Another Soros Specter Connection (The Bush-Soros Pick)

As President Bush visits Pittsburgh Monday to campaign for the U.S. Senate's second-most-liberal Republican, he might ask Arlen Specter why he is associated with a group that billionaire Bush basher George Soros supports. The president also might ask the four-term senator why he can't tell the truth about this matter.

As Jim Geraghty reported on NRO last week, Soros, a wealthy Manhattan financier, donated $50,000 to the Republican Mainstream Partnership (RMP). This contribution will help this group of self-described moderate Republicans bolster Specter's effort to win Pennsylvania's hotly contested GOP Senate primary against pro-market stalwart Congressman Pat Toomey.

Specter appeared on Rush Limbaugh's radio program last Wednesday because, as the free-spending incumbent put it, "people are calling my offices in Pennsylvania and are saying that they're surprised to hear that I would be in cahoots with George Soros." Specter added: "I welcome a chance to be on your radio show to say two things. Number one, I got no connection with the Mainstream Partnership, and I got no knowledge of any contribution by George Soros to the Mainstream Partnership, and that's that."

While Specter never may have glimpsed Soros's checkbook, he cannot honestly claim to have "no connection" to this group.

As the Republican Mainstream Partnership's website clearly indicates, Arlen Specter is listed among its "Elected officials who are members of the Partnership." Specter is nestled snugly between senators Olympia Snowe of Maine and Ted Stevens of Alaska, also RMP members. The website even has an in-depth biographical sketch of Specter, complete with the senator's color photo.

The RMP's website says that its members "include individuals who are interested in moderate Republican policies, focusing on governance and on finding common sense solutions to national problems."

If George Soros were a moderate Republican, it might not be so significant that he is spending money to help Specter defend himself against Toomey's tough challenge in the April 27 primary. As it happens, Soros has devoted some $12.5 million to defeat President Bush this November, mainly through American Coming Together and the Media Fund, two groups eager to send Bush back to Crawford, Texas.

"I have made the rejection of the Bush doctrine the central project of my life for the next year," Soros said in the March 22 Boston Globe. "That is why I am ready to put my money where my mouth is." As the OpenSecrets.org website shows, he also has drawn from his $7 billion fortune to assist prominent liberal Democrats including South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, former presidential contender Howard Dean, and presumptive nominee John Kerry.

Soros's June 6, 2000, donation of $100,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee didn't make it any easier to elect Republicans to support President Bush's agenda. For that matter, Soros's $2,000 in gifts to Al Gore's presidential campaign didn't make it any easier for Bush to win the White House.

President Bush and his political advisers should ask themselves a question: Why is the president wasting time and political capital campaigning for George Soros's pick in the Pennsylvania primary?

Arlen Specter's friends
Robert Novak (archive)

April 19, 2004 |

snip

Heading the list is billionaire investor George Soros, who so far has spent $15.5 million to defeat George W. Bush. Soros has plenty left for Specter, contributing $50,000 to the Republican Mainstream Partnership as part of its earmarked $200,000 against Toomey. In the 1998 election cycle, Soros and his wife gave Specter the $4,000 legal maximum.

With a Republican primary approaching, Specter does not want public association with Bush-bashers. When Rush Limbaugh reported the Soros contribution on his radio program, Specter telephoned the conservative talker last Wednesday to stress that he is "very, very strongly supporting" Bush. The senator said he has "nothing to do" with the Republican Mainstream Partnership or Soros's donation, though he is listed on the organization's Web site as a member.

There are many other sources of Specter support who despise Bush:

-- The fire fighters union contributed $2,500 to Specter last September, the same month in which it became the first labor union to endorse Kerry for president. Specter has received contributions from two big left-leaning unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and the Pennsylvania State Education Association also have endorsed him.

-- In the last election cycle, Specter was given $10,000 by the Teamsters under the leadership of Ron Carey (whose election to the presidency was voided by court order). He received $8,000 from the Laborers Union under President Arthur Coia, who then was under investigation for ties with organized crime and later was barred from active union leadership.

