Specter Fallout SANTORUM IN TROUBLE

American Spectator ^ | 1/24/2005 | The Washington Prowler

[AliVeritas]

On Friday Republican staffers in a number of Senate offices were holding meetings to discuss how to proceed with Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter and his recent hire, Hannibal G. Williams II Kemerer, who until recently was the NAACP's assistant general counsel. Kemerer was hired by Specter against the advice of senior Republican Judiciary staff and was to serve as a key vetter of Bush Administration judicial nominations. As word of Specter's hiring decision leaked off Capitol Hill, Specter is said to have shifted Kemerer into a job that would not deal with judicial nominations.

"That is not true," says a Judiciary Committee staffer. "Kemerer may have a different stated responsibility, but we've been told he will be working with Specter on judicial nomination issues regardless of what his stated role is supposed to be."

More disturbing than the hiring itself was Specter's willful behavior in hiring the left-wing litigator. "I wish I could say this was a one time, freak event," says another Judiciary Committee aide. "But I don't think I can. We got the distinct impression that Specter is going to continue to hire people like this. If conservatives care, they need to mobilize now. Because it's largely out of our hands."

[THE MODERATE]

He seems to be, he is not shy about his pro-life views. He is however a bit of a populist on ecnomic issues. And Casey Jr. because he is pro-life may be opposed the party switching ex treasure Barbara Hafer seems to be Rendel's pick, Casey, Jr and Rendel reportedly do not get along real well so it is a question as to if they could run as a team in 2006.

[maxter]

Also President Bush and so called Republican leadership chose the Oklahoma City mayor over the more conservative senate winner TOM COBURN.

[FreedomHasACost]

I agree that Specter is a bad liberal and that Santorum made a mistake backing him but we can not turn on the good guys the minute they make a mistake. There is no one that I know of who is a better senator that Santorum or more pro-life and he needs support. Let the mistake be past. If I never voted for anyone who had not made a mistake I would not vote.

[maryz]

Is the Son similar to the Father?

Don't know much about either, except for the pro-life Democrat part. I did see an interview with the father years ago; he seemed like a reasonable sort, and I suspect (he was a devout and traditional Catholic) he would reject at least some of the loonier left positions required by Dems today.

(Is there a reason for your capitalization of "Father" and "Son" -- it makes me feel like I'm at the Nicene Council LOL!)

[superskunk]

bttt

[politicalwit]

Bush and the republican party are anything but conservative.
Simply put...they are party republicans. Appears the republican isn't a place for conservatives these days.

[k2blader]

Santorum brought this on himself by supporting a liberal over a conseravtive.

I have little sympathy for him.

[BigSkyFreeper]

He was on the Warren Commission

Big frickin' deal. He also voted against impeaching The Bent One.

[BigSkyFreeper]

This deal was sealed when Bush and Santorum backed the wrong horse.

Yeah, and if we all start blackmailing our own, before we even know it, the Democrats are back in power.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Appears the republican isn't a place for conservatives these days.

Start supporting your fringe candidate. Stop waiting until the last minute.

[O6ret]

Agree. But don't the thought die here. Go to Santorum's web site and send him an email. Let him know how we feel:

http://santorum.senate.gov

[eno_]

And the current situation, with spies in the caucus and a turncoat as chairman of a supposedly Republican-run comittee is better than a Democrat in that seat... how? It can't get any worse.

We HAD the opportunity to put up a worthy candidate, took the easy way out, and are paying for it now.

Or, look at it this way: don't keep making the same bad decision over and over just because you have a sunk cost in previous bad decisions.

[eno_]

Toomey is a fringe candidate? You ought to be more respectful of Republicans.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Problem is, Toomey isn't running for political office these days.

[Candy_nsuch]

Hello,
I thought you might be interested to know that PAT TOOMEY is the new chairman of the CLUB FOR GROWTH.
It was the Club for Growth who helped defeat Tom Daschle & who also almost defeated Specter in PA. The CLUB FOR GROWTH backed Toomey against Specter.
When I wrote, faxed and called Mr Santorum, I mentioned that every Political donation I give now will go to the CLUB FOR GROWTH not the GOP.
just an f.y.i.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Rush mention BTTT

[Flux Capacitor]

I'm going to rain on everyone's bash-anyone-who-didn't-support-Toomey parade here (what makes everyone think he wouldn't have backed the incumbent were he in Santorum's position?) and remind y'all -- because most have forgetten, if indeed they ever realized it to begin with -- that at this time last year, as the primaries were gearing up, we were facing a pretty good chance that the Democrats would take over the Senate. Thanks to high-profile retirements and troubled incumbents on the GOP side, Democrats were certainly picking up Illinois, were headed towards picking up Alaska, Colorado (they did), and Oklahoma, as well as retaining Florida, Louisiana, and North Carolina. Daschle still had the edge in South Dakota.

