Frankly, I don’t buy the SCOTUS justification for Santorum’s betrayal. It’s a convenient, but hardly indisputable justification.
And let’s not forget the Republican glitterai tried to foist Harriet Miers on us too, so it’s not like they were spoiling for a fight.
That was all Bush 100%. Miers was his inside girl and he pushed her as hard as he could. Santorums argument on backing Spector in '04 is sound and there is also the dirty little secret no one here will admit. Toomey was a total unknown outside the Lehigh Valley and would have been destroyed by Hoeffel in that election. He had no money and network statewide.
Doesn't matter whether you buy it or not, it's not an excuse it's a rerason. It was the reason given at the time and it's stood ever since as the reason. I wasn't happy about it when it happened but it DID guarantee Arlen Spectre would support Bush's USSC nominees.