Getbig Bodybuilding, Figure and Fitness Forums
Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Busted on April 28, 2009, 09:08:49 AM
-
Bout time these moderate republicans are leaving this dump of a party!!!
-
Bout time these moderate republicans are leaving this dump of a party!!!
Moderate?This jackass is a liberal as Teddy Kennedy.Good riddance to another hook nosed traitor.
-
Bout time these moderate republicans are leaving this dump of a party!!!
This guy stinks. Screw you Arlen you traitor.
-
word is the rep primary for his seat will be highly contested and he feels he will have a better chance on the dem ticket...another politician telling ppl what they want to hear.
-
word is the rep primary for his seat will be highly contested and he feels he will have a better chance on the dem ticket...another politician telling ppl what they want to hear.
This is another gift from GWB.
-
Can we say 61 votes in the senate?
-
Can we say 61 votes in the senate?
will be 62 when all is said and done.
Honestly, until the repubs choose a LEADER for the party that isn't a drug-addled racist, an armageddon polar seccessionist, or a spineless jellyfish, they're going to keep losing members.
-
This guy stinks. Screw you Arlen you traitor.
LOL! Sucks to be you. ;D
The repubes are finished in the northeast and the west coast. Banished to the south and the western boondock states where they belong.
-
Honestly, until the repubs choose a LEADER for the party that isn't a drug-addled racist, an armageddon polar seccessionist, or a spineless jellyfish, they're going to keep losing members.
But who is left then?
-
But who is left then?
Lurker, you are the epitome of a party hack and moron. You actually think there is a difference between the parties. Do some research and learn what spector is all about.
Take him. He is yours.
-
But who is left then?
there are probably a decent number of Republican state reps or congressmen who sat on their hands while looking at the mess of the last 8 years.
They are smart enough to know that questioning Dubya on WMD, 911, or Iraq would result in immediate political ostrasization. Bush has been out for 3 months now, and they're all probbaly planning their next move at the moment. They wanted to stay quiet on the stim bill, as everyone knew that yeah, it sucked, but we did need a socialist shot in the arm to get outta the mess. Of course you had idiots like Perry and palin refusing then taking the money, but that was paltry grandstanding that everyone could see thru.
Now they have a year to re-define their image and come back with a new brand of GOP. it has to be moderate, with a tad more financial responsibility. Win over the small business owners without using fearmongering, and you win an election. They probably knew that, but have been unwillingly latched onto the backside of Bush for so long, they may have forgotten.
Just improve the Obama plan a little, and you can win. The way guys like Crist and Arnold have.
-
Why is it most all republic hair party memebers have southern twangs? Every time i hear one give a press conf im waiting for one to stand up and yell "THE SOUFF IS GONNN RISE UPPP BOYYYYY"
-
Spector was going to lose the primary. That is what this is all about.
-
Spector was going to lose the primary. That is what this is all about.
Correct.
Just like when Lieberman lost his primary, and changed parties to I to win his job back.
political survival.
-
Correct.
Just like when Lieberman lost his primary, and changed parties to I to win his job back.
political survival.
This is so transparent. This idiot needs to retire already.
-
This is so transparent. This idiot needs to retire already.
Why are you so critical of Joe Lieberman?
-
Why are you so critical of Joe Lieberman?
Both need to retire and we need term limits. This is ridiculous.
Too much dead wood laying around DC.
-
Both need to retire and we need term limits. This is ridiculous.
Too much dead wood laying around DC.
Yep... I have very little respect for career politicians... They may have started out their careers as principled people with ideals, but sooner or later they become pompous windbags who have lost touch with the real America and whose top priority is justifying their political existence and furthering their own career.
-
But who is left then?
;D
-
"Swine Flew" said one right-wing Twitterer.
-
This is so transparent. This idiot needs to retire already.
Can U say fillerbuster proof? ;D
What a wonderful day!
-
Can U say fillerbuster proof? ;D
What a wonderful day!
Just what we need a dictatorship with no brakes right????
-
will be 62 when all is said and done.
Honestly, until the repubs choose a LEADER for the party that isn't a drug-addled racist, an armageddon polar seccessionist, or a spineless jellyfish, they're going to keep losing members.
.....as opposed to picking ones who are tax cheats, adulterers, closet-homos, and solicitors of prostitution that we've found in the Democratic party.
