Arlen Specter: The Latest

Well, Cassandra, I'm happy to report that we have now heard from Michelle Malkin on the running subject of Arlen Specter. Here's her word:

The most galling example of Rove's abandonment of social conservatives was, of course, the snubbing of Pennsylvania Rep. Pat Toomey's bid to unseat liberal Republican Arlen Specter. The White House overlooked Specter's opposition to the full Bush tax cut package, his desire to undermine the Patriot Act, his opposition to removing Bill Clinton from office, his role in the sabotage of Judge Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination, his ties to Bush-bashers George Soros and Harold Ickes, and his refusal to support conservative House candidates in the Keystone State, among other things. It was supposed to be worth sleeping with a RINO because the silver lining in re-electing Specter would be delivery of Pennsylvania for Bush. Only one of those things happened, alas, and now the GOP is in quite a quandary over whether to deny Specter the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee following his threat to veto pro-life judicial candidates.

My sentiments are with the folks at National Review Online, who are urging Republicans valiantly to relieve us of the Specter bane. But my sense is that nothing will change. President Bush's silence on the matter so far is telling. Moreover, Bill Frist simply does not have the fire in his belly to wage this fight. And as Bob Novak points out today, Rick Santorum's precarious campaign outlook for 2006 requires him to keep playing nicey-nice with Specter.

Looks like Snarlin' Arlen will have the gavel in his clammy little hands come January.

I hope I'm wrong.

Well, Michelle, all we can do is try. If we don't try, we cannot succeed. Beldar has an excellent summary of his reasons for opposing Specter:

My own opposition to Sen. Specter's Judiciary chairmanship isn't based on his pro-choice views. Rather, it's based on my perception of Sen. Specter as not being a reliable "team player" in general. Dubya expended substantial political capital and showed remarkable party loyalty in supporting Sen. Specter in a tough primary fight; I think he was wise to do so, on grounds that if Sen. Specter had lost in the primary, his successor candidate might well have lost in the general election, handing that seat over to the Democrats. But in marked contrast to other Republicans like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sen. Specter refused to risk any of his own political capital on behalf of President Bush's re-election — and in a battleground state that Dubya lost by only two percent, and might well have won had Sen. Specter campaigned aggressively for him.

Yes, Hugh Hewett, I know about Senate rules. I also know that the Senate, and especially the Republican Caucus, is too clubbish for its own good or the good of the country. You can tolerate "dissent on individual issues" up to a point, and that is that you expect team play. Besides, Hugh, you need to read about Harvey Karman and how Specter looked the other way when he butchered fifteen women in his State and then went off to Los Angeles where he managed to kill two more. An Attorney General who turns that kind of blind eye is not a good team player.

Deacon, over at Power Line, what more do you need to hear? We're not talking about "potential problems" here. We're talking about an actual declaration of war--and Specter's alleged retraction of it is unconvincing. When you say something as outrageous as he said, you don't come back the next day and say, "I never said that!" Not if you want to be convincing, you don't. Instead, you repent of your past words and deeds and pledge not to repeat them. A man can change his mind--that's what the Greeks of St. Paul's day actually called the act we call "repentance" today. (The word is metanoia, from the preposition meta after or changed and noia a mind.) As I said, a man can change his mind--but lying about what he earlier said or did doesn't cut it. Besides, Arlen's got a record that predates his entry into the Senate that he definitely needs to explain.

Oh, BTW: The American Family Association now has a petition for blocking Specter.

UPDATE: Welcome, readers from Stones Cry Out!