GOP will miss Arlen Specter's prudence [only the RINOs will] [barf barf barf]

Politico ^ | 2009-05-08 | Douglas W. Kmeic

[rabscuttle385]

For years, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has been excoriated by the GOP for his “unprincipled,” pragmatic decision making. Yet, like President Barack Obama, Specter has always been more attentive to the needs of those who sent him to Washington than to demands that he toe the party line.

It’s no surprise that the GOP now says Specter switched to the Democrats just to save his own skin. But it would stand Darwin on his head were senators unmindful of their political survival. No, the real question relates to the GOP’s survival. A party whose domestic policy consists of setting Americans against each other — and whose gray, vice presidential eminence thinks international legitimacy is found in the efficacy of torture — is, in the vocabulary of the time, not too big to fail. And it is failing badly.

Specter is not a flashy, youthful politician. His ways and manner are old school. Nevertheless, Specter deserves praise for his willingness to find workable solutions even if it means enduring the unrelenting criticism of those who see the world only through a distorting ideological lens.

The GOP will miss Specter’s prudence as it prepares to quiz Obama’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

[Gondring]

The GOP will miss Specter’s prudence as it prepares to quiz Obama’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

Yes, it will. We're going to get a far more liberal Justice without Specter. :-(

[MeanWestTexan]

I need to get off your ping list — leaving for Israel Sunday (for good), and I will only occassionally freep from here on out, and I don’t want to be buried.

Thanks for all the good pings.