Once again, this talk sounds almost identical to that of the GOP just four years ago.
Just what we need a dictatorship with no brakes right????
If the Dems drive this ecomony further into the ground, their cheers could turn to tears sooner than later.
-
If the Dems drive this ecomony further into the ground, their cheers could turn to tears sooner than later.
DOW's been up 6 straight weeks.
Many (including myself) thought the devaluation of the buck with all that printing would drop the DOW. instead, it's up and ppl are more confident and spending a bit.
-
LOL! Sucks to be you. ;D
The repubes are finished in the northeast and the west coast. Banished to the south and the western boondock states where they belong.
Yes and the Northeast is doing great!!!I lived in CT for 40 years and it fucking sucks!!!High taxes,high unemployment,crappy schools.We moved to Indiana and everything is 100 times better.You can keep the fucking lib northeast and their lift wing ,limp wristed politics.
-
there are probably a decent number of Republican state reps or congressmen who sat on their hands while looking at the mess of the last 8 years.
They are smart enough to know that questioning Dubya on WMD, 911, or Iraq would result in immediate political ostrasization. Bush has been out for 3 months now, and they're all probbaly planning their next move at the moment. They wanted to stay quiet on the stim bill, as everyone knew that yeah, it sucked, but we did need a socialist shot in the arm to get outta the mess. Of course you had idiots like Perry and palin refusing then taking the money, but that was paltry grandstanding that everyone could see thru.
Now they have a year to re-define their image and come back with a new brand of GOP. it has to be moderate, with a tad more financial responsibility. Win over the small business owners without using fearmongering, and you win an election. They probably knew that, but have been unwillingly latched onto the backside of Bush for so long, they may have forgotten.
Just improve the Obama plan a little, and you can win. The way guys like Crist and Arnold have.
We ran a guy just like Arnold and Crist,his name was John McCain,he got crushed!!!We ran another guy like that,his name was Bob Dole,he got crushed!!!!When we run conservatives they win.When republicans try to be democrats they loose.
-
DOW's been up 6 straight weeks.
Many (including myself) thought the devaluation of the buck with all that printing would drop the DOW. instead, it's up and ppl are more confident and spending a bit.
And the Dems are responsible for this because........
-
And the Dems are responsible for this because........
stim bill gave economy shot in the arm.
-
They will take credit for the DOW being up but then will quickly say when asked about unemployment,and the economy being in the dumps "Obama has only been there 100 days give him a chance,what do you expect".Anything good,its because of Obama,anything bad,its George Bushs' fault.
-
DOW's been up 6 straight weeks.
Many (including myself) thought the devaluation of the buck with all that printing would drop the DOW. instead, it's up and ppl are more confident and spending a bit.
Do you watch any of the Schiff videos I post???
He was 100% accurate before anyone said a word and is saying things now, that if true again, mean that we are facing even a worse disaster than before.
-
I really don't like this. I think anytime someone switches parties they should have a special election and make him/her run again. This was done solely because he was going to lose in 2010. He still might lose.
Longtime GOP Sen. Arlen Specter becomes Democrat
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veteran Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter told colleagues Tuesday that he switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party, Sen. Harry Reid says.
Specter party switch would give Democrats a filibuster-proof Senate majority of 60 seats if Al Franken holds his current lead in the disputed Minnesota Senate race.
"Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right," Specter said in a statement posted by his office on PoliticsPA.com.
"Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."
Specter, a five-term Senate veteran, was greeted by a loud, sustained round of applause by dozens of constituents outside his Washington office shortly after the news broke.
"I don't have to say anything to them," a smiling Specter said. "They've said it to me." Watch constituents cheer for Specter »
President Obama called Specter shortly after learning the news during his daily economic briefing in the Oval Office on Tuesday morning, according to a senior administration official.
"You have my full support, and we're thrilled to have you," Obama told Specter.
Jubilant Senate Democrats also welcomed the news.
"Sen. Specter and I have had a long dialogue about his place in an evolving Republican party," Senate Majority Leader Reid, D-Nevada, said in a written statement.
"We have not always agreed on every issue, but [he] has shown a willingness to work in a bipartisan manner, put people over party and do what is right for Pennsylvanians and all Americans."
Reid called Specter a "man of honor and integrity" who would be welcome in the Democratic caucus.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele ripped Specter, calling him a Republican in name only who was out of step with the rest of the party because of his "left-wing voting record."
