To this day, I still don’t understand that move.
Many of us don’t.
The word was that he used the endorsement to extract a promise of support for Roberts and Alito (Specter was a key member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who could have taken other votes with him).
Also, for better or worse, Santorum seemed to back George W. Bush mostly when called upon. This was one of those times.
The real headscratcher for me was Brownback endorsing Sebelius for HHS. Icky-poo!
wasn’t Specter the deciding vote in the senate for the worst piece of legislation in modern American history?
As I recall, it was a "scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" scenario. Specter was on the Judiciary Committee at the time that Alito and Roberts were nominated. Bush called in a favor to Santorum, and asked him to support Snarlin' Arlen, who would then see to it that Alito and Roberts were approved by the Senate. Santorum was a good Republican and did his Party Leadership's bidding. This act angered Santorum's conservative base and he was thrown under the Republican bus.
If you ask me, I think Santorum was put into a politically self-defeating situation by the Republican Party, but that's just MHO...
It is 200+ year tradition and senatorial courtesy for a senator to support his fellow US senator for president (when from the same party).
Santorum did what he had to do in that circumstance, and I am sure he hated every moment of it.
But it is not something to hold against Santorum.