dues to the United Nations but has never advocated a "global tax."

Kraus said that Citizens for Global Solutions also has contributed to Republicans, including Rep. Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania, Rep. Mike Castle of Delaware, and Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

Clinton said that when he was president, Sestak gave him "great advice" as a military aide to the National Security Council and that in a turbulent time it is a good idea to have a former admiral in the Senate "who knows the dark side of war."