"Some in the Republican Party are happy about this. I am not," Steele said in a written statement. "Let's be honest --Sen. Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record."
Steele said Republicans "look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don't do it first."
Specter was expected to face a very tough primary challenge in 2010 from former Rep. Pat Toomey, who nearly defeated Specter in the Pennsylvania GOP Senate primary in 2004. Watch why Specter decided to switch »
A Quinnipiac University survey of registered Pennsylvania voters released last month showed Specter trailing the more conservative Toomey in a hypothetical primary matchup, 41 to 27 percent.
A separate Franklin & Marshall survey showed Specter leading Toomey 33 to 18 percent. Another 42 percent, however, were undecided.
More than half of the Republicans polled in the Franklin & Marshall survey said they would prefer to see someone new in the Senate.
Numerous Republicans are angry with Specter over his recent vote in support of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan.
Specter, one of only three GOP senators to vote for the measure, has been part of a dwindling group of GOP moderates from the northeastern part of the country.
The 79-year-old former Philadelphia district attorney won his first of five Senate terms in 1980. He has been a leading Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee for much of the past two decades, serving as its chairman from 2005 to 2007.
Specter served on the Warren Commission, which investigated the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. He has survived bouts with cancer three times, most recently undergoing chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease in 2005.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/specter.party.switch/index.html
-
This is another GWB gift to the party. GWB was and is a disgraceful failure.
Toomey woould have won the last time around but for the National GOP and GWB supporting Specter.
-
Repubes deserve WORSE 4 backing Killers Bush & Cheney.
Karma sucks! :-*
-
Repubes deserve WORSE 4 backing Killers Bush & Cheney.
Karma sucks! :-*
If Bush and Cheney are Killers - are Clinton / Gore killers as well?
-
The dow is at 8,000. Which is still slightly below where it was when Obama took office.
-
Politicians should be forced out after 3 terms.
Specter voted for the wasteful stimulus so I don't care what party he's in, I hope he gets voted out.
-
Politicians should be forced out after 3 terms.
Specter voted for the wasteful stimulus so I don't care what party he's in, I hope he gets voted out.
He's only doing this because Toomey was going to destroy him in the primary.
Why? Because Arlen Specter is a political hack and dead weight like the rest of the bums.
-
Bro...he friggen said it......he said that he didn't want the Repub primary to decide his 30 years of service. No Alen...ur right, ur above the voters. Besides this douche still has to investigate the Pats/Eagles superbowl.
-
Bro...he friggen said it......he said that he didn't want the Repub primary to decide his 30 years of service. No Alen...ur right, ur above the voters. Besides this douche still has to investigate the Pats/Eagles superbowl.
The arrogance these slobs and hacks have is amazing.
-
Bro...he friggen said it......he said that he didn't want the Repub primary to decide his 30 years of service. No Alen...ur right, ur above the voters. Besides this douche still has to investigate the Pats/Eagles superbowl.
Boy,you hit the nail on the head there.Can you imagine he wasted tax money on that?What a shamefull ahole he is.
-
He's such an idiot. The guy quits because he can't beat the Repub. Are the dems so arrogant that they can just come out and say this crap now? Obama whines that he should't be blamed for the Bay of Pigs....that idiot Gibbs makes the remark that he doesn't " keep track of AF 1" all the time...paraphrased of course. These people are beyond belief.
-
In reality, we need conservative to balance the senate and house. Unchecked power of 1 party is not good.
You put all democrats in and the left wing of the party rules. That means anyone thats not poor will be paying more taxes and we will have tons of wasteful programs. And with the way Pelosi and Obama are printing money, our currency will be worth close to nothing.
-
Pretty much the bottom line shoot....
-
The dow is at 8,000. Which is still slightly below where it was when Obama took office.
So he printed $5 trillion bucks, created a slew of social programs and jobs, and the DOW remained steady.
You don't see that as an incredible feat?
-
I suppose, but its less incredible as taxes creep up here and there....and also when he has not tackled social security or healthcare yet and is driving our national deficit up to unprecidented levels, which we pay interest on.
Wow, so Specter changed parties so he wouldn't loose against his republican opposition? Thats why these guys need to have term limits. Thats horrible.
-
hahahaah RIP republican party.hahahaha
-
Ok dude..they said the dems were dead after 2000....I don't think there is a Con here who believed that.
