Posted on 02/09/2009 8:07:38 AM PST by Born Conservative
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is a marked moderate.
In the Senate, the Philadelphia Republican voted mostly with his party last year, but with the Democrats more than a third of the time.
Neither side thinks that’s enough and both want to beat him when he seeks an unprecedented sixth six-year term next year.
Conservative Republicans consider him a RINO — a “Republican in name only.” They would like nothing better than if one of their own knocked him off in the Republican primary and took their anti-government, lower-taxes, anti-abortion fight to the Democrats.
“I think he’s extremely vulnerable in the Republican primary,” said Chris Lilik, the president of Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania, who helped a strong conservative challenger, Pat Toomey, almost upset Specter in the 2004 GOP primary.
“I think he is more vulnerable from an attack from a conservative Republican than a moderate or liberal Democrat,” Democratic media consultant Ed Mitchell said.
Democrats, looking to expand their Senate majority to a filibuster-proof 60 votes, want a more reliable ally.
“To his credit, once in a while, he’s with us,” state Democratic Party chairman T.J. Rooney said. “Given the choice, we prefer to have a Democrat who’s with us all the time instead of just when it’s politically expedient.”
Plenty talk, little action
Rooney predicts two tough races for Specter next year.
The problem for Democrats and Republicans who would like to take him out is this: for all the talk of challengers, almost no one is overtly acting like one.
The lone exception is Democrat Joseph M. Torsella, the former president and chief executive officer of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Torsella, a Berwick native who lives in suburban Philadelphia, plans to file papers forming a campaign committee today.
The Democrats’ best-known hope, MSNBC “Hardball” anchor Chris Matthews, said last month he wouldn’t run. Their list of about seven names is relatively unknown, save for ex-football player Franco Harris, who hasn’t publicly indicated interest.
“I think it would have to be a Democratic rock star,” said Lance Stange, secretary of the Lackawanna County Republican Party. “It will be very difficult for Democrats to replicate 2008.”
The Republican field is slimmer. When Toomey announced last month he won’t run for the Senate again, conservatives lost their favorite son. Their best-known potential challenger at the moment is Margaret “Peg” Luksik, a staunch anti-abortionist who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1994. Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta acknowledged Saturday he was approached by several Republicans to run, but said he likes the senator and doesn’t want to run against him.
With Specter’s proven ability to raise money ($5.8 million banked), any challenger better get started soon.
“It’s not too late to get in right now, but I wouldn’t wait too long,” said Ted Meehan, the president and founder of the Reagan Caucus, a group of conservatives who met over the weekend during the state Republican Party meeting in Harrisburg.
Attacks on both sides
Specter, who is in the region today for a fundraiser and tour of Schott Glass Technologies plant in Duryea, just rehired Chris Nicholas, who guided his successful 2004 race.
Of his upcoming re-election campaign, Specter, frequently quoting Baseball Hall of Famer Satchel Paige, says he runs with the attitude, “Don’t look back, someone may be gaining on you.”
“Arlen has a really unique situation,” former Lt. Gov. Bill Scranton, a Republican, said. “He has a pretty rock solid base in the southeast, which not many Republicans have any more, and he’s got Republicans in the rest of the state” and he’s popular with some Democrats.
Conservatives’ distaste for Specter begins with his support for abortion rights. They also question his fiscal conservatism. They were almost apoplectic over the weekend because he appears ready to be one of two or three Republicans to support the Senate version of Obama’s costly economic stimulus plan.
“If it’s a big vote, Arlen’s the first one to cave,” Meehan said. “It (the stimulus bill) gets to the Senate; the Republicans make a stand, and Arlen caves.”
They fear he’ll vote for a bill to make it easier for unions to form.
Though the last two congressional elections overwhelmingly favored Democrats, the political climate Specter will face next year is far from clear. But by then, a Democratic president will get the credit or blame rather than the Democrats’ favorite whipping boy, President George W. Bush, their target in 2006 and 2008.
Whether Specter can withstand attacks from both sides will depend greatly on that climate. A revived economy with an Arlen Specter who voted against the stimulus would give a Democratic challenger great ammunition. If slump continues, a vote for the stimulus could help a Republican challenger.
By backing the stimulus, Specter might be showing he’s unworried about a strong conservative challenge and positioning himself to take on a Democrat. Just about everyone agrees on this: He is as smart a politician as there is going.
“I wouldn’t bet against him,” Scranton said.
We might have another chance to vote for Pat Toomey: http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDgwZDEzYzllYzBiZWRjNTZlODcxNDVjM2VmNzg3ODM
I am devastated to hear, Toomey isn’t running against Specter this time. I can’t think of another PA Republican, who has a serious chance of defeating him.
It's also being very false!
As I wrote to Specter & his fellow travellers in "moderation" Snowe & Collins, there's nothing the least bit moderate about their votes for this Pork Bill. There's nothing middle of the road about saddling everybody else's kids & grandkids with crippling debt for life in this blatant scam to pay off Obama's & Pelosi's & Reid's obligations to greedy special interest groups & others who provided them campaign support. Not a single job & not a speck of wealth will be created by absurdly wasteful items such as heaters for pools in Hawaii and all three of these Senators damn well know it.