With all this the case, it was not an unreasonable decision to keep a crucial Republican seat by backing its incumbent -- even if he was a RINO bastard -- rather than throwing it into an open race in Ed Rendell-controlled Pennsylvania with a congressman who'd never been elected statewide. I'm sure this was Santorum's reasoning, and otherwise conservatives have had nothing but praise for him.

I detest Arlen Specter. But I don't fault Bush, Rove, or any Pennsylvania primary voter who decided that the greater evil would have been chancing the return of the entire Senate to the Democrats. In politics especially, we all make tough choices at critical junctures, between two bad options.

-Dan

[topcat54]

Thankfully, the new freshman class of Republicans (DeMint, Coburn, Thune, Vitter, etal.) should be a breath of fresh air in that place.

Santorum was a "salvation-of-the-party" freshman once.

[eno_]

Problem is, Toomey isn't running for political office these days.

Maybe Specter's head on a platter would change his mind.

[montag813]

Yeah, and if we all start blackmailing our own, before we even know it, the Democrats are back in power.

I would rather have a Democrat than Arlen Specter.

[FreedomHasACost]

Rather have a democrat.
My, I am glad you don't get to decide.

[BigSkyFreeper]

You couldn't get me to support a Democrat.

[TonyRo76]

Santorum was a "salvation-of-the-party" freshman once.

Exactly—which is why I expressed the sincere hope these new fellas don't get sucked in to the same lobotomized thinking as Santorum.

Perhaps, being from Red states, the new guys might be insulated from the kind of pressure the two doofuses from Pennsylvania are so willing to cave to. Of course, I tend to be ever the optimist :)

But even so, reality has some promising precedent. Phil Gramm, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond remain heroes of mine to they day. Those guys never let the lofty trappings of the Senate turn them into spineless wusses! They were true to the finish.

[BroncosFan]

Amen. Casey will beat him. Rick ticked off a lot of people in the primary. They will stay home, vote Casey, or vote 3rd party. Combine that with Philly, and that seat goes Dem.

[Bushbacker]

Joe Hoeffel ran against Specter as a "dry-run" for a race against Santorum...Hoeffel needed to get known outside his Philadelphia area base---and he did that.

If conservatives don't back Santorum, they will elect Hoeffel---a card-carrying ACLU member.

[jpl]

I detest Arlen Specter. But I don't fault Bush, Rove, or any Pennsylvania primary voter who decided that the greater evil would have been chancing the return of the entire Senate to the Democrats. In politics especially, we all make tough choices at critical junctures, between two bad options.

All good points you make, but what's the excuse for knuckling under and giving him the Judiciary chairmainship, which is only one of the most important posts in Congress? Because of "tradition"? That's the kind of stupidity that makes a lot of people disgusted with politics.

[eno_]

In politics especially, we all make tough choices at critical junctures, between two bad options.

Two bad decisions is Specter's favor so far. What's the plan now? Keep appeasing this a-hole? In the words of Dr. Phil: "How's that workin' out for ya?"

[Paperdoll]

>Oh, PUULEEESSSSEEEE! We was had, folks! Played like a banjo!<

In view of the flood of disturbing news these days, I am beginning to believe it. Before, it was just a sneakin' hunch.

[Flux Capacitor]

----All good points you make, but what's the excuse for knuckling under and giving him the Judiciary chairmainship, which is only one of the most important posts in Congress?----

There isn't one. That, indeed, is where my case for Specter stops.

-Dan

[Polyxene]

My apologies to the haggis! (I always heard it was disgusting, therefore, the analogy!)

[eno_]

Amen. Casey will beat him. Rick ticked off a lot of people in the primary. They will stay home, vote Casey, or vote 3rd party. Combine that with Philly, and that seat goes Dem.

Well now, I thought RINO appeasment was supposed to keep Republicans in power. Another "How's that workin' out for ya?"

[Flux Capacitor]

----Well now, I thought RINO appeasment was supposed to keep Republicans in power. Another "How's that workin' out for ya?"----

When it comes to the notion of kicking out a conservative Republican senator in favor of a Democrat, for no other reason than that Republican made a difficult choice in the interest of keeping the President's party in power, we're no longer talking about "RINO appeasement". We've gone straight out to proposing cutting off our noses to spite our faces because our tunnel vision won't let us do anything else.

When taking your ball and running home results in a Harry Reid-controlled Senate, maybe then you can ask yourself how that works out for you.