-
hahahaah RIP republican party.hahahaha
The same abuses of power that went on under the all GOP situation will go on with go on with the Dems.
-
hahahaah RIP republican party.hahahaha
Hahaaaa RIP DOA GOP Hahahaaaaa ;D
Karma sucks!
-
.....as opposed to picking ones who are tax cheats, adulterers, closet-homos, and solicitors of prostitution that we've found in the Democratic party.
Once again, this talk sounds almost identical to that of the GOP just four years ago.
If the Dems drive this ecomony further into the ground, their cheers could turn to tears sooner than later.
hun in case you didnt know...mitch mcconnell closet homo draft dodger who married a zipper 15 years ago and still no kids
-
Yes and the Northeast is doing great!!!I lived in CT for 40 years and it fucking sucks!!!High taxes,high unemployment,crappy schools.We moved to Indiana and everything is 100 times better.You can keep the fucking lib northeast and their lift wing ,limp wristed politics.
Whatever school taught you to spell and punctuate like a phonetic Canadian is the epitome of the term "crappy school." You made the correct move in getting your children away from that.
-
will be 62 when all is said and done.
Honestly, until the repubs choose a LEADER for the party that isn't a drug-addled racist, an armageddon polar seccessionist, or a spineless jellyfish, they're going to keep losing members.
:o Ouch!
That stung even me, ...and I'm a Liberal from Canada.
-
:o Ouch!
That stung even me, ...and I'm a Liberal from Canada.
We need Goldwater types.
-
We need Goldwater types.
Goldwater would be considered a Liberal by today's standards.
-
Goldwater would be considered a Liberal by today's standards.
Wrong. Most of the GOP are liberal-lite.
-
Ok dude..they said the dems were dead after 2000....I don't think there is a Con here who believed that.
the dems barely lost the election in 2000.
Obama wiped the floor with mccain and the congress followed. And after 2006 and 2008 dem wins, 2010 is looking so bad for the repubs that one of them jsut told his party to F off.
-
the dems barely lost the election in 2000.
Obama wiped the floor with mccain and the congress followed. And after 2006 and 2008 dem wins, 2010 is looking so bad for the repubs that one of them jsut told his party to F off.
The dems won in 2000. The Republicans, along with the complicity of the Supreme Court stole it from them.
-
Wrong. Most of the GOP are liberal-lite.
no, you're wrong
-
no, you're wrong
Idiot, I am a life long conservative/libertarian and at least honest about the state of things.
McCain/Bush/Obama - open borders
McCain/Bush - huge spending
McCain/Bush - No Child Left Behind
McCain/Bush - Prescriprion Drugs
McCain/Bush - TARP and bailouts.
The GOP is not a conserrvative party at all. They pissed off Democrats and the base. That equals where the GOP is now.
-
The dems won in 2000. The Republicans, along with the complicity of the Supreme Court stole it from them.
The Supreme Court didn't steal anything. All it did was say that enough was enough, after 5 weeks of Dems trying to redefine ballots to give Gore the win. Bush won Florida on Election Night; he never lost his lead in Florida. In fact, he wouldn't have even been in that recount mess had certain media outlets not foolishly called Florida for Gore, before ALL of the polls in the state were closed.
How convenient that they forgot about the panhandle (which tends to be more conservative) being in the CENTRAL TIME ZONE. There were thousands of complaints of people on their way to the polls, who turned away after being erroneously told that Gore had already won. Had they cast their ballot, Bush's margin would have been even wider, hence no recount.
-
:o Ouch!
That stung even me, ...and I'm a Liberal from Canada.
I hate how modernity has twisted the original sense of 'liberal'; in continental Europe the old sense still holds true; you are not a 'LIBERAL'; you are a socialist/neo-liberal or something in between.
-
the dems barely lost the election in 2000.
Obama wiped the floor with mccain and the congress followed. And after 2006 and 2008 dem wins, 2010 is looking so bad for the repubs that one of them jsut told his party to F off.
PLEASE!!!!
As I’ve said numerous times, things can change on a dime. Or did you forget that the Dems won in 2006, after losing three straight elections (2000, 2002, 2004)?
As for Specter, he left because things were looking so bad FOR HIM (he even said as much in his press conference). He was going to get smoked, if he ran for the Republican nomination, and he knew it.
