Posted on 03/28/2009 4:05:47 AM PDT by Scanian
The business community is dancing a victory jig over Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's announcement that he'll provide the crucial vote to stop Big Labor's top priority, the "card check" bill. Fair enough, though the real test of corporate America is yet to come.
Mr. Specter has been in the hot seat, the one Republican who had previously voted to debate card check -- legislation that would eliminate secret ballots in union elections. Up for re-election next year in a big union state, he was under intense pressure to again help his labor allies by giving Democrats the filibuster-breaking vote.
He might have done it, too. Instead, the business community managed something it has not managed in years: unity. Hundreds of companies, industry groups and organizations made clear that should he support the bill, an unwavering business front would expend all its resources to elect a different Republican in next year's primary.
They were able to back up that threat in part because they'd successfully turned what had been a dry question of labor law into an emotional, grass-roots issue. For more than a year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups have doggedly run ads and held events to explain card check to voters. Surveys show that the more Americans know about the bill's antidemocratic provisions, the more they hate it.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
A lot of us in Pa are looking forward to having Specter defeated in the primary by Pat Toomey. It’s time to put the old dog to sleep.
But, what a morning after a Toomey win in the Gen. Elct.
This issue is a good one for conservatives. It gives us some clear ammunition to reestablish the concept of individual rights.
Coupled with the Moral Hazard of rewarding failure - out-of-wedlock babies or corporate billionaires - it could give us a solid majority. Emphasis could.
Republicans and mind-blind conservatives have blown it before and are certainly capable of doing it again.
Say it like it is.
Spectre would have liked to vote with the Unions like all good Democrats, but he got scared off.
Get rid of this load manure before he dos any more damage.
Agree 100%. I got an email from Specter's office, saying that he had decided to not to support card check "after long and exhaustive study". I wrote back that it sure doesn't take exhaustive study to see this for exactly what it is, it takes about two minutes, and that I will never vote for another Rino. He should just become a Democrat like he is.
I agree with you. Get rid of him. Since I’m in a hopeless liberal state, I will spend my political donation dollars to help defeat Spectre.
The 'Rats knew that they'd get creamed for passing card check, so Specter's giving them cover and allowing the gutless 'Rats to blame it on those evil Pubbies.
No surprise, really. Labor is one part of the Democratic coalition that never gets anything when Democrats are in power - sort of like libertarians on the Republican side. Both parties are working as hard as they can to screw the American worker.
Thuggery to follow.
Big shift over this issue here in Johnson County KS where the Rinos who have supported Dennis Moore for a decade are up in arms because he co-sponsored this bill in the House.
Specter was for card check before he was against it. He’s running to the right as he always does a year before the election. That’s a bad thing for Obama, because Specter might not be a sure vote on some key issues.
Toomey should beat him, unless a LOT of Democrats cross over and vote Specter (assuming their primary has a shoo in candidate), but PA does not have an open primary system, so they would have to go to the trouble to change their registration a month before the primary, then change it back to vote in the general.
I doubt there are enough Democrats who would take the trouble to do that.
PA will need a hot Dem contest to keep the Dem nominee on the left.
The question is will PA voters elect a Toomey in a General? Or worse, will primary voters forget and support Specter again?
He is a true rino.
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