The Voice of Experience

He's Your Problem Now

 

When I initially heard about Arlen Specter's defection to the Republic Party, I didn't even think it was worth writing one word about.  This guy's been a loser for so long my basic reaction was who cares.  But since there's been so much commentary on this traitor (even the Righteous Lib is crowing about it) and since he's nominally one of my representatives in Congress, I've decided to share my thoughts.

 

Specter's been a senator from Pennsylvania since 1981 and for most of that time he's been a RINO, Republican in Name Only.  Maybe in a state such as this one that contains an almost equal number of Republicans and Democrats, being a RINO was strength but it was a tremendous liability when his support was required for advancing the conservative agenda.  And for years, conservatives such as me have voted for Specter in the general elections despite our dissatisfaction with him as he was the lesser of two evils. 

 

So finally in 2004 we had a legitimate alternative to Arlen to vote for in the Republican primary, Congressman Pat Toomey.  Unlike Arlen, Toomey was a solid conservative who we could depend on to represent us instead of a loose cannon who was only interested in his own prestige.  It's seems like a million years ago but in 2004 Republicans and conservatives were riding high and Arlen was in big trouble.  As the incumbent, Specter had access to a lot of resources, including the endorsements of President Bush and fellow Senator Rick Santorum, a true friend and rock solid conservative leader.  These two guys were taking a big chance backing a closet liberal like Specter but I guess they felt they had to since Arlen was the incumbent.  I've often felt that Santorum's backing of Specter was one of the factors in his own defeat two years later at the hands of Democrat Bob Casey.

 

Now you might think that after both his fellow Senator and the President himself had stuck their necks out to back him, Specter might have been grateful but he was the exact opposite.  Within hours of his victory in the 2004 general election, Arlen was mouthing off for the press, talking about how he was his own man.  As the future head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he wouldn't bend to the President and fellow Republicans about judicial appointments.  More specifically, Specter said that in reference to future Supreme Court nominees:

 

When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely.  The President is well aware of what happened, when a number of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster…And I would expect the President to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning.

 

So the Republicans decided to teach Arlen a lesson and threatened to deny him the chairmanship.  It was quite a treat to watch Arlen humble himself and beg to have this position.  Ultimately after about two weeks, Arlen promised he would not deny confirmation to pro-life justices and he was allowed to serve as chairman.  And to anyone who remembers this sad affair, it should be proof positive that Arlen will do anything, say anything, take any position, to gain and hold power.

 

As I said earlier, 2004 seems like a million years ago and now Republicans and conservative have stunk to the bottom of the political world.  Until Arlen's defection, the only possible weapon the Republicans had to stop the Obama juggernaut of liberal destruction was the threat of a filibuster..  So when Specter's support for a filibuster of King Hussein Obama's disastrous economic stimulus plan was crucial, what did he do?  He sold his vote for $6 billion in funding for medical research and stabbed us in the back.  While this vote made him the darling of the liberal media it did not sit well with Republican voters in this state.  Most polls showed Arlen being crushed in the 2010 Republican primary by the aforementioned Pat Toomey.  And just like he did in 2004; Arlen did whatever he had to to try and hold onto his power and switched parties since this was the only way he could possibly have a chance to run in the general election.

 

As you might expect, instead of telling the truth, the useful idiots in the liberal media have been spreading the big lie about Arlen's defection.  According to them, Specter switched parties because the Republican Party was too conservative.  According to the liberal liars, Specter didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left him.  Do I even have to provide one argument against this bold faced lie?  Were Reagan and his fellow Republicans in 1980 pro-choice?  Would they have supported a massive spending bill like Obama's stimulus plan?  And most importantly, Specter himself admitted that one of the reasons he switched was because he was going to lose the Republican primary.  None of this troubles the liberal liars in the media though.  They've even contradicted their own crap by claiming that one of Reagan's strengths was that there was a lot of room under the Reagan big tent for dissenting views, and hence room for Specter, after telling us for nearly thirty years how narrow-minded Reagan was.

 

Well now the Democrats have Specter and all I can say is good luck.  I hope they're not counting on him because Arlen's showed time and time again that he is loyal to no one but his own ambition.  In his brief tenure in the Democratic Party, Specter has already promised to vote against a pet project of theirs:  card check..  Arlen might change his mind on this one though.  Pennsylvania is one of the few states left that has a significant union influence and most of these union members vote Democratic.  I would guess that if Arlen's losing in the Democratic primary next year, he'll find a provision in Scots Law to back card check.