Free Republic

AFTER MUCH PRESSURE, SPECTER TO OPPOSE CLOTURE & PASSAGE ON CARD CHECK… According to multiple sources, Senator Arlen Specter will vote against cloture and passage on Employee Free Choice Act legislation…

Who will Rick Santorum back this time? GrassrootsPA has learned that key Santorum allies are said to be having a conference call this afternoon regarding a possible Toomey Specter primary. The topic at hand is said to be what position, if any, the former US Senator should take. In 2004, Santorum joined President Bush in stumping for Specter...

A conservative group's test-marketing of the power of the anti-pay-raise message against entrenched legislative leaders is starting at the top: radio ads attacking Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer, R-Blair, as "Bob Jubelirer, raising our taxes and his salary since 1975," will start airing Aug. 15 in the lawmaker's district. And a billboard will go up on I-70 near Altoona in the next 10 days showing Jubelirer's face and the words "Sen. Jubelirer voted to raise his own pay to $145,463. A 34% increase. Bigger pay for bigger government. InformedPA.com ." ... The anti-Jubelirer billboard and the radio ads are...

KYW:The antiviolence group "Mothers In Charge" was being honored Wednesday night during the 76ers-Detroit game, for their work in fighting violence in Philadelphia. Founder and executive director Dorothy Johnson-Speight says "Mothers In Charge" is asking all Philadelphians to stand up for peace at Wednesday night's 76ers' game at the Wachovia Center, as her group is honored at a first-quarter courtside ceremony for its work fighting violence in Philadelphia. Johnson-Speight says, there must be access-curtailing legislation if violence is really going to stop: "Pennsylvania is the only state in this area without law or permits. You don't need a permit to...

According to a GrassrootsPA reader with the grades, "Arnold got the highest a A and so did Owens, however this is before he started to dismantle the TABOR they said. They were the only 2 A's. Stanford got a B. Ehrlich got a C. ANd the only 2 governors to get an F were one Dem and one Rep. Ohio Gove Bob Taft- F and Ed Rendell- F" From the Cato Institute:Cato Institute to Release Governors Report Card...At 10 a.m. today, the Cato Institute will release the results of its seventh biennial fiscal report card on the nation's governors. The...

GrassrootsPA has just learned that the controversial plaque honoring a professor who killed her baby was taken down from Villanova's Falvey library. "It sounds like it was officially removed, but there has been no official statement from the school," said Jeanne Marie Hoffman, the Villanova senior who lead the charge against the plaque. "I looked at the spot where it was in the library and it wasn't there. I was glad to see that the school rethought its erroneous decision to put it there in the first place." GrassrootsPA is awaiting official word from the school on whether the plaque...

Bill Scranton, Jeff Piccola, Lynn Swann, Marybeth Buchanan, and Jerry McCawley can sleep easy tonight. GrassrootsPA has exclusively learned that another GOP Gubernatorial hopeful has decided that things are crowded enough without him. Pittsburgh's Glen Meakem, highly successful co-founder and former chief executive officer of FreeMarkets OnLine and founder of Chamberlain Investments, has decided against a 2006 Gubernatorial run. "Clearly the Swann thing sucked up all the energy from anyone else," said a source close to Meakem, who contends that Swann's presence in the race, timing, and other factors ultimately led to his decision. A 2010 run, however, is certainly...

KYW News Radio:[Rendell] says a long-term funding solution for mass transit will be a priority in the coming year. But, he says, he does not support a gasoline tax increase, and it may be difficult to get rural lawmakers to support new mass transit funding without a gas tax hike to fund highway and bridge projects.GrassrootsPA Flashbacks:GOP State Senate Counsel: Gas Tax Almost CertainRINO $HOCK: PA GOP Likely To Raise Gas Tax!

If Pennsylvania turns into a bastion of conservatism, political anthropologists might someday partially credit a 25-year-old Duquesne University law student from Newton Township. Christopher K. Lilik -- who goes by Chris and likes punk rock -- and his band of young bloggers helped an obscure conservative Republican congressman from Allentown scare the heck out of the state's senior U.S. senator in the spring and boosted President Bush's Pennsylvania vote in the fall. They call themselves the Young Conservatives of Pennsylvania (YCOP) now and aim to keep conservative ideology at the political dinner table. But Mr. Lilik isn't looking for his...

This Holiday Season when your Bush-loving household is finally ready to give thanks for a year's worth of blessings, don't forget the Mighty Texas Strike Force. The Mighty Texas who, you ask? Well, with some swing states like Ohio and Florida, going red, and other battlegrounds like Pennsylvania inching ever so close, 1500 selfless Texans deserve recognition for fighting unseen battles to round up every last W vote. Whether you saw some extra Bush signs along your Michigan highway, got another W knock at your door in Iowa, or saw an unusually large number of passionate Bush supporters waving signs...

