Movement arises to block Specter (As Seen on FNC)

Controversial remarks by Sen. Arlen Specter, cautioning President Bush against nominating Supreme Court justices who would overturn the Roe vs. Wade abortion decision, have sparked a furious outcry from Bush's large conservative and Evangelical support base, and spawned a movement to ensure the Pennsylvania Republican does not ascend to chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee as expected.

Organized as a project of RedState.org, the website "is dedicated to the proposition that the Republican party, the conservative movement and the country would all be better served without Arlen Specter as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. For decades, Specter has shown that his personal interests and the president's agenda are at odds."

The site has a petition that will be forwarded to the judiciary panel and offers other ways to contact influential officials in Washington.

Recently re-elected to a fifth term with the crucial aid of President Bush, Specter is in line to become chairman in January when Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah steps down due to term-limit rules.

According to an Associated Press interview Wednesday, Specter said, "When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe vs. Wade, I think that is unlikely. The president is well aware of what happened, when a number of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster. ... And I would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning."

After an immediate outburst of national outrage, Specter issued a statement Thursday insisting he did not send a warning to Bush.

"I did not warn the president about anything and was very respectful of his constitutional authority on the appointment of federal judges," Specter said. "I have never and would never apply any litmus test on the abortion issue."

Nevertheless, outraged Iowa state Rep. Dan Boddicker has launched a drive to make Sen. Charles Grassley chairman of the panel instead. But the Iowa Republican senator, an abortion opponent, is expected to resume his chairmanship of the Senate Finance Committee.

According to rules established by the majority party, the committee chairman will be chosen by a secret-ballot vote of the Republican members of the panel. The nod traditionally goes to the senior member, but the rules specify any member can be selected. The entire conference must then approve the committee's pick by another secret ballot, although rejection is rare.

But Santorum has come to Specter's defense, while seeking assurance he will abide by the president's wishes.

After Specter's follow-up statement Thursday, Santorum said Specter had "clarified that he does not support a litmus test for nominees with regard to their stance on abortion" and added he looked forward "to working with Sen. Specter to guarantee that every judicial nominee put forth by President Bush has an up-or-down vote" by the full Senate.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told the AP he hoped Specter would promise to back the president's nominees.

"I'm intending to sit down and discuss with him how things are going to work," he said. "We want to know what he's going to do and how things are going to work."

Syndicated radio talk host Laura Ingraham, urging "Stop Specter Now," is waging a vigorous campaign to get listeners to put pressure on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has shown interest in becoming the Republican presidential nominee in 2008.

A group called Grassroots PA points out Specter wrote a letter in 1995 to supporters that slammed the "far-right fringe" of the Republican Party.

James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, called Specter's comments this week "the worst kind of political bullying."

The Family Research Council noted Spector led the fight against President Reagan's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Robert Bork.

"He has a history of pandering to the aggressive abortion lobby and a Specter chairmanship would be disastrous," the FRC said in a statement.

As chairman, the FRC pointed out, "he would control the confirmation process of federal judges, including nominees to the Supreme Court. He would also determine the makeup of the Senate Judiciary Committee staff, which would go a long way toward determining the committee's political and judicial philosophy."

Concerned Women for America sent a letter yesterday to Frist, urging the majority leader to "use your considerable influence to prevent Sen. Specter from being placed in a position of trust to which he is clearly not suited."

CWA referred to the conventional wisdom that Specter would not have narrowly defeated popular conservative challenger Rep. Pat Toomey in the Republican primary without the support of President Bush.

"Some pay-back," CWA said. "Specter earned no mandate to tell the president that he did not earn 'a mandate' in his election victory."

CWA added, "Given the president's resounding victory by both popular and the Electoral College vote, and the Republicans' increased margin in the Senate to 55 seats, filibusters should be out of the question to consider and easy to defeat. This makes it all the more traitorous for Specter to give aid and comfort to those who've opposed the president’s judicial nominees."

A coalition of pro-life groups plans a "pray-in" outside the Dirksen Senate Office building Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. to help ensure Specter does not get the panel chairmanship.

The coalition, which says it hopes also to pray inside Frist's office, includes Troy Newman of Operation Rescue, Rev. Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, Rev. Rob Schenck of Faith and Action, and Chris Slattery, a pro-life, pro-family activist from New York City.

"We urge people to contact Senator Frist and let him know that the president needs a loyal man at the helm of the Judiciary Committee, and that man is not Senator Spector, " said Mahoney.

"Specter's attempt to challenge the right of the president to make judicial appointments is outrageous," said Newman. "He cannot be allowed to single-handedly hold nominees hostage with whom he has a personal ax to grind."

Senator Specter has an Agenda — Liberal Judges

“President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation’s future, and the nation responded by giving him a mandate.” – Remarks by Vice President Cheney introducing President Bush for his victory speech, Ronald Reagan Building, November 3, 2004.