For years, these three have tried to cultivate reputations for being the rationally responsible, ideologically independent members of their party who would rather betray their party's line if it meant promoting the good of the country. Their deceitful votes for this crooked payola package will force them once & for all to forfeit the right to insult anybody else's intelligence by even thinking about claiming that whopper ever again. That charade is finito, kaput, DOA.
Indeed, these three have permanently outed themselves as standing with the most cynically self-serving, IRrational, IRresponsible & IMmoderate stewards of the "good of the country" in the Senate and their reputations even among moderates, independents & middle-of-the-roaders will be irrevocably destroyed with this vote.
And rest assured if their phony mantles of 'moderation' are not not quite shredded yet, just wait for the next few years of incessant letters to the editor repeatedly enumerating all of the indefensibly irresponsible & recklessly wasteful garbage studded in this sleazy porkapalooza bill for which they're voting. Even the leftists in their states will recoil in disgust at the craven hypocrisy they're employing while sticking it to the next generation in the most selfishly shortsighted and wantonly profligate way imaginable.
No, these three Senators' reputations as "reasonable moderates" will have at long last earned their rightful burials straight down those $30,000+ self-flushing toilets in Sumter SC which Specter, Snowe & Collins have unethically chosen to put on the credit cards of citizens who haven't even yet been born let alone those who are now too young to give them permission to do so - all in the criminally corrupt name of "stimulus".
I hope and pray they can persuade Pat Toomey to run again.
Great post leilani. ALL three are TRAITORS to their party AND their country, along with the Democrats headed by Obama.
I can't think of another Pa. Republican who is worth anything. Maybe Barletta.
If Pat's not aiming at Arlen, I hope he's aiming at the governor's office.
There is really no such thing as “moderate.” A “moderate” is a liberal who is ashamed of being called a liberal or who is afraid to come out of the closet just yet.
This has got to be the bleakest time for our country and our state, as well as for Republicans and conservatives since my initial involvement in college. Somewhere there's got to be a silver lining.
“Not to mention he voted for SCHIP. Medical care for illegals and 30-year-old “children” on the backs of taxpayers making less.”
Lol, it looks like I can sign up and be eligible for benefits along with my children! Although, this may only be for single/childless “children” 30 and under. This is so ridiculous, and there is no end in sight.
scott_hoeflich@specter.senate.gov
“Ol’ Bag O’ Haggis” is my name for him. Despicable RINO!
I wish they would strip Specter, Snowe and Collins of any GOP committees and REALLY make them RINO’s.
Well, I don't know if I quite agree with that. There are politicians in some states who represent constituencies who are in the aggregate conservative about some things & "progressive" to liberal about others. Nobody who is across-the-board conservative (or conversely across-the-board liberal) could possibly be elected in some places, and the politicians voters in those places send to DC to represent their interests reflect that. Many call them "RINOs" here, but they're just doing the jobs the people in Purple districts & purple states elected them to do.
But I think in the case of this thoroughly bogus "stimulus" bill which was clearly designed to stimulate only the bank accounts & career prospects of supporters of the current political power structure & further which accomplishes that by forcing a particular segment of the citizenry - a segment which doesn't yet even enjoy the vote to be able to sign off on it - to foot the bill for it, a vote for this particular bill has nothing to do with ideology but with basic ethics. A liberal could just as easily vote against this bill as a conservative on the simple non-ideological grounds that it's nothing more than a massive gold-plated monument to political corruption.
Someone who exploits a non-related situation (in this case, dire economic conditions) to vote for a bill in order to pay back others who help put them in office & puts the tab for that payoff into somebody else's accounts payable column without their permission is just a thief. A plain, old-fashioned two-bit thief!
As we've seen with Spector, Snowe & Collins, the fact that someone who votes for this bill may be liberal or moderate or conservative is just incidental to the fact that they're corrupt. Pull away the utterly irrelevant ideological window-dressing & you've got yourself nothing more than a dirty low-down crook.
“Moderate is a base-stealing word for liberal Republicans.” — Bill Buckley
Call his local offices if oyu can’t get DC.
Would Santorum do it?
So ironic that Santorum is one of reasons we still have to deal with Specter, and he (President Bush and others) by their support of Specter helped to bring us to this sorry situation. Now knowing the extreme consequences of his actions (which before he could only surmise), Santorum would still put his friendship with Specter ABOVE the good of his country. Amazing. Again what does Specter have on Rick Santorum?
BTW, despite my extreme anger over Santorum's support of Toomey over Specter, I voted for Santorum against Casey. Rick impresses me as the kind of person who is too arrogant to learn lessons, and trying to teach him some, it seemed to me, would hurt us, and the cause, more than it would hurt him. Besides, when I decide I want to get rid of a politician, it's because they do more harm to the country and/or conservative cause than good (and I just want them gone)...it's NEVER to teach them a lesson. Our responsibility isn't to teach lessons, but is, to the best of our ability, the protection of the best interest of our country.
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