-Dan

[snopercod]

It's pretty clear that in exchange for Santorum's support of Specter, Rick is being groomed for the republican nomination in 2008.

As evidence, I offer the fact that Santorum's face was prominent in the TV coverage of Bush taking the Oath of Office on July 20.

Camera angles like that don't happen by coincidence.

[FreedomHasACost]

Anyone who stays home or votes for anyone other than Santorum is a royal jerk who does not know good when he sees it, it is not about appeasement.

[smokeyb]

Yeah, and if we all start blackmailing our own, before we even know it, the Democrats are back in power.

The party should have thought about this too. That's what they did to US!

[sady]

I smell a spectre sunday talk show marathon

[smokeyb]

Problem is, Toomey isn't running for political office these days.

Problem is, the party screwed us when he did and we are still supposed to lick their boots.

[smokeyb]

Exactly! I sent the same back in one of their postage paid envelopes begging for money.

[Badray]

" He is no doubt being blackmailed himself. Else why go into the tank on the impeachment?"

He wasn't blackmailed.

He was bought.

Just prior to the impeachment vote, his wife (IIRC) got some plum job handed to her by the clintons. I saw the news report on it recently, but can't remember the details off hand.

That, plus the fact that he is a liberal POS.

[Badray]

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize he had passed. Is the Son similar to the Father?"

Mr Casey, the younger, is pro life and pro gun. I am not sure of the elder's position on guns.

[tang-soo]

I smell blackmail or money - or both.

[smokeyb]

Anyone who stays home or votes for anyone other than Santorum is a royal jerk who does not know good when he sees it, it is not about appeasement.

Anyone who thinks that Santorum is a principled conservative now is a royal jerk who does not know a power-hungry politican when they see one.

[txrangerette]

"You may want to check your facts on Smith vs. Sununu - I believe it was the other way around..."

I found this from National Review by "Googling" Smith vs. Sununu:

{"There are signs President Bush also hopes Sununu will emerge the winner on September 10. Although he issued a blanket endorsement of all Republican incumbents this year, he has made no effort to contain the pro-Sununu overtures going on around him. After adviser Karl Rove attended a fundraiser for Smith in New Hampshire, chief of staff Andy Card went to the state and personally endorsed Sununu. EPA director Christie Whitman attended a May 31 fundraiser for Smith in Boston, but HUD secretary Mel Martinez visited New Hampshire with Sununu in July. Bush's father hosted a New Hampshire fundraiser for Sununu in 2001, and both he and Barbara Bush wrote $1,000 checks to his Senate campaign this June. Even Dan Quayle has jumped into the fray and endorsed Sununu over Smith."}

For fairness and clarity's sake, I post it ALL, but some of this is pure drivel. Bush endorsed all incumbents, including Bob Smith. That was the official WH position. The President himself campaigned for neither man. Funny how this article tried to paint him as being responsible for his parents' and others' support of Sununu. But then, National Review having a need to present everything through a conservative prism, and having journalistic a need to involve the WH in controversy, had to juice up the political angle just a bit.

[Political Junkie Too]

I have never understood what voodoo Specter has over everyone in the Senate.

Razor-thin margin in the Senate. Now that the GOP has a little breathing room, Specter may not have the influence he once did by threatening to leave the reservation.

-PJ

[Area51]

19 posted on 01/24/2005 8:01:18 AM PST by txrangerette
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---

Spector is a Democrat by any other definition.

[KC_Conspirator]

I agree that Specter is a bad liberal and that Santorum made a mistake backing him but we can not turn on the good guys the minute they make a mistake.

Shame on you for injecting commonsense into this arguement.

Arlen Sphincter is one of the worst Republicans ever, but now we have to deal with him. The saving grace is that the GOP took the senate handidly and Sphincter has to play ball to some degree in order to keep his power.

Remember Jim Jeffords? He predicted Bush would be a one term president.

[smokeyb]

Razor-thin margin in the Senate. Now that the GOP has a little breathing room, Specter may not have the influence he once did by threatening to leave the reservation.

That was their excuse. Even Specter said his election would in no way affect the majority. We were expecting a pickup in the Senate. And if that was their excuse then what is their excuse for putting him in the SJC throne?

[FreedomHasACost]

Well, maybe we are all royal jerks.
Santorum has done much more for the conservative agenda than Toomey ever has. We all make mistakes in life, I have made my share, but to throw a guy who does take a stand on important issues to the dogs because he supported Specter is a nuts. You are trying to give the country back to the Dem's when you attack your own. Good folks need to stick together to prevail.

[smokeyb]

The saving grace is that the GOP took the senate handidly and Sphincter has to play ball to some degree in order to keep his power.

Wake up KC. It seems that Arlen has the ball and all the other equipment.