President Bush’s margin of victory proves that we “have a narrowly divided country, and that’s not a traditional mandate…the number-one item on my agenda is to try to move the party to the center.” – Sen. Arlen Specter, November 3, 2004.

Senator Arlen Specter's shocking comments the day after President Bush's decisive re-election raise troubling concersn

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Specter denied the legitimacy of President Bush’s historic mandate.
Specter announced a pro-abortion litmus test for the president’s judicial nominees. Specter claims that Roe v. Wade is “inviolate” and insists that “nobody can be confirmed today who does not agree with it.”
Specter’s illegal litmus test would disqualify all constitutionalist nominees from serving on the Supreme Court of the United States and the lower federal courts.
Specter’s illegal litmus test demands that all nominees violate the canons of judicial ethics by announcing or pledging how they will vote in a particular case.
Specter will not promise to support the President’s nominees. Instead, he merely “hopes” that he can support them. The day after the election, when a reporter asked Specter if he would support the president’s nominees, the senator hesitated and equivocated: “I am hopeful that I’ll be able to do that. That obviously depends upon the president’s judicial nominees. I’m hopeful that I can support them.”
Specter criticized President Bush’s first-term judicial nominees: “The nominees whom I supported in committee, I had reservations on.”
Specter insulted Janice Rogers Brown, president Bush’s nominee to the important U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Specter referred to Brown, a distinguished conservative and the first African American woman to serve on the California Supreme Court, as “the woman judge out of California” who he had reservations about.
Specter insulted the entire Supreme Court of the United States, including Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justices Scalia and Thomas. When a reporter asked Specter “Are you saying that there is not greatness” on the Supreme Court, Specter replied: “Yes. Can you take yes for an answer?”
Specter’s comments reveal that, like Sen. Kerry and Sen. Daschle, Specter favors judges who follow politics and popular opinion, not the Constitution and the rule of law.
Specter accused President Bush of ignoring the Senate’s advise and consent role: “The Constitution has a clause called advise and consent, the advise part is traditionally not paid a whole lot of attention to, I wouldn’t say quite ignored, but close to that.”
Specter wants to encroach upon the president’s appointment power. Obstructionist Democrats filibustered ten of President Bush’s appeals court nominees. Now Specter wants the Senate to become MORE involved in judicial appointments: “My hope is that the Senate will be more involved in expressing our views.”

Specter's record over the last 20 years demonstrated a pattern of very troubling conduct on Judiciary Committee issues

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Specter fought against the distinguished Judge Robert H. Bork, betraying President Reagan and his fellow Republicans.
Specter voted against Judge Bork on the judiciary committee, and against Bork’s confirmation on the Senate floor. By joining liberal Democratic senators and radical left-wing groups in their opposition to Judge Bork, Specter gave those groups aid and comfort, and was instrumental in Judge Bork’s defeat.
Judge Bork warned Americans that Specter does not understand the Constitution and that Specter, along with Senate Democrats “professed horror at the thought that a judge must limit his rulings to the principles in the actual Constitution.”
President Ronald Reagan called the left-wing assault against Judge Bork “an unprecedented political attack” on a Supreme Court nominee and “a tragedy for our country.” Specter rebuffed President Reagan’s plea to support Judge Bork.
Specter helped defeat the nomination of conservative Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship.
Specter warned filibustered appeals court nominee William Pryor that just because he voted for him on the committee did not mean that he would vote on the Senate floor for his confirmation.
The “National Review” exposed Specter as “The Worst Republican Senator” in a prominent September 1, 2003 cover story. According to “National Review,” Specter “is not a team player…is an abortion rights absolutist, a dogged advocate of racial preferences, a bitter foe of tax reform, a firm friend of the International Criminal Court.”
Specter refuses to support the elevation of Justice Clarence Thomas to Chief Justice: “I’d have to think about that,” Specter equivocated. Ditto for Justice Antonin Scalia: “I’d have to think about that too.” Specter once slandered Justice Thomas as a “disappointment.”

The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee must be someone devoted to the Constitution as written and the rule of law

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The situation is urgent. Chief Justice Rehnquist is gravely ill. A Supreme Court vacancy is imminent.
President Bush may be called upon to nominate a Supreme Court justice within the next several weeks.
Court watchers predict as many as three Supreme Court vacancies during President Bush’s second term.
President Bush will likely have a historic, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to return the Supreme Court to constitutionalist principles.
The President needs as chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee a loyal, reliable, conservative partner who will shepherd his nominees through the confirmation process.
Under intense political pressure, Specter tried to recant portions of his post-election statements the day after he uttered them. That means nothing. His 20-year record of party disloyalty and tormenting conservative nominees means everything.
As chairman, Specter will act as a vexatious intermeddler, second-guessing President Bush’s Supreme Court and lower court nominations. This imperils the President’s legacy.
Under the Senate’s seniority rules, Specter is slated to take over the Judiciary Committee, but under Senate rules and procedures, he can be stopped from becoming committee chairman.
The window of opportunity to stop Specter is limited. Once he becomes chairman, it will be impossible to unseat him.

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