Specter prepares his farewell after 30 years in the Senate (good riddance to Snarlin' Arlen)

The Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 21 December 2010 | Thomas Fitzgerald

[Erik Latranyi]

WASHINGTON - The family photographs came down Monday, packed in bubble wrap and boxes for the trip home, leaving nothing but some nails and sun-faded outlines on the walls of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's inner office.

After 30 years on Capitol Hill, the state's longest-serving senator is clearing out and heading back to Philadelphia.

Specter, 80, will deliver his final floor speech Tuesday morning, decrying a gridlocked Senate that has lost its political center and the sense of collegiality that once kept senators from campaigning against one another.

"Eating or defeating your own is a form of sophisticated cannibalism," Specter, a Democrat, plans to say, according to his prepared remarks, referring to conservative Republican senators - notably Jim DeMint of South Carolina - who helped tea-party insurgents fell three moderate incumbents in the 2010 primaries.

"Collegiality can obviously not be maintained when negotiating with someone out to defeat you, especially in your own party," Specter says in the 2,600-word speech, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. "In some quarters, compromising has become a dirty word. . . . Politics is no longer the art of the possible when senators are intransigent in their positions."

In some ways, Specter's journey over the last 20 months sums up the plight of the homeless centrist: He was all but forced out of the Republican Party and was embraced by the White House and other top Democrats, but could not survive his new party's primary.

He says he is cheered by the triumph of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican who lost to a tea-party candidate in the primary but who has evidently won reelection as a write-in.

[Erik Latranyi]

Specter is a politician who pissed off both the left and the right and paid the price.

Good!

[DManA]

Suppose he expects us to thank him for his service.

Jack Ass.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Thank God and Greyhound he’s gone.

[thethirddegree]

Specter is a worthless pos who deserves the bottom of the dustbin of history. I’m glad we replaced his sorry ass with Pat Toomey.

[hoosierham]

Maybe he can retire to Scotland.

[dfwgator]

[combat_boots]

Arlen Spectre is the ghost of Christmas future and has been since 1963. He is a traitor to this country.

[SueRae]

good riddance Arlen - and thanks for your vote on Obamacare(among others), you traitor.

[bcsco]

"Collegiality can obviously not be maintained when negotiating with someone out to defeat you, especially in your own party," Specter says in the 2,600-word speech, scheduled for 10:30 a.m. "In some quarters, compromising has become a dirty word. . . . Politics is no longer the art of the possible when senators are intransigent in their positions."

So, collegiality and compromise are the goals; not doing what's best for one's country. Got it. This jerk is typical of what's wrong with Washington today.

[Vendome]

Thanks for all you've done Arlen!

 

You're Still Number One!

 

[traditional1]

Even under “Scottish Law”; he’s still an asshole.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

A soulless man who stood for nothing and will be missed by nobody.

[Check6]

Now, let us prepare to send the commie Casey to follow closely in his footsteps.

[Trajan88]

exactly.

[wmileo]

""Eating or defeating your own is a form of sophisticated cannibalism," Specter, a Democrat, plans to say, according to his prepared remarks, referring to conservative Republican senators - notably Jim DeMint of South Carolina - who helped tea-party insurgents fell three moderate incumbents in the 2010 primaries. "

The GOP and DEMS did not screw Senator Specter. He did it to himself. He is the least liked by his peers than anyone in the upper house since Jacob Javits but at least Senator Javits had intellect which his peers respected.

Specter was always a disagreeable person and his legacy is not worth the price of a new roll of toilet paper.

[Army Air Corps]

"In some quarters, compromising has become a dirty word. . . . Politics is no longer the art of the possible when senators are intransigent in their positions."

Arlen, that is a good description of the Democrat party, especially over the last several years. You remember the ObummerCare debate? You know, "We won, so screw you." Yes, lots of eagerness to negotiate there.

[wmileo]

"Even under “Scottish Law”; he’s still an asshole."

ARSE_HOLE?

[Liberty Valance]

Give a man a fish and he might take it the wrong way...

[Iron Munro]

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Specter is a politician who pissed off both the left and the right and paid the price

Scottish Law states Specter must be stoned to death.