-
Idiot, I am a life long conservative/libertarian and at least honest about the state of things.
McCain/Bush/Obama - open borders
McCain/Bush - huge spending
McCain/Bush - No Child Left Behind
McCain/Bush - Prescriprion Drugs
McCain/Bush - TARP and bailouts.
The GOP is not a conserrvative party at all. They pissed off Democrats and the base. That equals where the GOP is now.
you are conservatiove libertarian? HAHA WTF is a conservative libertarian, are you constipated?
-
you are conservatiove libertarian? HAHA WTF is a conservative libertarian, are you constipated?
Think Barry Goldwater.
-
He's only doing this because Toomey was going to destroy him in the primary.
Why? Because Arlen Specter is a political hack and dead weight like the rest of the bums.
[/quot
Toomey is going to run for Governor. Bottom line, yes he would have lost. Why? Becasue the right wing now has Rush Limbaugh and hanniy thinking for them... If you dont follow what they say, they trash you...
-
Think Barry Goldwater.
barry goldwater was against DADT and pro-gays in the military. i dont think you want to go there. you claim to be conservative libertarian. haha well, i claim to be a REAL libertarian.
-
barry goldwater was against DADT and pro-gays in the military. i dont think you want to go there. you claim to be conservative libertarian. haha well, i claim to be a REAL libertarian.
I favor what the military wants since they are the ones going in harms way, not your or me.
If they want it, fine, if not fine. I would not want to impose this on the military if they feel that by doing so they are going to weaken unit cohesion.
-
I favor what the military wants since they are the ones going in harms way, not your or me.
If they want it, fine, if not fine. I would not want to impose this on the military if they feel that by doing so they are going to weaken unit cohesion.
They didn't want integration either.
-
the dems barely lost the election in 2000.
Obama wiped the floor with mccain and the congress followed. And after 2006 and 2008 dem wins, 2010 is looking so bad for the repubs that one of them jsut told his party to F off.
Bush stomped Kerry in 2004!!!The guy who just told the party to f off was going to get obliterated in his primary so,like the gutless coward he is,he went to play for another team.Typical hook nosed coward.
-
Whatever school taught you to spell and punctuate like a phonetic Canadian is the epitome of the term "crappy school." You made the correct move in getting your children away from that.
Im sorry,I didnt know we were being graded.Thanks teacher.See if I spell this right.FUCK OFF!!!
-
They didn't want integration either.
Point taken, but all Im saying that I vierw the military sort of like the fire department and the police department.
I want the best people there who meet OBJECTIVE criteria, since those are the people needed to tackle serious problems when they go down.
Its sort of the "who do you want carrying you out of a building" thing for me.
-
They didn't want integration either.
yes, he's like a presbyterian catholic not a roman catholic ::)
-
yes, he's like a presbyterian catholic not a roman catholic ::)
Go troll somewhere else if you never want to discuss issues.
-
Go troll somewhere else if you never want to discuss issues.
nah i'll stay right here
-
nah i'll stay right here
Thats fine, but you only make yourself look foolish by never debating a topic on the merits as opposed to just calling names. :P :P
-
Point taken, but all Im saying that I vierw the military sort of like the fire department and the police department.
I want the best people there who meet OBJECTIVE criteria, since those are the people needed to tackle serious problems when they go down.
Its sort of the "who do you want carrying you out of a building" thing for me.
Well, just so you know, I don't care who carries out of a burning building. Just as long as they do!
;D
As far as the best people. Sexual orientation has nothing to do if whether they are good at their job or not.
The issue of open gays in the military affecting unit cohesion is valid, I agree. However, that problem would be temporary.
-
Well, just so you know, I don't care who carries out of a burning building. Just as long as they do!
;D
As far as the best people. Sexual orientation has nothing to do if whether they are good at their job or not.
The issue of open gays in the military affecting unit cohesion is valid, I agree. However, that problem would be temporary.
That's why I said if they think it can be accomodated, fine.
-
Yes but we're not hurting for recruits to the extent that gays make a difference. It will hurt unit cohesion. The policy works fine now. I had a gay soldier, we thought he was flaky before he came out. Once he did, he still had to do his job. I told him that since we all lived in the same hut, he better not become super gay. We did take him to JAG and once he found out that he might have to stay longer in the military and in Afghanistan, because of the investigation they would do, he recanted his gayness. ::)...I let that slide because he was getting out as soon as we got back. But he still had to roll outside the wire. We did end up with alot of straight and lesbian porn after that....so it worked out for everybody.
