Posted on 04/29/2009 4:46:19 AM PDT by tobyhill
IT is disheartening and disconcerting, at the very least, that here we are today — almost exactly eight years after Senator Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party — witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party. And the announcement of his switch was all the more painful because I believe it didn’t have to be this way.
When Senator Jeffords became an independent in 2001, I said it was a sad day for the Republicans, but it would be even sadder if we failed to confront and learn from the devaluation of diversity within the party that contributed to his defection. I also noted that we were far from the heady days of 1998, when Republicans were envisioning the possibility of a filibuster-proof 60-vote margin. (Recall that in the 2000 election, most pundits were shocked when Republicans lost five seats, resulting in a 50-50 Senate.)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Shouldn't this be keyworded as satire? It is right?
Ms. Snowe, you can do much more than witness the departure, you can join Mr. Specter if it will ease your pain.
Why don’t you join him Ms. Snow... There’s no room in the Republican party for Dumocrats.
Stupid hussy still doesn't get it. She needs to go with Specter.
LLS
Not a single posting regretting Specter leaving. And all encouraging Snowe to get out too. A good time to clean the party from top to bottom.
LLS
Specter is gone because he would have lost the primary. Its not rocket science. He chose survival at any cost rather than standing on morals and principle. Nathan Hale would be very proud............
Ms. Snowe, Ms. Collins and Mr. Specter all said the bailout bill was fiscally responsible legislation.
Now that is one of the finest pieces of pretzel logic I have seen in years.
How can spending 778 billions dollars we don’t have a responsible act?
Just finished reading a very, very, very, very slim tome, “History of the Great Moderates”. Breakout the Champagne! Print posters showing Specter shaking Ira Einhorn’s hand after he makes bail! Salute Scottish Law! The Magic Bullet Theory! Take McLame and his bitch daughter with ya you moron!
Then why do I feel so good about it??
What's wrong with me??
Specter is still going to be out on his ass in 2010, Snowball.
My messages to Sens. Snowe and Collins now that we are Mainiacs and have inherited these fools:
Now that Sen Specter has (at long last) left the Republican party, the importance of holding onto liberal Republican senators is no longer really an issue given that almost certain assurance that the vitriolic comedian Al Franken will soon be seated.
I think that many conservative Republicans are welcoming Specter’s departure as an opportunity to begin the renewal process of the Republican party as the party of small government, belief in the constitution and individual liberty.
Would you also please take this opportunity to leave the GOP?
Another RINO heard from...
And especially when we don’t even HAVE that money, cheez.
“We should emphasize the things that unite us and make these the only ‘litmus test’ of what constitutes a Republican: our belief in restraining government spending, pro-growth policies, tax reduction, sound national defense, and maximum individual liberty.” He continued, “As to the other issues that draw on the deep springs of morality and emotion, let us decide that we can disagree among ourselves as Republicans and tolerate the disagreement.”
She uses Reagan's words to try and make her point (whatever it is), blithely ignoring the fact the she, Specter and Collins were the reason Obama's incredible increase in government spending passed the Senate. They could have stopped it, but instead are the reason we are now looking at trillion dollar plus deficits, and possibly the biggest expansion of government in history.
She seems to have been highly selective in what part of Reagan's statement she emphasized, and what part she totally ignored. Sort of like a recent presidential candidate.
Democrats win by appealing to their base but republicans are supposed to ignore theirs.
She makes it sound as though it were a loss.
Specter is the poster child for everything that is wrong with our government and ,for that matter, so many of the things that are wrong with this country; me, myself and I.
“if we failed to confront and learn from the devaluation of diversity within the party”
Translation: You have no right to demand that we have to be conservative to be in this party. Just because the Dims march in a Marxist lockstep and have no diversity for “moderates” and conservatives doesn’t mean that the Repubs shouldn’t trend to Dim-Lite. It’s my party and I can cry if I want to.
Well the voters in PA did send murtha back to DC. They may send spector back. too.
Republicans won even MORE seats for two elections after Jeffords left.
witnessing the departure of my good friend and fellow moderate Republican, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, for the Democratic Party
Ms Snowe.
Specter was not a moderate Republican. He is a liberal lawyer and has long been far closer to being a Democrat then a Republican by party platforms. You too seem more suited for the DNC. Look into it....
Specter spoke and it's clear his agenda is to stay in power anyway he can. Self preservation at any cost. The man sounds like he doesn't have all his marbles.
Since the Senate is now fillibuster proof anyway, lets go ahead and get rid of all the scum from the Republican party now and be done with it.
