Posted on 03/24/2009 4:13:09 PM PDT by radar101
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced Tuesday he will oppose card check, giving an apparent death blow to the most important congressional issue to organized labor.
Specter made the dramatic announcement in a floor speech. His opposition means Democrats can count on a maximum of 59 votes to move the bill forward, one short of the 60 required to clear Senate rules.
Winning 59 votes would require Democrat Al Franken to beat Republican Norm Coleman in the still-contested Minnesota Senate race. Democrats also would have to count on holding the rest of their votes, and several centrists have raised doubts about the bill.
In his floor speech, Specter noted that Franken’s likely win could give him the 60th vote required to make the bill law.
“If so, the decisive vote would be mine,” said Specter, who told The Hill last week in an interview that his would be the decisive vote.
“It is an anguishing position but we play the cards we're dealt,” Specter said Tuesday on the floor.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Specter’s opposition does not mean the end of card-check in this Congress. He also said he thinks other Republicans in the Senate might vote for the bill.
But no other Republican senators have signaled their support for the bill, and business has engaged in a fierce lobbying and public relations attack to prevent anyone from crossing the aisle to support it.
After his speech, praise immediately began to pour in for Specter from a number of business trade associations who have lobbied heavily against the bill.
“I am very pleased that Sen. Arlen Specter has decided to vote against cloture on the EFCA,” said former Michigan Gov. John Engler (R), president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers. “Manufacturers stand behind Sen. Specter’s decision to vote against EFCA and appreciate his decision to put working men and women, the economy and the nation first.”
“Protecting our fragile economy from further damage should be the top priority of every elected official, and Sen. Specter deserves praise and respect for doing as much,” said Katie Packer, executive director for the Workforce Fairness Institute.
Union officials noted the importance of Specter's decision. In a briefing to reporters earlier this month, AFL-CIO Director of Government Relations Bill Samuel said Specter’s and Franken’s votes were needed to get to 60.
Specter, who is expected to face a tough primary challenge and a general-election battle in 2010, was the only Republican to vote in favor of a cloture vote to proceed to debate on card-check in the last Congress.
The senator said the decision to vote for cloture on the bill last time was not because he approved of the bill itself.
“I did not support the bill on its merits but rather to take up the issue of labor law reform in general,” Specter said.
The Pennsylvania Republican said he found significant problems with two provisions in the bill. One, the card-check provision, would prevent employers from demanding a secret-ballot election to form a union if a majority of workers sign authorization cards stating their intention to organize. The other would have the government appoint an arbitrator to negotiate stalled contract negotiations between unions and management.
Calling the secret ballot “the cornerstone of our democracy,” Specter said that provision was too damaging to the process of forming a union.
Specter also said he attached possible amendments to the National Labor Relations Act to his floor statements for other senators to consider in order to improve labor law.
Unions campaigned for the legislation during the last election and supported candidates who backed the bill. Labor leaders see the bill as vital to unions since it would help reverse the decline in their membership if passed.
J.T. Rushing contributed to this article.
EFCA was not going to pass anyhow.
Even though it had a lot of support in 07 and 08, everyone knew that President Bush was going to veto it. It was a free vote for the democrats.
This time, it would be for real- Obama is committed to sign it. Specter’s opposition gives the democrat leadership an excuse not to bring it up during this Congress and not to put some of their members between a rock and a hard place on whether to offend the unions or offend their constituents.
Senator Specter bailed out the Democrat leadership this time.
Sometimes RINO is (R)ino first. I pray this is one of those times.
The fact that this d#ckhead even had to THINK about it is reason enough to evict him from the party in 2010.
The fact that SPECTRE even has to agonize over this vote proves what a pitiful RINO wanker he is. Glad for his “decision” but I can’t respect anyone who would deny the secret ballot to workers so that union thugs can intimidate everyone.
The price wasn’t right...
If Specter was the vote that put this over he would be dead meat and he knows it. I do not think there was a higher motivation.
“Well, of course I am,” Mr. Specter said when asked if he’s worried about the conservative backlash. “But (President) John Kennedy had it right. He said, ‘Sometimes the party asks too much.’ And this is something I think is necessary for the country. It goes beyond politics. It goes beyond the Democratic or Republican position. It’s the right thing for America.”
Mr. Specter said he would have supported the package even if Democrats had not added $6.5 billion in additional money for the National Institutes of Health to the final version of the bill.
Mr. Specter had sought the money for years, and had mentioned that he wanted the money in the bill when he met with President Barack Obama last week.
“That’s only one small part ... That’s not determinative in my mind,” he said.
The stimulus vote could create “a political problem,” he said, but “I thought the public interest was so important that I have to take whatever problems it brings me.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181685/posts
I agree. But whatever his motivation was, I’m glad the Orwellian named “Free Choice Act” is dead, even if took a country club RINO looking out for his chances come next election time to do it.
Let’s not celebrate just yet.
Some other RINO may bail out Obama or maybe the GOP is starting to see the public is on to the Kenyan-born marxist.
give him a day or two, he’ll roll over
Snarlin' Sphincter is like a stopped clock in that even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Just wrong the rest of the time.
That is the key. He knows he will lose 2010 if he is the decisive vote. He's just saving his own a&*.
Franken’s vote???
Here's what I've heard. Colman is behind by 225 officially. Because they know it favors them and they are dishonest, judges in rat controlled counties attempt to enforce loose standards on absentee ballots. They don't cross check anything before separating the ballot from the envelope. They want the body cremated as soon as possible.
The non-rat counties followed the letter of the law and, as always, excluded a number of ballots on technicalities, like the address of the witness being in the wrong precinct. The votes the rat counties decided to allow were opened and fed into the general vote population. They can't be undone.
Coleman is arguing that, per Bush vs. the loony nut case, this is a violation of equal protection and the only remedy is to count all the excluded votes in Republican counties that would have passed in the most corrupt precincts of St. Louis county. They claim they're are enough of them to make the difference.
I will not believe it until this socialist piece of legislation is defeated. It would be nice if he really does vote against it, but I’m skeptical. We can’t trust him! He has to go!!
Harry “The Body” Reid needs to demand that Franken be allowed to vote on this important piece of legislation.
I got a roll of tens just in case that comes to fruition dear.
The union thugs are a bunch of wimps and pansies, depending on the government to do something they cannot do on their own.
We shouldn’t bitch too much, I guess. They are just following the liberal playbook.
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