BLITZER: All right. Hold on, guys. I want to change subjects for a moment, because Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak is joining us right now.

He's been in Congress only a short while. But correct me if I'm wrong, Congressman, word is now emerging that you have decided definitively to challenge Arlen Specter for the Democratic Senatorial nomination?

REP. JOE SESTAK (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Wolf, I personally have made a decision that I intend to get in this race with one other item. I haven't sat down and had the time to sit down with my 8-year-old daughter or my wife to make sure that we are all ready to get in.

And I say that, if you don't mind, because when I got in this after getting out of the military 31 years in the first race two years ago, my daughter had a brain tumor. And we needed to make sure we were getting in this to pay back for this great health care we have been given, together, as a unit. And so that's where the final decision will be made, with us as a nuclear family. BLITZER: And assuming they say yes, you're going forward, despite the fact that the president of the United States and the vice president of the United States have both said they support Arlen Specter in his bid for reelection?

SESTAK: Interesting point. As I said weeks ago, Wolf, I was disappointed that the Washington political establishment had decided to anoint someone for Pennsylvanians. And so I said I would wait and listen. And I've spent the last weeks going around Pennsylvania to see if others felt like me.

I heard two things. One is, Joe, we'll make the decision. You should get in. Number two is very similar to what you just said. Arlen's got a lot, after four or five decades, of connections and money, so don't get in. No.

BLITZER: Has anyone...

SESTAK: That actually will be more to get in.

BLITZER: Has anyone from the White House urged you not to get in?

SESTAK: I haven't had a call from anyone, except Senator Menendez, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee called once or twice. We traded phone calls. But not in the last week. So I haven't ever connected with anyone, nor should they. I'm pretty low on the totem pole. And they're fighting two wars overseas and one here at home.

But this is about us Pennsylvanians. And we need health care, not just in this next year, but through 2016. And that next four to six years, for my Pennsylvanians and for my daughter and for me, are very important to make sure that whoever is carrying the mantle of leadership forward is someone who will be with us consistently in this fight for the right issues.

BLITZER: When you spoke to our John King on "STATE OF THE UNION" a few weeks ago, you weren't sure that Arlen Specter is a Democrat.

Are you convinced he's a Democrat now?

SESTAK: I don't think that a D next to your name makes you a Democrat. But I actually think there's something more important. Arlen has done some good things in the past. This is about the future, though, and not the status quo or the past. It's whether Arlen will fight for the right issues, Democrat or Republican. He derailed -- helped derail health care plans without an alternative in the '90s.

Maybe he's changed, but I'm not sure we can take that chance. And so that's why I'm not sure he's for, more importantly, the right issues, Wolf. And that is -- I haven't -- I haven't heard at all from him, out there in the public, that is. And I honestly believe that when you look someone in the eye to see the cut of their gib (ph), we have to ask the question -- will he be with the right policies that our president presently has put out there to retool our economy in health care and education through 2016?

There's too much doubt in my mind not to have the intent right now to get in this race, pending just a little bit of time with my family to make sure we're all together. Like the military, it's going to be a deployment for a period of time.

BLITZER: All right. Congressman Sestak is a retired U.S. admiral, so he knows something about the U.S. military.

Thanks very much, Congressman...

SESTAK: Thanks...

BLITZER: ...for joining us.

SESTAK: Wolf, thanks for having me.