All of this Spector talk will work for us when he votes to approve President Bush's appointments.
The libs won't be able to demonize a Spector-approved appointment, after all.
Posted on 11/08/2004 11:46:01 AM PST by GeneralHavoc
"We'll take him at his word." That works.
Rove was accepting Specter's statement assuring Republicans that he will not have a litmus test — and has never had a litmus test — for judges.
But that was Specter's telling-Senate-Republicans-what-they-wanted-to-hear backtracking word the day the heat was turned up on him in the form of colleague pressure and jammed Senate phone lines. That's not what conservatives should be paying most attention to when considering who the next Senate Judiciary Committee chairman should be.
Conservatives should take Specter at his other word — his words to reporters the morning after his reelection (and that of the president, to whom he owes his seat), and his words to a home-state editorial board during his reelection campaign.
In October, in their endorsement of Specter's Senate reelection bid, the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote: "Before the Post-Gazette editorial board, he promised that no extremists would be approved for the bench."
"Extremists" of course, are anyone who would upset the Post-Gazette editorial board, Maureen Dowd, People for the American Way...you get the idea. (And if you have any doubt about what Specter meant by extremist, see this fundraising letter, in which he designates Bush-Cheney 2004 adviser Ralph Reed as such — that is, as one of those backward pro-life types.) Ask Robert Bork, too, whom Arlen Specter considers an extremist. (Specter opposed Bork's Supreme Court nomination.)
The liberal Post-Gazette wrote: "The best argument for [Specter] staying on is his seniority, which puts him in line to be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that capacity, he would be in a position to block some of the ideologically extreme federal judges likely to be nominated by President Bush in a second term, some of them for the Supreme Court."
The Post-Gazette view of a Specter chairmanship is pretty realistic: As a lame-duck who has already shown no hesitation to "warn" the president through the media (he did so again on Face the Nation yesterday, noting that the president did not win a mandate on Election Day), he will be free to make ex-senator Tom Daschle, former leader of the bully-the-Bush-judges pack, proud.
There is no reason the GOP should surrender their Election Day win to Arlen Specter and the Left. Oh, and by the way, that's not intolerance (the New York Times is undoubtedly soon to editorialize that it is); it is practical politics. Conservatives ought to act like the governing majority they are — before they aren't.
— Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor of National Review Online.
Wish we could have defeated this clown in the primaries.
This is such a bummer. Bush should have supported Toomey in the primary or stayed out of it. Spectre is not to be trusted.
Bush had the chance...
I know he did. I don't know why he supported Specter. Probably the worst mistake of an otherwise great campaign.
Bork Specter
Semper Fi,
We would have had Santorum not sold his sole to him and Bush had not come in to save the day the last few days before the election.
STOP SPECTER FROM BLOCKING BUSH'S JUDGES
Contact Senator Frist 202-224-3135
Contact Senator Santorum 202-224-6324
Tell them in no uncertain terms that Specter cannot be made Senate Judiciary Chairman
Do NOT take "no" for an answer!
Bush has no Mandate?
Just say "NO" To Specter's Games!
Senate Judiciary Committee GOP Members
Contact Senator Orrin Hatch 202-224-5251
Contact Senator Charles Grassley 202-224-3744
Contact Senator Jon Kyl 202-224-4521
Contact Senator Mike DeWine 202-224-2315
Contact Senator Jeff Sessions 202-224-4124
Contact Senator Lindsey Graham -202-224-5972
Contact Senator Larry Craig 202-224-2752
Contact Senator Saxby Chambliss 202-224-3521
Contact Senator John Cornyn 202-224-2934
All of this Spector talk will work for us when he votes to approve President Bush's appointments.
The libs won't be able to demonize a Spector-approved appointment, after all.
bump for the contact list
Redirect all that anger in keeping Specter off the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee.
Look at it this way, Specter was obligated to carry PA for Bush and he didn't. PA went for Kerry. The burden is on Specter and I think Bush planned it that way.
You have Freepmail.
We gained 4 seats in the senate, shouldn't we have a 14 to 5 advantage on the Judiciary Committee? I think the focus should be on the 4 new committee members. You have to pick your fights carefully and I don't think Specter is where we should be spending our political capital at this time.
I predict Specter will get the chair.
It makes sense to have a "pro-choice" Republican Judicial Committee Chairman, when you know Specter will allow a vote. His reputation as an abortion supporter will be advantagous as a response when the MSM tries to derail future nominees.
Rove came out Sun on Fox and said "Senator Specter is a man of his word, and we'll take him at his word if he becomes chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee...He told the president, 'I will make certain your nominees receive a hearing. I'll make certain they receive a vote, and the appellate nominees will be brought to the floor,' "
Dubya has done more for the unborn than any other President in history. I trust his judgement. Dubya, Cheney, Santorum, and Allen supported Specter for re-election. Maybe they know something.
Specter ping
Specter is big talk little do. He'll stab the conservatives in the back again and again. The only way to stop this little creep is to show him to the door.
"There is no reason the GOP should surrender their Election Day win to Arlen Specter and the Left."
The GOP will regret it if they betray us and give it to Specter.
Keep the calls going, tell them NO to Specter.
PLEASE CALL AND EMAIL AND FAX TODAY!
I spoke with Senator Spector's Aide for quite a long time. The poor young guy was trying to defend his boss, saying that Spector had a right to free speech (Isn't that a rat argument?) and that his boss had supported the President's choices in the past.
But like most FReepers, I was too well informed. I told the Aide that I knew Spector had borked Bork, that any differences should be discussed behind closed doors not on TV, that Spector should SUPPORT our President without question after all these years of Daschle, that he knew better how to answer a press question without lobbing a political bombshell, and that if Spector wanted to have appointments done HIS way HE should run for president.
The poor Aide. It's hard to defend a boss who is wrong.
Hold your friends close.
Hold your enemies closer.
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