Posted on 10/14/2012 5:20:42 PM PDT by BfloGuy
Arriving on Capitol Hill in 1981, he became a dominant force during the Judiciary Committees rancorous Supreme Court nomination battles. More than anyone else, he helped defeat conservative nominee Robert Bork in 1987, and his aggressive questioning of law professor Anita Hill four years later he accused her of flat-out perjury helped secure Clarence Thomass confirmation.... He was a Rockefeller Republican, a liberal Republican, and was willing to take on Presidents Reagan and Bush, and became a true leader in the bipartisan efforts that strengthened all the civil rights laws and defeated Bork, said Ralph G. Neas, a longtime civil rights and health-care advocate.
Then you had a line of demarcation, Neas said, beginning with Thomass Supreme Court nomination and continuing with the Republican majorities in the House and the Senate after the 1994 midterm elections. Arlen Specter became an especially cautious politician, Neas said.... After Sen. Specter warned President George W. Bush not to nominate judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade the 1973 Supreme Court case that essentially legalized abortion rights conservative Republicans protested his appointment to the Judiciary Committee. Sen. Specter later said he would not use a litmus test to deny confirmation to abortion opponents.
He presided over the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. and was a key force behind passage of some of the Bush administrations controversial anti-terrorism laws, including the Patriot Act. But as controversy erupted over the governments handling of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Sen. Specter became a leading proponent of habeas corpus rights for unlawful combatants.
I’m appalled, appalled I tell you!
Is there no longer even a single soul left here on FR now willing to rant and rave about the dying of the site’s nobel civility towards the honored dead and their bereaved loved ones? Have we at long last become nothing more than a pack of jackals, churlish beasts whom our betters can no longer shame into uttering knee-jerk platitudes by condemning us with righteous finger wagging and quoting of Bible verses? s/
I was wondering why he had been absent from the obama campaign trail in recent months...
That he did. Without his vote Obamacare doesn't pass.
Backstabbing sorry piece of crap!!!
A living and breathing,.....well anyway.... a good reason for term limits. ;-)
well played
9th circle, I’d guess....
RIP, if you can, Arlen
That he did. Without his vote Obamacare doesn't pass.
He'll smoke a turd in hell for that one.
“...He’ll smoke a turd in hell for that one....”
Close but not “cigar”. He’s a smoking turd in hell tonight.
Hell had to enlarge itself to take in this traitorous POS.
Didn’t like him and he was a real detriment to the GOP, but I hope he rests in peace. Condolences to his family.
For all his faults, Arlen Specter did the good deed of getting Clearence Thomas confirmed. For that, I thank him and give him his due.
agreed double-plus. wish i’d still be around for the unveiling of those copious files.
Sununu was on Fox today praising Specter for helping in the effort to get Clarence Thomas confirmed. So having him there wasn’t quite as bad as if an open Democrat had held the seat. Still, we will never know how much the nation lost by not having Robert Bork on the Court.
I used to think so. Now I believe that the death of the MSM and the ascendancy of the new media will do.
I wish that the new media could save freedom and liberty, but the new media just as easily promotes communism, terrorism, propaganda, flash mobs, union demonstrations, voter fraud, drug trade, human trafficking, Chinese and Russian espionage, cyberterrorism, and repetitive motion thumb injuries. The God of Re-election changes every politician, drives pork, bailouts, loans, grants, tax credits, Agribusiness, the entire lobbying industry, and distorts the national economy. The professional political class should be put out of business tomorrow. To paraphrase William F. Buckley, I’d rather be governed by the first 500 people in the Boston phonebook.
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