-
Yes but we're not hurting for recruits to the extent that gays make a difference. It will hurt unit cohesion. The policy works fine now. I had a gay soldier, we thought he was flaky before he came out. Once he did, he still had to do his job. I told him that since we all lived in the same hut, he better not become super gay. We did take him to JAG and once he found out that he might have to stay longer in the military and in Afghanistan, because of the investigation they would do, he recanted his gayness. ::)...I let that slide because he was getting out as soon as we got back. But he still had to roll outside the wire. We did end up with alot of straight and lesbian porn after that....so it worked out for everybody.
LMAO!!!
"he recanted his gayness"
heheheheheheheh
-
Bush stomped Kerry in 2004!!!
By one state.
Sometimes it's like I'm arguing with a litter of puppies here.
-
LMAO!!!
"he recanted his gayness"
heheheheheheheh
SPC X....these are ur options...ur gay and we do an investigation that could make u stay in the army 6 more months past ETS..to include an extra month or two here in a war zone. If GlAAD gets wind of it...it could be up to 18 months as they do their investigation....(don't ask me, thats what the Penatagon/DOD said) or u can say u were confused and we can get on with it....
Sir I was confused.
I hit the PX and got some protein powder and we rolled home.
-
Just what we need a dictatorship with no brakes right????
Only if it is little Bush and the GOP Congress. At least that is what everyone who is whining fails to take note of. I find it hilarious that the whiners who keep crying about Dems/Obama seem to think it was A-Ok when it was Bush/GOP doing the exact same thing.
Hypocrisy has a spectacular way of revealing idiots.
-
Only if it is little Bush and the GOP Congress. At least that is what everyone who is whining fails to take note of. I find it hilarious that the whiners who keep crying about Dems/Obama seem to think it was A-Ok when it was Bush/GOP doing the exact same thing.
Hypocrisy has a spectacular way of revealing idiots.
You are an idiot. i have criticized Bush endlessly.
-
SPC X....these are ur options...ur gay and we do an investigation that could make u stay in the army 6 more months past ETS..to include an extra month or two here in a war zone. If GlAAD gets wind of it...it could be up to 18 months as they do their investigation....(don't ask me, thats what the Penatagon/DOD said) or u can say u were confused and we can get on with it....
Sir I was confused.
I hit the PX and got some protein powder and we rolled home.
Hahahahaha! ;D
-
Hahahahaha! ;D
a conservative libertarian LOL WTF is that? lol
-
By one state.
Sometimes it's like I'm arguing with a litter of puppies here.
3,000,000 votes,more of a margin then Clinton EVER won by.Thats a romp!Funny you guys love to say "Gore won more of the vote",but wont give credit to a 3,000,000 vote drubbing.Nice job little pup.
-
3,000,000 votes,more of a margin then Clinton EVER won by.
O RLY?
-
Arlen changes parties?
hahahahahahahahaha.
Maybe this is the death stroke for the bottom 20%.
-
you can have him. He is a waste and a fraud.
-
wow republicans going down down...fewer fewer. so much for trixon's southern strategy
-
Specter says Obama ditched him after he voted to pass health law
By Alexander Bolton - 03/12/12 05:30 AM ET
www.thehill.com
Former Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) writes in a new book that President Obama ditched him in the 2010 election after he helped Obama win the biggest legislative victory of his term by passing healthcare reform.
Specter also claims that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) did not uphold his promise to grant him seniority accrued over 28 years of service in the Senate as a Republican.
Specter, who rocked Washington’s political establishment and made headlines around the country when he left the Republican Party to join Democrats in April of 2009, has kept quiet about these slights until now.
He makes surprising revelations about Republican leaders, as well — he writes that former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) told him that he would have made the same decision to defect from the GOP if he had been in Specter’s position.
Specter says that one of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) first concerns after learning of the impending party switch was that he might be blamed for driving Specter out of the GOP.
Specter declined to discuss the behind-the-scenes machinations of his party switch when he granted an interview with several news outlets on his final day in the Senate, when he reminisced about his career in his hideaway on the first floor of the Capitol.
He promised instead to put the juicy details in his memoir, “Life Among the Cannibals,” which will go on sale later this month. The Hill obtained an advanced copy.
