Posted on 01/02/2011 10:09:57 AM PST by freespirited
As Arlen Specter leaves the Senate after 30 years, the one-time corruption-busting Philadelphia prosecutor and architect of the "single-bullet theory" of the John F. Kennedy assassination says he wouldn't change a thing about his zig-zag-zig political path.
Specter began and ended - for now - his political life as a Democrat and spent the intervening four decades as a Republican. But he sees himself as an independent who often bucked party leadership - ultimately ending his career.
"I have always agreed with (John F.) Kennedy that sometimes party asks too much," Specter said in his last news media interview in his Washington office on Dec. 23. "My tenure in the Senate was really as an independent and whichever, regardless of party label."
In February 2009, he provided a key vote for President Obama's economic stimulus package, the only congressional Republican facing re-election in 2010 to do so. That vote so enraged Pennsylvania Republicans - and solidified GOP support for conservative former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey - that Specter returned to the Democratic Party, only to be beaten in its May primary.
He is Pennsylvania's longest-serving U.S. senator, savvy enough to court conservatives before primary elections and the rest of the state's moderate and Democratic voters during general elections while advancing his own influence and interests. He weathered firestorms from conservatives and liberals, and criticism that he staked out positions on both sides of the same, controversial issue. ...
Specter is unlikely to go down in history as one of the great U.S. senators. But he was widely regarded as a smart, tireless and effective legislator who used his seniority to work the levers of power to serve constituents and bring home tax dollars.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Good riddance!!!
You might say that Specter’s entire political nightmare career was one giant “single bullet theory” of democrat leftist socialist bent, mixed with a judicious amount of pocket lining. A true embarrassment, like LBJ, or Fulbright, or Clinton, h or b, or.... keep going. They are all at our trough, while we work- it is what we created this country to fight against.
Am (( M.O.O.N.I.N.G )) ..... Arlen Specter..
When, exactly, was he a Republican???....
Another P.O.S. is all you can really say.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out! ...on second thought.
.
Please Senator Spector, shutup and retire.
I the words of now ex-Congressman Alan Grayson, Arlen “Die Quickly”!
I have only two words to say.
Good riddance!!!
I have one word to add.Good Riddance Rat.
“Arlen Specter” should be a phrase akin to “Benedict Arnold” and “quisling”.
Because he is a traitor, on more than one level.
I can only say Thank God I have lived long enough to see sen spector Gone for Good!!!!
...during Republican primaries.
Not wanting to say anything directly unkind towards the man, I'll only say this. I am sometimes sorry the state of medical advancement benefited him.
The dollars he has cost America are incalculable. The damages he caused while sucking our treasury dry are even harder to estimate. Now he will live in retirement with the best of everything we can buy for him
...BUT NOT THE HEALTH CARE HE WANTED TO SHOVE DOWN OUR THROATS.
“just a dreadful little man”
Terse, but well written.
Amen
Every legislative body needs an expert on Scottish law.
Okay, maybe not.
Were Specter to step in front of my car and I hit him and it was proved to be his fault I would not feel bad about it.
Just saying.
The wretch, concentrated all in self
Living, shall forfeit fair renown
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.
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