Ramesh Ponnuru
May 28, 2003, 8:30 a.m.
Lobbyist Bites Dog
David Keene’s Pennsylvania surprise.
ou would expect David Keene to be on board for the Toomey campaign. Keene is the chairman of the American Conservative Union. Pat Toomey, a House Republican from Pennsylvania, has a 97-percent rating from the ACU. Toomey has been a leading advocate of personal accounts for Social Security. He sponsored a bill in 2001 to make President Bush’s tax cut larger. He has tried to force spending restraint on his colleagues in both parties.
Toomey is running for the Senate in a Republican primary against the incumbent, Arlen Specter. The latter is one of the most liberal Republicans in the Senate. He voted to shrink Bush’s tax cut in 2001. He is a leading advocate of cloning. He wants to grill Bush’s judicial nominees to make them pledge their fealty to diversity. He voted against impeaching President Clinton. And so on. Specter has a lifetime rating from the ACU of 47 — a fact that Keene acknowledges.
Yet Keene has written a column in support of Specter.
Keene notes that Specter has sometimes been a useful ally of conservatives, as in the confirmation of Clarence Thomas. This is true, but it is not much of an argument for keeping a 47-percent conservative when you could have a 97-percenter. A conservative could nonetheless support Specter in good conscience on the theory that Toomey would be likely to lose the seat for the Republicans, and that in today’s circumstances that is not a risk that should be taken. I wouldn’t agree with this argument myself: Toomey has a pretty good track record in places you wouldn’t expect conservatives to do well. But in any case, Keene does not make this argument from pragmatism.
Instead, he claims that Specter is worth supporting for his personal qualities: “I’ve known and worked with Specter for more than a decade. . . . He is honest and decent, and, unlike many of his colleagues, his word is always good. When he’s with you, he’ll tell you, and when he’s against you, he’ll let you know that, too. . . . I may be going soft, but I like him. I like his honesty and his willingness to listen. . . . Arlen Specter is what we used to call a standup guy. He isn’t always with us, but when he is you can take his word to the bank. He’s willing to climb out of his foxhole and take on the opposition. . . . It may not count with many conservatives, but it counts with me.”
Well. It must be said that Keene’s view of Specter as a likable fellow is, um, not universally shared. But be that as it may. There are plenty of liberal Democrats in the Senate who are honest and affable as well. We would not, however, expect the chairman of the ACU to endorse them on that basis, or even to stay neutral in their races.
Thirty-three Republican congressmen have written to the ACU’s board of directors to express their “dismay” at Keene’s endorsement, which, they claim, “has brought discredit and embarrassment to your fine organization.” They acknowledge that Keene’s column was not written in his capacity as the head of the ACU — although the column did identify him as such — but say that it has “placed in doubt” the ACU’s “commitment to conservative principles.”
Some conservative activists are also raising the question of whether Keene has a conflict of interest. As The Hill also notes, Keene is “a managing associate with the Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental affairs firm.” In other words, a lobbyist. A brief review of the lobbying-disclosure reports reveals that Keene is frequently listed as doing lobbying work that concerns the Senate Appropriations Committee: for example, lobbying on the appropriations bill that funds the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. No doubt all this lobbying activity is directed toward shrinking the federal government. But it is worth noting that the chairman of the Senate subcommittee on Labor-HHS appropriations is — Arlen Specter.
Keene’s colleague Donald Devine recently wrote a memo arguing that conservatives, their movement having been taken over by imposters comfortable with big government, should start a new magazine. I disagreed with Devine’s analysis. But a new, less compromised version of the American Conservative Union may well be in order.
Keane on Specter: “He is honest and decent, and, unlike many of his colleagues, his word is always good. When he’s with you, he’ll tell you, and when he’s against you, he’ll let you know that, too”
Well, except when push comes to shove and he’s losing big time in the GOP Primary. Just ask Sen. Cornyn.
Keene, like most inside-the-beltway types of any party or stripe, is a self-promoter. He’s figured out how to game the system and make himself fat from donors by simply using the language those donors want to hear. Ultimately, it’s all about HIM.
I remember discussing that before. I wonder if he still thinks Specter is honest and can be taken at his word after his flip-flop on the “stimulus” and then switching over to the Democratic party?
I wonder if Keene is joining those asking for their money back?
As one who speaks about those who talk personally to candidates, I will say that it seems sometimes being FRIENDS with candidates (as opposed to being a disinterested observer who gets one-on-one time with them) seems to make some people overly accepting of what the candidate tells them). Whether it’s the natural inclination to trust people you know, or it’s the sheer thrill of being friends with someone in power, I can’t say.
“He’s [Specter] willing to climb out of his foxhole and take on the opposition”
LOL.
When Senator Specter crawled out of his “fox hole” and approached the other side; it was NOT to engage them in battle but to SWITCH SIDES.