Why I'll miss Arlen Specter's ornery individualism

Washington comPost ^ | May 23, 2010 | Dana Milbank

[Zakeet]

Arlen Specter (D-Pa.-cum-R-Pa.-cum-D-Pa.), a.k.a. "Snarlin' Arlen," a.k.a. "Specter the Defector," is one of the most unloved people in politics.

He is ornery, vain, disloyal and a brazen opportunist. He lacks a discernible ideology, puts his finger to the political winds before casting a vote and in the end does what is good for Arlen Specter.

I will miss him.

I will miss him because, whatever his faults, he fought the forces of party unity and ideological purity that are pulling the country apart. "Let me tell you," he complained in 2005, before both parties disowned him, "it's heresy -- I mean rank heresy -- to say you're an elected United States senator and you want to exercise your independence and vote your conscience."

Specter perpetrated this rank heresy over 30 years and through five presidencies. While his colleagues on both sides increasingly submitted to the ritual purification of their views, Specter held the dead (in more ways than one) center, earning a lifetime rating of 44 percent from the American Conservative Union. But over the past 13 months, the heretic finally was cast out -- first by the Republicans and then by the Democrats.

[Snip]

Specter was a Democrat for the first 35 years of his life, switching parties based on the high-minded principle that the Republicans offered him their nomination to run for Philadelphia district attorney. Fifteen years later he went to the Senate but remained an oddity, a Jewish Republican from Kansas who represented Pennsylvania and had a voice like Richard Nixon's.

He liked to boast that he could "alienate the entire electorate in just two votes."

[Zakeet]

From what I can tell, Libtard Newsers at the comPost are about the only ones who will miss the Pennsylvania Pile

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

But over the past 13 months, the heretic finally was cast out -- first by the Republicans and then by the Democrats.

Hmmm...I seem to remember that it was Specter who cast himself out of the Republican Party:

“I’m not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate, not prepared to have that record decided by that jury.

Good riddance, you POS!

[SampleMan]

Another idiot reporter that has been taught that ideology is a bad thing. Ideology is nothing more than a formal statement of core values. A person that doesn’t have one or can’t stick to one is just an opportunist (something this reporter bluntly acknowledges).

Of course, Leftist ideology is never considered to be a bad thing by these people.

[TennesseeGirl]

Barf alert!

[Mouton]

I’m with you.

Furthermore, I will never forgive GWB for supporting the POS in his prior primary. Lay with dogs and expect to get fleas and with this turd, the GOP got ticks to boot.

[norwaypinesavage]

It's difficult to determine who's worse, Dana Milbank, or Benedict Arlen. They both are clearly cut from the same cloth.

[muir_redwoods]

In the great literature of life, Specter(R2D2-PA) is not even a footnote.

[Cheburashka]

It’s not surprising that a “Republican” who would betray Republican principles and the Republican party when it suited his convenience would be popular with the Demonrats and the Demonrat-controlled press. Of course he lost his usefulness when he actually defected to the Demonrat Party.

[mainepatsfan]

Milbank and others of his ilk just hate it when those darn voters don’t do what the elites think they should.

[Condor51]

He is ornery, vain, disloyal and a brazen opportunist. He lacks a discernible ideology, puts his finger to the political winds before casting a vote and in the end does what is good for Arlen Specter. .... I will miss him.

Awwwwww, how sweet.
Dana Milbank has a man-crush on Arlen.

[Servant of the Cross]

Does not a Dana Milbank article on Arlen Specter require a double BARF ALERT?

                                       

[Brett66]

Having no principles is just great isn’t it? Except when you don’t tow the liberal line, does he miss Zell Miller?

[Thom Pain]

Let me guess, Dana.

Is it because you are an idiot?

[Brugmansian]

I can’t stand these sanctimonious liars anymore. Dana would not say any of this if Arlen had been a burr in the side of Democrats. He doesn’t give a rat’s hindquarter about party line votes tearing the country apart....so long as they are for Democrats.

[AK_47_7.62x39]

There were few people in America happier to wake up and find that Rand Paul won and Arlen Specter lost.

I DO think we should give him credit where it is due, though. I have precious little I congratulate the man for, but he did shepherd Clarence Thomas onto the Supreme Court, and stood up to the race baiters in the Anita Hill camp with real heroism. For that, he deserves our thanks.

It seems to have been an accidental occurence, though. Nothing in his consequent record suggests he had much of a commitment to anything other than getting Arlen Specter re-elected. I don't think I will join Milbank in grieving in his colossal misjudgment this time. Good riddance.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

RIIIGGHHtttttt,

The requirement (demand) for honesty, integrity, principles and moral/ideological purity are “TEARING” this country apart.

Fer sher you commie-slut scum.

[bert]

Spectre degenerated into a senile fool. He was lost in the present, a sufferer of future shock. What was isn’t and he could not cope

[Buckeye McFrog]

hmm...they didn’t have these warm fuzzies about him when he was grilling Anita Hill or Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

[Popman]

Dana, geez, just break out the kneepads.

[Carley]

Dana Dana Dana, what’s to miss. The entire dem party is just as disloyal (to America) just as brazen (in ignoring the will of the people)