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Specter Tells Business He’ll Back Pro-Union Card Check
IBD's Capital Hill ^ | 3/3/2010 | Sean Higgins

Posted on 03/03/2010 3:42:59 PM PST by Slyscribe

Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., will vote for cloture on card check if the pro-union legislation comes up for a vote, he told businessmen Tuesday.

Specter’s vote alone is not likely to ensure passage of the bill, formally known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make union organizing radically easier. Democrats lack a 60-vote majority in the Senate, it has no Republican support and other Democrats are likely to oppose it. But Big Labor probably needed Specter to even have a chance.

Specter may be feeling political heat.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: business; cardcheck; specter; unions
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To: AlanD
Arlen sold his soul.

Arlen is bitter, spiteful, peeved.

This is his revenge, pure and simple.

21 posted on 03/03/2010 4:22:48 PM PST by parisa
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To: Slyscribe
Arlen Specter is toast. And Card Check won't get a single GOP vote in the Senate.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus

22 posted on 03/03/2010 4:27:15 PM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Outlaw Woman

Be my guest....


23 posted on 03/03/2010 4:56:07 PM PST by FrankR (Those of us who love AMERICA far outnumber those who love obama - your choice.)
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To: Slyscribe

Ramesh Ponnuru

May 28, 2003, 8:30 a.m.
Lobbyist Bites Dog
David Keene’s Pennsylvania surprise.

ou would expect David Keene to be on board for the Toomey campaign. Keene is the chairman of the American Conservative Union. Pat Toomey, a House Republican from Pennsylvania, has a 97-percent rating from the ACU. Toomey has been a leading advocate of personal accounts for Social Security. He sponsored a bill in 2001 to make President Bush’s tax cut larger. He has tried to force spending restraint on his colleagues in both parties.
Toomey is running for the Senate in a Republican primary against the incumbent, Arlen Specter. The latter is one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate. He voted to shrink Bush’s tax cut in 2001. He is a leading advocate of cloning. He wants to grill Bush’s judicial nominees to make them pledge their fealty to diversity. He voted against impeaching President Clinton. And so on. Specter has a lifetime rating from the ACU of 47 — a fact that Keene acknowledges.

Yet Keene has written a column in support of Specter.

Keene notes that Specter has sometimes been a useful ally of conservatives, as in the confirmation of Clarence Thomas. This is true, but it is not much of an argument for keeping a 47-percent conservative when you could have a 97-percenter. A conservative could nonetheless support Specter in good conscience on the theory that Toomey would be likely to lose the seat for the Republicans, and that in today’s circumstances that is not a risk that should be taken. I wouldn’t agree with this argument myself: Toomey has a pretty good track record in places you wouldn’t expect conservatives to do well. But in any case, Keene does not make this argument from pragmatism.

Instead, he claims that Specter is worth supporting for his personal qualities: “I’ve known and worked with Specter for more than a decade. . . . He is honest and decent, and, unlike many of his colleagues, his word is always good. When he’s with you, he’ll tell you, and when he’s against you, he’ll let you know that, too. . . . I may be going soft, but I like him. I like his honesty and his willingness to listen. . . . Arlen Specter is what we used to call a standup guy. He isn’t always with us, but when he is you can take his word to the bank. He’s willing to climb out of his foxhole and take on the opposition. . . . It may not count with many conservatives, but it counts with me.”

Well. It must be said that Keene’s view of Specter as a likable fellow is, um, not universally shared. But be that as it may. There are plenty of liberal Democrats in the Senate who are honest and affable as well. We would not, however, expect the chairman of the ACU to endorse them on that basis, or even to stay neutral in their races.

Thirty-three Republican congressmen have written to the ACU’s board of directors to express their “dismay” at Keene’s endorsement, which, they claim, “has brought discredit and embarrassment to your fine organization.” They acknowledge that Keene’s column was not written in his capacity as the head of the ACU — although the column did identify him as such — but say that it has “placed in doubt” the ACU’s “commitment to conservative principles.”

Some conservative activists are also raising the question of whether Keene has a conflict of interest. As The Hill also notes, Keene is “a managing associate with the Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental affairs firm.” In other words, a lobbyist. A brief review of the lobbying-disclosure reports reveals that Keene is frequently listed as doing lobbying work that concerns the Senate Appropriations Committee: for example, lobbying on the appropriations bill that funds the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. No doubt all this lobbying activity is directed toward shrinking the federal government. But it is worth noting that the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Labor-HHS appropriations is — Arlen Specter.

Keene’s colleague Donald Devine recently wrote a memo arguing that conservatives, their movement having been taken over by imposters comfortable with big government, should start a new magazine. I disagreed with Devine’s analysis. But a new, less compromised version of the American Conservative Union may well be in order.


24 posted on 03/03/2010 5:06:47 PM PST by Leisler (What 'free market', where is it?)
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To: Slyscribe

That old whore will say and do anything to keep his cushy seat.
Anything.


25 posted on 03/03/2010 5:09:40 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: FrankR

Thank you


26 posted on 03/03/2010 6:40:41 PM PST by Outlaw Woman (If you remove the first Amendment, we'll be forced to move on to the next one.)
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I heard on Fox last night that Specter is no longer behind in the polls and that he’s now ahead of all of the candiates (including conservative Twomey). What is wrong with the PA voters? They couldn’t possibly like this turd, could they? Of course, I said the same thing about McCain and AZ voters too, so what do I know?


27 posted on 03/03/2010 7:03:55 PM PST by teeker
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To: Slyscribe

Sadly, supporting Card Check probably helps Specter in his state, which still has a large union presence. Specter needs union money and volunteers to have any chance at winning against Toomey. Snarlin Arlen is still in trouble unless the playing field dramatically changes. Even his most favorable pollster, Quinnipiac, shows Specter’s weakness. 52% stated he didn’t deserve to be re-elected, including 54% of Independents and 27% of Democrats.


28 posted on 03/03/2010 7:14:26 PM PST by zebrahead
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