Senator Rick Santorum (R-Virginia)? It might be a joke for some, but at SantorumForVirginia.com it's become a rallying call. The site, which states it is not authorized by any candidate, candidate's committee, or the PA or VA Democrat Party, has gone on the offensive with pictures of Santorum's Virginia residence, the VA house's actual address, and newspaper accounts of the recent Penn Hills School District controversy. SantorumForVirginia.com even lists the Top Ten Reasons why Rick Santorum Should Stay In Virginia, with several key stabs taken at Santorum from his position in theToomey/Specter primary and his wife's uncapped medical malpractice settlement...

Did you hear about the resolution the US House just passed commending Boy Scouts for all they do and condeming the ACLU and other group's legal efforts to push the Scouts out of using public facilities, like U-S military bases? The measure, btw, passed 391-3. Here's the punchline: Michigan Congressman John Dingell, 1 of only 3 Congressman opposing the resolution applauding the Scouts, will be receiving the Detroit Area Council's 2004 Distinguished Citizen Award! "The purpose of the Distinguished Citizen Award Dinner is to recognize remarkable individuals, to create an awareness of Scouting's positive impact in the community, as well...

The good news is that GOP Leadership is not letting him off the hook easy. Notice that Senate leaders rejected his first draft. Associated Press:Specter, who supports abortion rights, also is pledging a strong predisposition to support the president's nominees for the bench, according to these sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Pennsylvania senator's draft statement affirms that he will not impose a litmus test on nominees based on the issue of abortion, but does not include a blanket pledge to vote for them. Specter's written statement, apparently undergoing changes, largely covers positions he has staked out in...

First he single-handedly cost Toomey the race, and now this! If this report is correct, Rick Santorum has a LOT of explaining to do... MSNBC:Although a staunch foe of abortion and same-sex marriage, Santorum helped Specter win re-election this year and according to Specter, has been rounding up support for him as Judiciary chairman. "Sen. Santorum has been enormously helpful," said Specter Tuesday. "He's gone above and beyond the call of duty. My number one priority in the next two years is to reelect Sen. Santorum." For conservative voters who may dominate in the 2008 GOP primaries, one doubts that...

It is worth noting that this man was Borked by Specter when he was up for a Federal Judgeship. Hmmm....I wonder if ol' Jeffy likes Arlen... Associated Press:Sen. Jeff Sessions says he hasn't decided whether he'll back Arlen Specter to preside over the Judiciary Committee but insists the Pennsylvania Republican shouldn't get the job just because he's next in line...."I've never felt we should feel especially obligated to do that," Sessions said. "You defer to seniority very strongly, but it's also all right for the committee to want to be comfortable that the chairman would be a good leader."Sessions acknowledged...

After winning a bruising battle for a fifth term, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) is struggling to keep the fruits of victory with the same aggressiveness, agility and finely honed survival skills that have marked most of his idiosyncratic 24-year career on Capitol Hill. He is in line to achieve his long-sought goal of chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee but could be denied the post by fellow Republicans as a result of a furious backlash among conservatives about his post-election comments suggesting the Senate is likely to reject staunchly antiabortion nominees to the Supreme Court. Many major conservative groups -- including...

Senator Bill Frist, the Republican majority leader, said Sunday that he was troubled by Senator Arlen Specter's recent remarks about potential judicial nominees, and that Mr. Specter must convince his fellow Republicans that he deserves to be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Arlen made some statements the day after the election," Dr. Frist, of Tennessee, said on "Fox News Sunday" in an interview with Chris Wallace. "They were disheartening to me; they were disheartening to a lot of people." Mr. Specter said just after he won re-election that Supreme Court nominees who wanted to undo abortion rights would face...

Specter was at it again on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, declining to comment on whether or not he as Senate Judiciary Chairman would support elevating Clarence Thomas to Chief Justice. Specter was on the program with Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who last year suggested that Arlen Specter should be nominated to the Supreme Court!

As always, this man will say or do anything to get power. Tim Carney's American Spectator piece:Specter, in short, is out of touch with his party. In his Wall Street Journal op-ed on Wednesday, he listed Sandra Say O'Connor as a "pro-life justice." O'Connor wrote in 2000 that performing partial-birth abortions is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution.

And I think the party has more than 50 percent in favor of a woman's right to choose, with some limitations. But that branch of the party has never been vocal. So that as the party has tilted more to the south and west, the pro-choice Republicans have been in a distinct minority and there's been a concern about having a pro-choice Republican as chairman of the (committee). Listen, you saw it all during the primary, that was their mantra, their bugle call. The same people that are after me now were after me in the primary. ... There really...