OR: Is Arlen Specter Really Too Liberal?
Published on November 15, 2004 By CrispE In Politics
Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, is a Republican from Pennsylvania where he has served as a conservative representative for over 20 years. Specter is generally considered to be fiscally conservative and has fought against government expenditure for such programs as healthcare for many years. Democrats are said to see him as less moderate than many in the Senate but someone who can be reasoned with on matters of substance. But Specter has "pro-choice" stamped on his forehead in a time when as many as 4 Supreme Court justices may be chosen and the neocons see him as a block to the neoconservative agenda of overturning Roe V. Wade and sending abortions back into alleys and brothels.

Specter has supported Preseident Bush almost 100% of the time but sees his role on the Judicial Committee as a bond of honor to the country. He does not want to see abortion become a more divisive issue than it is now but sees the religious right as a threat to "strict constructionistism" because the agenda of religious leaders extends far beyond abortion.

What Specter did not anticipate is that the President he has supported and believes in would turn on him as being a traitor to Republican values by his stance on choice. Once again, the Bush administration shows itself to not be conservative in any appreciable way and indeed to be a radical group of people who used the Republican Party to gain power and then fights within the party to move the it to their radical position.

The Democratic Party is often accused of being a concensus of 20 separate interest groups and certainly the commonality (the big tent approach) of the party is that supporting each other is better than letting the opposition steal the agenda. The re-election of Mr. Bush has shown the concensus to have failed to do this. Indeed, the Bush administration believes it has a mandate to change tax laws, social security, and how justice is done in the U.S. If the Democrats are going to gain any chance to make input in these issues then it is going to need at least a sympathetic ear to listen.

If you would have suggested before now that Arlen Specter would have such an ear before now I think that few would have agreed. However, I think Senator Specter is going to find out how far away his party has moved from his values and ideals. Senator Frist, the Majority Leader in the Senate, a potential candidate in 2008 is already looking away from Specter and considering alternatives to his chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. Many others in the Senate are lining up against Specter, running scared from the monster in the White House who will stop at nothing to shape the United States in "his image."

This signals an even more important turn in the course of post-election America. It is a continuing revolution in the Republican "Party" that wil continue to adopt more and more of the leadership of the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons whom many even in conservative congregations see as extremists. But as "moderates" are pushed out of the way like Colin Powell and Arlen Specter the agenda of the neocons becomes a possibility. Deficit spending, more tax cuts, extremist justice and more burdens placed on the workers and the poor are just some of the future as the administration moves closer and closer to it's core philosophy.

Is this really what you wanted when you voted for Bush?

Comments (Page 1)
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on Nov 15, 2004
At least someone has the 'nads to come out and say it.
on Nov 15, 2004
Republican tastes like chicken, I hear. Bitter, bitter chicken.
on Nov 15, 2004
Seconding Little_Whip - Yes.

And btw, your blog is wrong in a most important area:

By CrispE:

Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, is a Republican from Pennsylvania where he has served as a conservative representative for over 20 years. Specter is generally considered to be fiscally conservative and has fought against government expenditure for such programs as healthcare for many years. Democrats are said to see him as less moderate than many in the Senate but someone who can be reasoned with on matters of substance. But Specter has "pro-choice" stamped on his forehead in a time when as many as 4 Supreme Court justices may be chosen and the neocons see him as a block to the neoconservative agenda of overturning Roe V. Wade and sending abortions back into alleys and brothels.


Specter is not a conservative. He is at best a moderate, at worst a total liberal.

He may be somewhat conservative on the fiscal side, but in every other way, he is completely and totally a RINO - Republican In Name Only.

He was lucky to keep his seat in the Senate, as he was almost beaten down in the primaries by a true conservative. If the Bush team had not gotten behind Specter, he'd have been gone, even if replaced by a Democrat. Some would say that might not be a bad thing, since that would have passed over Specter for seniority on the Judiciary commitee (with him gone) and his replacement would have started at the bottom of the seniority list for any position anyway (and would have been in the minority at the same time).

Specter himself is to blame for this recent flare up over his record. He ran his yap lecturing the President to be mindful of who he nominates for any openings on any court, and in doing so, completely over-stepped his bounds. He tried to deny it even a day later, but it was on the record for all to read and/or hear.

