Keep in mind that this is the same Joe Sestak who won the straw poll for Pennsylvania’s senate seat at Netroots Nation. Not only is he a Democrat, but he’s a liberal Democrat supported by far-left liberal Democrats.

And yet here he is criticizing Cash for Clunkers, the crowning jewel declared as such by Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats, as a bureaucratic nightmare.

The federal government has only reimbursed auto dealers for 2 percent of the claims they’ve submitted through the popular “cash for clunkers” program, a Pennsylvania congressman said, calling on the Obama administration to help speed up the process.

Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., called for “immediate action” to address the problem in a statement Sunday, after writing a letter to President Obama Saturday expressing his concerns.

In the letter, Sestak said only 2 percent of claims have been paid and that four of every five applications have been “rejected for minor oversight.”

In recent days, auto dealers across the country have been complaining that the reimbursement payments are slow to process. And they said some of their applications were being rejected because of apparent procedural issues. The statistics Sestak cited suggest those complaints are not based on isolated incidents.

Democrats have attempted to label Cash for Clunkers a success because the money has been appropriated, but it’s really been a failure of a bureaucratic nightmare. Old cars have been destroyed and new ones purchased (mostly on credit), but dealers — already struggling or going out of business — have been left on the hook for all but 2% of claims.

The concept of this program was simple: People would turn in their old gas-guzzlers, use government funds to help them purchase new and more efficient models, and dealers would get reimbursed by submitting a claim to Uncle Sam. Simple. Yet it’s turned into a clusterfark of epic proportions, much like every other government program.

And the imagery couldn’t come at a worse time for the Obama Administration and its liberal allies. Americans will want to know: If the federal government can run a simple, multi-billion dollar program called “Cash for Clunkers”, how will it run a health care system that makes up one-seventh of the nation’s economy?