Free Republic

As that wise sage Yogi Berra once said, "It's deja vu all over again." In 2004, the last time then Republican Senator Arlen Specter was facing a tough Pennsylvania primary challenge, he received eleventh hour endorsements from top GOP players that saved him from a humiliating primary defeat. He went on to win reelection and then promptly betrayed both the voters and his party by becoming a Democrat. Now, in another tough primary challenge, his new party's establishment is rushing to his aid. Senator Specter who once held a commanding lead of his primary challenger, US Representative Joe Sestak (D-Pennsylvania)...

n a conference call with Pennsylvania reporters Saturday, Specter compared the passage of the health care bill to the Civil Rights Act. He said tough legislative achievements take considerable time. "The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was necessary, although it did not go as far as people would have liked then, to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Again, it did not go as far as people would have liked, but we did find the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We have to find times when we have to build incrementally on these matters,'' Specter said. ~snip~ pecter said...

A new Quinnipiac University poll finds that newly-minted Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter has a nine-point lead over Republican challenger Pat Toomey. Specter, who changed his party afflilation to Democrat in April, leads Toomey by 46 percent to 37 percent among registered voters, the poll found. That's a narrower lead than a May 4 poll, which found Specter's lead at 53 percent to Toomey's 33 percent. "Sen. Arlen Specter's numbers have slipped since the controversy that followed his switch to the Democratic Party, but he's still better off than he would have been if he stayed a Republican and faced a...

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, who switched to the Democratic side of the aisle from Republican last month, is shocked, shocked that some of his former brethren aren’t so happy about the move. “I feel very comfortable being a Democrat. My new colleagues were always my friends,” the five-term Senator told Men.Style.com, the online site for GQ and Details magazines.

May 1, 2009 -- Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter’s sudden change from the Republican to the Democratic Party has left Republicans with mixed feelings: rage that he is probably handing the Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate at one of the most critical political junctures in modern times and relief that they’re rid of a RINO (Republican In Name Only) who has often been at odds with the majority of Republicans on crucial issues. George W. Bush’s eight years in the White House, during six of which the Republicans controlled both the House and Senate, were actually not good times for the GOP....

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Wednesday hailed Arlen Specter's conversion to the Democratic Party, while Specter vowed that he'll be an asset as Obama tries to get his ambitious agenda through Congress. Obama said, "I am grateful that he is here." Specter was joined by Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House Wednesday morning. Specter noted that he and longtime friend Biden "have talked over every problem under the sun and the moon." With a beaming Obama standing at his side, Specter said: "I think that I can be of assistance to you, Mr. President....

My one rule of politics is that the future is never a straight line projection of the present. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's unexpected decision to switch parties and run for re-election in 2010 as a Democrat proves the rule. Mr. Specter often votes for liberal Democratic initiatives and infuriates conservative Republicans. Still, his surprise defection was a crushing setback for the GOP, instantly reducing what limited power Republicans have in the Senate. The GOP's ability to stop liberal legislation is now weakened if not eliminated in some instances. CorbisMr. Specter's jump across the aisle significantly adds to the heavy Republican...

Senator Arlen Specter has announced that he will not vote for the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act which would eliminate the private ballot for workers: "Senator Arlen Specter, who was the lone Republican to side with Democrats on the Senate's last vote on union-organizing legislation, announced Tuesday that he would not vote for this session's bill. * * * With some Democrats expressing ambivalence on the bill, the Democratic sponsors indicated before Mr. Specter's announcement that they did not have the 60 votes to move it forward." The bill would let workers chose to form a union when a majority...

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) does not have the fall-back option of running as an independent should he lose his 2010 primary election, giving the senior lawmaker strong incentive to abandon his party this year. Specter faces an extremely difficult primary race against former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), the conservative firebrand who lost his bid to oust Specter from his seat in the 2004 GOP primary by a mere 17,000 votes (out of more than a million cast).

