If there is a silver lining here, it's that Specter has been completely neutralized. He will have to give every nominee a vote, and knows he'd better not oppose a pro-life nominee. He understands now, better than before, that a lot of eyes are on him. So does the President.
I hope you are right. Somehow, I just can't believe Specter has turned over a new leaf, even with the trip to the woodshed, if that indeed happened. The guy's a loose cannon. Always has been.
Neutralized? Is he dead? As Bill Devane so famously says as the character of the US Pres. Hayes - I don't THINK so.
Spectre is practically chairman. He's got the votes. This is just where the libs and Dems want him. I heard Mark Shields, the almost insane Dem spinner on PBS, lament that he was similarly neutralized or neutered or non-functional or a numb . . well. In Shields-speak, though, that means - GREAT! We got a lib as the chairman of the committee! He's gonna throw a party over this.
I am fairly confident the GOP is going to regret turning its backs on the American voter who put them there. Bush first let loose with Gonzales. Now its continuing to back Spectre, whom he also helped in the campaign. But, however, and as his defenders would point out even here on FR, the other shoe has yet to drop. Gonzales isn't yet facing the foreign nationals problem on our borders. And Spectre hasn't yet gotten the list of nominees. So when it does drop . . .