Posted on 11/11/2004 7:10:40 AM PST by Former Military Chick
WASHINGTON - There are no sandbags outside his Senate office, and no bunker inside. In spite of a head cold and a lot of angry phone calls and faxes, Arlen Specter is coping.
The Pennsylvania Republican, in fact, sounded more assertive yesterday as he described the campaign by conservatives to derail his nomination as Judiciary Committee chairman as part of "a battle for balance in the Republican Party... and in America."
In an interview, Specter also disclosed that he had spoken to almost all of the nine other Republican members of the committee.
"The sense is, once they know the facts, there is a generally favorable response," Specter said of those conversations.
The response, of course, is to Specter's postelection remarks on the Judiciary Committee chairmanship. Some interpreted his remarks as a veiled warning to the White House not to submit Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
In what should have been a week of heady anticipation of his new, powerful role, Specter, 74, has instead been struggling to explain that, though he supports abortion rights, he would not block a nominee who differed with that view.
Specter's comprehensive account of his position appeared yesterday on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, a touchstone for conservatives.
Economic conservatives joined the fray yesterday with their socially conservative brethren against Specter, adding credence to Specter's belief that the opposition to him is a continuation of his hard-won primary election.
The Senate meets next week in a lame-duck session, but the Judiciary Committee chairman will not be elected until after the new Senate is sworn in Jan. 4.
After a week of attacks from the right, the senator said in an interview that the campaign against him was predictable.
"I think that being the only pro-choice Republican on the Judiciary Committee makes me suspect," he said. "And it makes me suspect without cause on this issue of whether I would block pro-life nominees on a litmus test.
"It's been difficult for pro-choice Republicans in the Senate because there are so few of us," Specter continued. Though more than half of registered Republicans say they support abortion rights, with some limitations, "that branch of the party has never been vocal," he added.
Abortion-rights groups identify about five GOP senators, of 55 in the new Congress, who have records supporting abortion rights.
As the party has increased its dominance in the South and West, the addition of more social and religious conservatives has increased the pressure on Republicans who support abortion rights.
"You saw it all during the primary," Specter said. "That was their mantra, their bugle call. The same people that are after me now were after me in the primary."
Specter yesterday demonstrated his fealty to the White House by immediately endorsing the nomination of presidential counsel Alberto R. Gonzales to replace John Ashcroft as attorney general.
Nevertheless, the conservative Family Research Council issued a statement saying that Gonzales could address judicial activism by shepherding the President's judicial nominees "through what could be a difficult Senate Judiciary Committee if... Specter is elevated to the chairmanship."
Specter narrowly survived a primary challenge by Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick J. Toomey, a social and fiscal conservative who won backing from right-leaning groups that believe Specter is too liberal for the party.
The senator said he would never stop advocating a Big Tent for his party, in which the views of moderates were considered along with those of conservatives. Although so-called values voters - a slice of the electorate primarily concerned with the moral values of candidates - were a significant advantage for the President in the election, they are not a majority of the party, he added.
"No one group elected the President by themselves," Specter said. Moderate Republicans have a significant role to play, he said.
"It's important for the party but it's also important to the country that the Republican Party has balance," Specter said. "And there are a lot of independents and swing Democrats who look to see that there are moderate voices in the Republican Party."
Recalling his short-lived campaign for the presidential nomination in 1996, Specter said he never harbored any illusions about being the GOP nominee, but he was struck by the fact that he, as the only candidate in the field supporting abortion rights, received only token support from moderates.
"There really is an urgent need for more vocal participation by moderates and pro-choice Republicans," he said.
Specter said he had recently sought out other moderate GOP members of the Senate. Though he declined to characterize those conversations, he said the only way they could remain relevant was to assert themselves.
The latest episode over the Judiciary Committee chairmanship was just a skirmish in a longer siege, Specter said.
"It's a very important battle," he said. "And it's really a battle for balance in the party and it's really a battle for balance in America."
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Contact staff writer Steve Goldstein at 202-383-6048 or slgoldstein@krwashington.com.
Sounds like he is threatening the Republican Party. I hope he leaves the Republican Party. Leave now!
I haven't even heard "moderate" senators speak out for him, the silence from Snow, Collins, and Chaffee is deafening.
Keep the calls, emails, and faxes rolling. We haven't been asked to stop not even from Frist or Rove.
Translate that stinking liberal RINOS.
"In an interview, Specter also disclosed that he had spoken to almost all of the nine other Republican members of the committee.
"The sense is, once they know the facts, there is a generally favorable response," Specter said of those conversations. "
Heh. Pretty feeble support from his colleagues.
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No way this guy should lead the Judiciary. What is the point in our winning if we put guys like this in the Vanguard. Let's put the kibosh on this pseudo Republican
His kind is the reason many left the Republican Party in the past. He will drive more away if he succeeds and I find it a shame that Bush helped him out. I was hoping for a loss in the primaries.
I'm inclined to agree with you. My first reaction was that it's up to Bush. If he could put Arlen in a straitjacket and get him to join the team, fine.
Now, I've reconsidered. There's too much danger that Specter will betray Bush toward the end of his term, as he attains lame duck status and as the media step up their attacks on him again before the 2008 election.
Plus, Specter has at least two years to go beyond 2008. Do we want him in charge of the most important committee in the senate at that juncture? I think not.
Specter will be in a strong position for troublemaking. Once he is sitting in the chair, all he has to do is open his mouth at a time of his choosing, and Bush will get hit, not Specter, because Bush is responsible for Specter and wears him like an albatross around his neck.
For instance, one word from Specter in fall 2006, and a lot of Evangelicals might stay home and not vote to support the Bush administration in the congressional elections. The same, in spades, in the 2008 presidential election. Specter will not be up for election then, but others will. That gives him a strong position to pressure and blackmail the party, something he has not hesitated to do before.
No, much safer to block him now.
Maybe the same kind of people, but there are a whole lot more of them now.
During the primary he was off the radar for most of the country. Everyone else was off fighting their own battles and worrying about their own state -- but not now.
Judicial is just too damn important and he is too damn undependable. I am not confident we can keep him out of the post, but I am not about to stop trying.
Isn't there a committee that looks after the affairs of the District of Columbia that he can serve on ?
We must counter the false asertion that specter is a moderate. This is nothing short of BS media triangulation and propaganda.
Specter is a leftist. The only "middle" in specter's mind is the middle seat.
Moderates believe in nothing, stand for nothing. Specter stands to the left of the isle.
The leadership and his fellow members better give him a dose of reality, he speaks at the pleasure of the electorate not his egomania.
I don't really want to see an inter-party bloodletting. But this SOB is making it tough to be magnaminous. It would not be hard to accept moderates in visible positions in the party, but he insists on putting it in our faces. If he does not wise up, his "colleagues" are going to vote him out despite tradition.
And is so doing, identify themselves as targets for defeat when their reelections roll around???
Arlen is going to hear nothing but silence because RINO's don't have spines
Dear Arlen:
As a moderate Republican I'd just like to say, "screw you - you pathetic RINO
Memo to Specter [and even, I hate to say, a certain faction of yes man, kowtowing, 3rd way bootlicker Freepers] RINOs and underminers must STFU.
"I not only voted against Bork, I led the charge against him."
- Arlen Specter
Please post that quote every chance you can... We can not let any of the Presidents nominees for the SC be "Borked"
It's my tagline.
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