-- The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, headed by Democratic former Rep. Barbara Kennelly of Connecticut, gave Specter $1,000 last fall. The organization fights Bush's plan for private investment accounts.

-- Harvard Law Prof. Alan Dershowitz, a fierce critic of the way Bush was elected, has contributed to Specter in the current and previous election cycles.

-- Harold Ickes Jr., the former Clinton White House aide who runs the Media Fund putting anti-Bush advertising on television, gave Specter $1,000 last year.

-- Richard Ben-Veniste, the high-powered Washington lawyer serving on the independent 9/11 Commission, is a Specter backer. He contributed to Specter in 1997 when Ben-Veniste was representing Terry McAuliffe, now the Democratic national chairman, in connection with the Teamsters scandal. Ben-Veniste is generous to Democrats, but Specter is the only Republican on record as being helped by him.

"Arlen is with us on votes that matter," conservative Sen. Rick Santorum, the other Pennsylvania senator, says in a television ad for Specter. Specter did vigorously support Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's confirmation. But he was not "with us" in opposing Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, in failing to support the full Bush tax cut and in voting against President Bill Clinton's removal from office.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, a leader in establishing a liberal litmus test on judicial opponents, last year wrote Bush listing Specter among desirable Supreme Court nominees. If the president can accept George Soros's choice for the Senate, could he go along with Chuck Schumer's suggestion for the Supreme Court?

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:m9EeEhNRwA4J:www.townhall.com/columnists/robertnovak/rn20040419.shtml+Republican+Mainstream+Partnership&hl=en

Republican Main Street Partnership

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

March 15, 2002
FOR IMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact
Ron Talley (rontalley@aol.com)
888-260-1371
202-682-3143
703-622-6722 (Cell)
REPUBLICAN MAIN STREET PARTNERSHIP JOINS FORCES WITH MAINSTREAM REPUBLICANS OF WASHINGTON STATE

RMSP Executive Director Says "Dynamic Washington Centrist Group Shares Goals of Recruiting, Supporting, and Electing Progressive Moderate Republicans"

(Washington, D.C.) The Republican Main Street Partnership's (RMSP), the largest group of moderate Republican elected officials in the nation, and the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, the largest group of Moderate Republicans in that state, have agreed to form a working partnership to recruit, promote and support quality moderate Republicans for elective office in Washington state and nationwide.

Nationally, RMSP, led by its President Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), Founder Rep. Amo Houghton (R-NY), and others in the U.S. House along with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), and others in the U.S. Senate, has drawn national attention and praise for it's successful leadership and efforts to write and pass "common sense" and progressive legislation for all Americans in the crucial areas of Education Reform, Trade, Airport Security, Anti-Terrorism Policy, Patients' Bill of Rights, Tax Relief, and more.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:RqY1A1-xx30J:www.republicanmainstreet.org/chapters.asp-id%3D18.htm+Republican+Mainstream+Partnership&hl=en

Congressional Republicans to Push Stem-Cell Issue

Thu Nov 4, 6:20 PM ET
Science - Reuters

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - California voters' approval of a $3 billion
ballot measure this week to fund controversial stem-cell research gives
new life to a similar effort in the U.S. Congress, moderate Republicans
said on Thursday.

The Republican Main Street Partnership, which represents
middle-of-the-road party members in Congress, said it plans to renew
efforts to relax President Bush's restrictions on funding for embryonic stem
cell research, now that the election is over.

"We must continue to work to expand the current federal policy governing
this research, because a piecemeal approach is not the solution," said
Delaware Rep. Michael Castle, president of the group.

http://www.republicanmainstreet.org/news/news.asp-record_no=3074.htm

Our Mission

The Republican Main Street Partnership was founded in 1998 to promote thoughtful leadership in the Republican Party, to serve as a voice for centrist Republicans and to partner with individuals, organizations and institutions that share centrist values.

The Partnership pursues public policies that reflect a limited, but responsible role for government and that are designed to achieve fiscal responsibility, economic growth, improvements in the human condition and a nation that is globally competitive and secure. Partnership members include individuals who are interested in moderate Republican policies, focusing on governance and on finding common sense solutions to national problems.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.