Dear Friends, As you know, today the President signed into law the "Americans Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." The vote on the stimulus package was a very tough vote because of the very large deficit we have and the very large national debt faced by future generations. But the economy is in a desperate situation. Just in the month of January we lost 600,000 jobs, added to the loss of 2.8 million last year. There are millions of people who are having their homes foreclosed. The economists tell us that if we do not act that the current severe...

Sen. Specter Jeered For Voting For Stimulus Plan PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter was greeted with jeers at a press conference in Cranberry Township. Conservatives are fuming after Specter cast the deciding vote that led to the passage of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan. Specter, 79, acknowledges his run for re-election will be tough. He says he's not completely happy with Obama's plans but he points out that he was able to cut the price tag by over $100 billion and he says he was able to increase the amount of tax cuts. Even so, Specter acknowledges the...

From Rasmussen: Senator Arlen Specter is one of only three Republicans to support the economic stimulus bill in Congress, and the latest Rasmussen Reports survey in Pennsylvania shows that his position is costing him support back home. Just 31percent of Keystone State voters say are more likely to vote for Specter because of his position on the stimulus package while 40 percent are less likely to do so. A look inside the numbers shows the problem for Specter may be even more significant. Fifty

WASHINGTON — For years, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has been the National Institutes of Health’s most ardent champion on Capitol Hill. Having survived two bouts with cancer, open-heart surgery and even a faulty diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease, he has long insisted that research that results in medical cures is the best service that government can provide. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania arrived Friday at the Capitol to cast a crucial vote on the economic stimulus bill. But even lobbyists are stunned by the coup Mr. Specter pulled off this week. In return for providing one of only three...

A major public policy success, welfare reform in the mid-1990s led to a dramatic reduction in welfare dependency and child poverty. This successful reform, however is now in jeopardy: Little-noted provisions in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate stimulus bills actually abolish this historic reform. In addition, the stimulus bills will add nearly $800 billion in new means-tested welfare spending over the next decade. This new spending amounts to around $22,500 for every poor person in the U.S. The cost of the new welfare spending amounts, on average, to over $10,000 for each family paying income tax. *...

Democrats began to press Mr. Specter, saying he would get the $10 billion increase only if he promised to vote for the eventual bill. Mr. Specter pushed back, saying he was concerned about the size of the bill and its mix of tax credits and spending. “I really do not make deals,” he said. And while he had promised Mr. Durbin nothing, the Illinois senator had made him a promise. As Mr. Durbin recalled, at a Super Bowl party at the White House on Feb. 1, “I told him, ‘I’m keeping my word.’ ” More hard bargaining was ahead. Mr....

Here we go. Bon Voyage Madam

With the $789 billion economic stimulus package he helped broker set for a vote in the U.S. House and Senate, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., phoned home Thursday to unhappy members of the Pennsylvania State Republican Committee. The conference call was initiated by Specter, his office said. It was a "conversation" to explain his thinking for backing the spending plan that Democrats hope will deliver jobs for the tanking U.S. economy. But a growing chorus of Pennsylvania state Republican officials say their faith in Specter is irretrievably broken. And some are vowing to defeat Specter in the Republican primary in 2010....

BREAKING NEWS: Lawmakers have reached deal on stimulus plan, Sen. Reid announces.

I went to visit Sen. Arlen Specter to save him from an embarrassing pro-stimulus vote that will damage America's economy and send the nation back to 1970s-style stagflation. Jim Robinson, founder of FreeRepublic.com, and I arrived at Sen. Specter's office with a group of folks who oppose the $1.5 trillion stimulus package, on this past Monday morning. We asked to see Sen. Specter. The office secretary didn't seem to be happy to see us. I could not blame her. We were there to embarrass her boss. Jim, wearing his Navy cap, asked about the senator's whereabouts, but the secretary wasn't...

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, one of three GOPers expected to cross the aisle on stimulus cloture, offers a Washington Post op-ed today in defense of the "Moderate's Bill" which cut about $100 billion from the House stimulus package. His argument to Republicans: We've pushed Pelosi as far as she's willing to go -- and need to take this deal now. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the proposed cuts "do violence to what we are trying to do for the future," especially on education. Her objections are a warning to conservatives that more cuts would be unlikely to win House...