It was written with his former communications director, Charles Robbins.
Specter laments that Obama and Vice President Biden did not do more to help him in the final days of his primary race against former Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), who beat him 54 percent to 46 percent in the 2010 Pennsylvania Senate Democratic primary.
Specter writes that Obama turned down a request to campaign with him in the final days of the primary, because the president’s advisers feared he would look weak if he intervened and Specter lost.
“I realized that the president and his advisers were un-shy about supporting my candidacy after being stung by Obama’s failed rescue attempts for New Jersey governor Jon Corzine and Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley. They were reluctant to become victims of a trifecta,” he writes.
The snub was made all the more painful by Obama flying over Philadelphia en route to New York City a few days before the election and then on primary day jetting over Pittsburgh to visit a factory in Youngstown, Ohio, 22 miles from the Pennsylvania border, to promote the 2009 economic stimulus law. The painful irony for Specter is that his vote for the stimulus legislation, which was instrumental to its passage, hastened his departure from the Republican Party.
Specter was also disappointed that Biden, who was only a few blocks away at Penn University, did not attend a pre-primary day rally at the Phillies’s Citizens Bank Park — a missed opportunity Specter attributes to a failed staff-to-staff request.
Just over a year before, Obama and Biden welcomed Specter to the Democratic Party with a press conference at the White House and promised him his full support.
Specter believes Reid acted with “duplicity” while managing the party switch. Specter said Reid promised him that he would be recognized on the seniority list as a Democrat elected in 1980, but failed to deliver on it.
Had Specter been given the seniority he was promised, he would have become chairman of the powerful Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee and next in line to chair the Judiciary Committee.
Instead, Reid stripped Specter of all his seniority by passing a short resolution by unanimous consent in a nearly-empty chamber, burying him at the bottom of the Democrats’ seniority list.
Specter found out about it after his press secretary emailed him a press account of the switch. Specter was floored that Reid had “violated a fundamental Senate practice to give personal notice to a senator directly affected by the substance of a unanimous consent agreement.”
Specter was left simmering after Reid’s spokesman at the time told the AP that Specter had known about the resolution and even joined in a deal to draft it, which Specter characterizes as a “falsification.”
“Overall, my sense was that Reid didn’t extend himself much to advance my seniority on either committee,” he wrote.
Specter writes that several senior Democrats refused to cede seniority to him, significantly damaging his reelection chances against Sestak.
He says Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), now the chairman of the Labor, Health and Human Services subcommittee, declined a request to let Specter take over as chairman at least until the election.
Sens. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) refused to let him move past them in seniority on the Judiciary Committee.
But Specter praised Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.), the third-ranking member of the Democratic leadership, for treating him generously. Durbin gave Specter chairmanship of the Judiciary subcommittee on Crime and Drugs and both Durbin and Schumer let him climb ahead of them on Judiciary’s seniority ladder.
Specter also describes in detail McConnell’s response after learning that he would become the 59th member of the Democratic Caucus — Sen. Al Franken’s (D) delayed victory in Minnesota would give Reid later that year the 60th vote he needed to pass healthcare reform.
“When I told him I was going to change parties, he was visibly displeased but not ruffled. Mostly, he was taciturn,” Specter recounts. “McConnell and I had a serious discussion. He was very nice and very professional. ‘Don’t do it,’ he said. ‘It’d be a big mistake. Serve out your time as a Republican and retire gracefully.’”
McConnell worried that he might get blamed for driving Specter to join the Democrats. He raised the issue at a meeting of the Senate Republican conference where Specter announced his decision.
“McConnell asked me in front of the others if I was going to criticize him or the Republican caucus for my decision. He was worried that I might blame him,” Specter wrote. “Absolutely not, I wrote.”
Dole, who served as Senate Republican leader from 1985 to 1996, was initially angry with Specter but then told him he made the right decision.
Specter recounted a long conversation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center 18 months after the switch.
“Dole told me I had done the right thing, that I had done a terrific job as a senator, been involved in a lot of projects, been very active, and hadn’t gotten credit for a lot of the stuff I had done,” he wrote.
“I said, ‘Bob, I think that it’s very meaningful when you say that I did the right thing, in the party change.’
“He said, ‘Well,’ and then paused and thought for a few seconds. Then he said, ‘I probably would have done the same thing.’ ”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------