What a disgusting display it was, presenting their prize hog for all to wonder at.
I'm beginning to believe that these people are a whole other species.
If Sen. Snowe truly believes that Specter left the Republican party because of ideology, she is dumber than even I thought. He “converted” to “DEMOCRATISM” for the very simple fact that he was going to lose the Republican primary, and most deservedly so. This is all about retaining HIS OWN seat in politics, setting aside any other consideration.
The actions of this man, and the stated beliefs AND actions of this woman are justification indeed for TERM LIMITS.
I have long believed, sadly, that most politician would sell their very souls in exchange for cash and/or a bloc of votes. I have yet to be dissuaded.
Yet, the most pointed criticism must be aimed at the American VOTER, who persists in keeping these idiots in their positions of power. Whose fault are troubles besetting us....look in the mirror.
And take Bloomie with you!
Goodbye Olympia.
Excellent catch and comment! If her comments are recorded this would make a great ad for someone running against her.
The mushy middle swings like a pendulum from a few degrees right to a few degrees left. Politicians are in this for personal power, which makes being in the majority very attractive to them. The politicians which make up the middle run as a member of the party that is on the momentum side of the swing. That’s how Republicans end up with RINO’s and Nancy Peloosi ends up with a caucus full of yellows dogs.
Case in point; the porkulus bill. More democrats voted against it than there were Republicans that voted for it.
Those things said, I grow tired of being lectured by these scum buckets who think we are all ignorant.
( paraphrase )"I will not allow my career to be judged by a jury of republicans, in PA."
I don't know who the hell he thought judged him for the previous 29 years.
If I lived in PA, I would find a consortium of attorneys who donated to Arlen and the repubs and I would sue Spector to return the contributions made to him.
Do I think I would get the money back, no, but I would relish forcing him to use up his war chest to fight it!
I would force him to stay in the spot light defending his slimy remarks regarding his constituency, all the way to election day.
The GOP needs to be shaken like an old throw rug.
No, she would rather lose America and the freedom its people love. She needs to get out of the Washington DC bubble.
The further the republican party has moved to the left the more elections it has lost. As usual this liberal moron doesn’t have a clue.
Like Specter, she will choose the moment that will do the most damage to the Republican Party before she changes sides.
I read that Joe Biden called Specter 14 times over switching. Specter has a war chest full of GOP donated money. I am not all that sure that Specter is not slipping mentally and needs to retire.
“Like Specter, she will choose the moment that will do the most damage to the Republican Party before she changes sides”
Yup..she’s gonna jump ship. What’s she’s really saying about diversity is that the Repuplicans should become socially liberal.
Closer to the truth is that conservative voters migrated south. The northeast is solidly blue.
I’m guessign Cornyn is feeling pretty stupid right now. He just went on record last week saying that Arlen was a great Republican who was with us on a host of issues.
And then Arlen comes out and says he doesn’t believe in the Republican issues.
Not that it matters. We’ve given the liberals 30 years to brainwash our children. I see it in my own daughter. We are like the sports team who gets used to winning so much that they get to thinking it’s simply “the way it is”, rather than actually doing what they always did before to win.
Meanwhile, the opposition has converted the next generation into people who can’t think, but who love the idea of getting free stuff. And they figured out how to reach out to the 50% who don’t vote, and get them to show up and vote against us.
And too many on our side think the answer is not to return to our principles, but to chase away any voters that don’t agree with us 100%, when we can’t even get 100% agreement within this solidly conservative forum.
And when a conservative does anything to try to appeal to a majority vote, we throw them under the bus, assuring that we only nominate people who have no chance of winning an election except in the minority of places where we have 60% majorities.
About the only hope is that when the Democrats get flush with power, they will forget how many “moderates” they had to drag along with them to win the election, and those dissaffected will come back over to our side — presuming we let them vote for us again....
Nailed it! I hardly regard politicians as being human anymore.
Arlen Specter is a moderate who helped put the country 787 billion dollars further into debt with his vote for the Wedge of Socialism (a.k.a., the stimulus package). And, if I remember correctly, the Wedge of Socialism did not appeal to the majority of voters.
As far as intolerance for fellow conservatives goes, I'm not going to abandon them over a few votes in the other direction. However, is it really unreasonable to have people in your party that WILL vote your way on crucial votes, such as the Wedge of Socialism? I'm not even sure that Specter agreed with us more than 50 percent of the time.
Arlen would not be an example of a conservative, much less a conservative who tried to appeal to a majority. He’s just an opportunistic democrat who joined the republican party when it was expedient for him to do so.
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