Personally, I don't mind a moderate Republican, but I look at Specter and see someone that might just as well pull a Jim Jeffords and switch to the other side or go totally Indy (independent). As much as think Jeffords was a creep for switching to independent back in 2000/2001 just after the election (which robbed the citizens who voted for a Republican to represent them from that Republican representation), at least he had guts enough to switch, and he has since faced re-election.

Specter has been a fence sitter for a long time, and he's danced around as a conservative when it benefits him, while at the same time he's shown himself to be a liberal so that he can keep pulling in votes from the left so he doesn't get sent home packing.
on Nov 15, 2004
Republicans Begin to Eat Their Own

By: CrispE
Posted: Monday, November 15, 2004 on Engaging the Possible
Message Board: Politics
Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Senate Judicial Committee, is a Republican from Pennsylvania where he has served as a conservative representative for over 20 years. Specter is generally considered to be fiscally conservative and has fought against government expenditure for such programs as healthcare for many years. Democrats are said to see him as less moderate than many in the Senate but someone who can be reasoned with on matters of substance. But Specter has "pro-choice" stamped on his forehead in a time when as many as 4 Supreme Court justices may be chosen and the neocons see him as a block to the neoconservative agenda of overturning Roe V. Wade and sending abortions back into alleys and brothels.

Specter has supported Preseident Bush almost 100% of the time but sees his role on the Judicial Committee as a bond of honor to the country. He does not want to see abortion become a more divisive issue than it is now but sees the religious right as a threat to "strict constructionistism" because the agenda of religious leaders extends far beyond abortion.

What Specter did not anticipate is that the President he has supported and believes in would turn on him as being a traitor to Republican values by his stance on choice. Once again, the Bush administration shows itself to not be conservative in any appreciable way and indeed to be a radical group of people who used the Republican Party to gain power and then fights within the party to move the it to their radical position


In answer to your last question YES! And BTW it's not JUST the republican party. You find quite a few republican voters are not caring to much for him either! Obviously not enough to vote him out of office though. However he is being called a RINO! (Republican in name only)
His name around town is "Arlen Sphincter"
on Nov 15, 2004
little_whip:

As always I appreciate your honesty. Funny that you liked Colin Powell. Why do you think he is resigning? Couldn't be that he was sick of the neocons was it?
on Nov 15, 2004
Terpfan 1980:

Well, he is a conservative to anyone truly moderate and at one time was considered very conservative by most Democrats. So, standing on his record, he is conservative.
on Nov 15, 2004
drmiler:

Nice of you to call someone with over 20 years experience in the Senate and a perennial vote getter in a Blue state a derogatory name. I might have had some question about Republicans eatting their own before now but that has been cleared up for me. Thanks!
on Nov 15, 2004

Reply #8 By: CrispE - 11/15/2004 1:49:16 PM
drmiler:

Nice of you to call someone with over 20 years experience in the Senate and a perennial vote getter in a Blue state a derogatory name. I might have had some question about Republicans eatting their own before now but that has been cleared up for me. Thanks!


If you think I thought that stuff on my own,, you are sadly mistaken. All I did was reitterate what I've been hearing.
BTW if you think I'm alone in this, go back and read reply #4.
on Nov 15, 2004
drmiler:

No, I know you're not alone. What I think is that you have no respect for someone who has served his country in a very honorable manner but whom people you respect treat with derogatory and derision.
on Nov 15, 2004
little_whip:

Interesting that Colin Powell would be sent to "the black hole of negotiations." As if the "Road Map to Peace" isn't enough?
on Nov 15, 2004

Reply #11 By: CrispE - 11/15/2004 2:03:59 PM
drmiler:

No, I know you're not alone. What I think is that you have no respect for someone who has served his country in a very honorable manner but whom people you respect treat with derogatory and derision.


No, I have absolutely NO respect for an elected offical who abandons the basic precepts that got him elected in the first place.
on Nov 15, 2004
drmiler:

I wasn't aware a) you live in PA or you were voting when Senator Specter was originally elected to the Senate. I apologise.
on Nov 15, 2004
drmiler:

I wasn't aware a) you live in PA or you were voting when Senator Specter was originally elected to the Senate. I apologise.


Runs away!!

Plinko? To Philosophy Class of course!!
on Nov 15, 2004
No, I have absolutely NO respect for an elected offical who abandons the basic precepts that got him elected in the first place.


Then I guess Drmiler hates George Bush because he A) Said he was against nation building and campaigned as a moderate Republican.
on Nov 15, 2004
Myrrander:

I thought that reply was too easy so I went with the other one! Kudos and Tally ho!
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