May 06, 2009
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy
Arlen Specter, the insufferable windbag from Pennsylvania who also happens to represent the state in the U.S. Senate, recently defected from the GOP to the Democratic Party, claiming that the Republican Party had moved to the right, a place he could no longer dwell.
That's hilarious, for a couple of reasons, amongst them being that the GOP of today is decidedly less conservative then it was in years past, having become nearly indistinguishable from the Dems when it comes to Big Government and profligate spending and pork.
It's also hilarious, given that Specter was never a conservative, switching from Donk to Repub back in the '60s because there was a GOP slot he calculated (correctly) that he could win. And thus began a 40-plus year career predicated upon Specter being loyal only to Specter.
Conservatives -- including party-less folks like your humble author -- have long called Specter a RINO (Republican in Name Only), because of his seeming lack of core principles. Last month, after realizing that Pat Toomey, a conservative Republican was likely to not only defeat him in the primary, but do so by a huge margin, Specter decided that winning another term at the age of 79 was more important than letting Pennsylvania Republicans decide if they wanted to send him back to Washington, D.C.
And so, in a craven move to retain power, the borderline octogenarian entered into secret negotiations with the Democrats, maneuvering to retain his seniority in the Senate, which comes with plum positions on committees -- and power and influence.
The Democratic leadership promised Specter that he could transfer his GOP seniority across the aisle, assuring himself a continued role as a powerbroker, and giving him the ability to tell Pennsylvanians that their interests would be taken care of, with Uncle Arlen making sure they got their more-than-fair share of the pork.
Rank and file Dems weren't happy about this backroom deal, delivering a sweet piece of Karmic comeuppance to the feckless crapweasel.
Despite promises from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) would retain his seniority after switching parties, Specter will be put at the end of the seniority line on all his committees but one under a resolution approved on the floor late Tuesday.
Under the modified organizing resolution, Specter will not keep his committee seniority on any of the five committees that he serves on and will be the junior Democrat on all but one — the chamber’s Special Committee on Aging. On that committee, he will be next to last in seniority.
As a result, Specter — who as a Republican was ranking member on the Judiciary Committee and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, as well as ranking member of the panel’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education — will now rank behind all the other Democrats, at least until the end of this Congress.
According to a senior Democratic aide, it remains unclear whether Specter — who will still retain his seniority in the Senate outside of the committees — will see a boost in his committee seniority should he be re-elected for the next session. The status of his seniority for the next Congress will be determined once the 112th Congress convenes in 2011, the aide said.
Democrats said that while unrelated, Specter’s comments to the New York Times Magazine this weekend indicating he would support former Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R-Minn.) disputed re-election bid against Al Franken have angered many Democrats.
“Sen. Specter better watch comments like these. They won’t help him in the caucus,” a Democratic leadership aide said, adding that the comments have “caused a lot of heartburn in the caucus.”
This move also makes it less than certain that Specter can win the Democratic nomination; there's talk of a primary challenge from a retired Navy admiral, an up and coming star in Pennsylvania politics. If Specter is last in line at the trough, why would voters count on him to bring home buckets brimming with swag?
Poor little piggie.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Posted by Mike Lief at May 6, 2009 06:58 AM
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