Posted on 02/12/2009 3:34:48 PM PST by STARWISE
What Sen. Arlen Specter (R.-Penn.) dubbed the “moderates’ compromise” that he and two other moderate Republican senators voted for Tuesday is fast becoming the “last straw” with the five-termer for conservatives in the Keystone State.
“I consider Sen. Specter a friend and, despite disagreements on a number of issues, I admired his work to confirm [Supreme Court nominees] John Roberts and Samuel Alito,” Pittsburgh businessman Glen Meakem told me today, “But his support of [the $838 billion stimulus package] is too much. Pennsylvania voters are fed up with Specter’s perennial charade.”
Predicting that “there will be a Republican primary fight for Specter’s Senate seat in 2010,” Meakem echoed almost word-for-word the prediction made to me by another prominent conservative two weeks ago.
Referring to the 79-year-old Specter’s “very perplexing” behavior in asking tough questions of Obama attorney general nominee Eric Holder and then voting for his confirmation, former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) said that “his latest behavior regarding Holder means that Specter should definitely face a primary challenge next year.”
Today Toomey (who drew 48% of the vote against Specter in the ’04 primary) joined Meakem in weighing in against the incumbent’s pivotal support for the Obama-backed economic package.
Writing in National Review Online, the former congressman charged that Specter and Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins (who also backed the stimulus package), “the Republican party lost the opportunity to pass a true compromise bill that would have encouraged economic growth.
By unanimously voting against the stimulus bill, House Republicans empowered Senate Republicans to demand substantive, pro-growth amendments. After all, without sixty votes in the Senate, President Obama would not have been able to pass any bill, good or bad.”
When he had spoken to me about his disappointment with Specter’s votes for Holder, Toomey had also cited his former opponent’s niche as the only Republican senator to vote for “Card-check” -- Big Labor’s cherished measure to end the secret ballot in union elections.
Meakem brought up “Card-check” as well, and also said that there will be key votes on abortion coming up in the Senate in which Specter’s position is unclear.
“As the Obama Administration prepares for an effort to make abortion as legal as possible, I don’t know what the senator’s position will be,” said Meakem, “But all of the latest developments are not encouraging.”
Calling the stimulus package “the revenge of the left,” Meakem noted what he called “its trial lawyer provision, which would encourage state attorneys general to federalize actions against companies that have violated health insurance and private accountability acts by deputizing private contingency-based trial lawyers to file suits on behalf of the government.”
So who’s going to take on Specter in the primary next year? Toomey has long signaled that he will run for governor in 2010, when two-term incumbent Ed Rendell must by law step down.
Rest at link
Yes, it was Bush’s fault. This time.
Have you seen or heard Specter lately? He looks like a walking corpse. He mumbles and slurs his speech. I think the guy’s on his last legs. He’s being treated for cancer again. If my fellow Pennsylvania Republicans vote for this jerk again, they deserve to have their heads examined.
The bottom line is Specter needs to go and that is looking forward as you suggested.
I just think we need to call out the rest of the RINOs while we are at it.
I think it needs to be a scorched Earth policy with these fools. They have 2 options:
1. Leave the Party.
2. Get voted out.
Ok! I just spent 15 seconds blaming Bush and Santorum. Damn, it felt good. ......... Now what???
Toomey was ahead until Bush & Santorum came along.
Draw your own conclusions.
LOL. Start saving money and donate to Specter’s opponent!
No. Toomey almost beat Specter in the primary. But Bush and Santorum supported him, convincing some Republicans to vote for Specter. I learned my lesson much earlier, after he voted against convicting Bill Clinton.
Michael Steele should announce that Larry, Snowe and Curley are no longer Republicans. If it’s a party, it should stand for something
P.S.
“Know what? President Bush is out of office, he should no longer be the scapegoat, he can no longer act on what has occurring.”
Oh yes he can be blamed. He continued laying the foundation for this mess. He is a RINO; hence, he was not going to stop it.
I will also bet he knows that Obama is not a U.S. citizen.
Screw Bush.
I agree with all the way.
Thank you.
Smacking Specter, When His Vote Matters
New York Times | Feb 12 2009 | KATE PHILLIPS
Posted on 02/12/2009 3:59:39 PM PST by malkee
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2184458/posts
There is no place on the web to email the GOP, but I will mail a letter to Steele tellin him they have not done enought to punish the THREE RHINO’s and therefore I will continue my moratorium of donating to the GOP.
I will continue to support Conservative candidates in primaries.
Now you can’t even get a copy of the new bill. What is the GOP doing about it..why aren’t they demonstrating outside Pelosi and Reid’s office. They have no fire in the belly.
Snowe and Collins, too.
Also get to Judd Gregg to vote NO on this.
Blame Bush. Yawn.
Any evidence that Toomey would have won the general?
Did Santorum win his last re-election bid?
Time to face the fact that that demand for purity won’t always get the results you want.
Just ask California Governor Tom McClintock.
How many terrorist attacks have we suffered on U.S. soil starting on Sept. 12, 2001?
I tell you now that the Bush haters among the conservatives will whine despondently about going back to the good old days under George W. Bush, That sniveling will only intensify as the months and years of President Obama’s administration spool out.
Want to keep blaming Bush? Grow up.
Time to look forward.
All of this said, it’s time to clean house and get rid of the rest of the RINOs. They never wanted to tolerate us. Time to stop tolerating them.
I am also from PA and have been trying to reach Specter. His voicemail is full, and the Philly office is busy Did get throught to Harrisburg with my outrage. Try nationaltepublicantrust.com to help throw him out of office. I quit the party as I am fed up. But I will work to defeat him next year.
Hey, bud, Pennsylvania is NOT California. I live here. Nobody ran on the democratic ticket opposing Specter. There are a lot of pro-life democrats here. Casey, the other senator, is a pro-life democrat. The reason Pennsylvania is always such a big deal during the presidential election is that we are a real mixed bag here. Santorum won here twice, don’t forget that. I voted against him when he put his kids in his TV ads. But perhaps that was a mistake. Anyway, I would suggest writing to Specter. It can’t hurt and might help.
Reference post #23.
I agree with you all the way. No argument on my part.
You have no idea how angry I am.
You want to know how long this fossil has been wasting space in the Senate. I voted for him (stupid college kid) in his first election in 1980. Unbelievable that he is still there.
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