Self-Serving Switch
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Politics: In finally abandoning the Republican Party, Pennsylvania Sen.
Arlen Specter showed his true colors not just ideologically, but personally.
It's all about the liberal Specter maximizing his own power.
The climax Tuesday of Arlen Specter's long, drawn-out betrayal of his
party may seem like it came out of nowhere — especially since it was only last
month that he said he'd seek re-election as a Republican. But why be shocked
when a hardened Machiavellian does what comes naturally after doing the math?
As a Democrat, Sen. Specter will now be Washington's king power broker,
since he is poised to be the 60th vote for Democrats in the U.S. Senate,
constituting a filibuster-proof majority at a time when the federal government
is undergoing an unprecedented expansion in size and power.
Arlen Specter: A RINO no more.
No one is falling for Specter's hand-wringing rationale that "since my
election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has
moved far to the right." He was just as uncomfortable with Reaganism back then
as he is now, all along relishing his role as RINO — Republican In Name Only —
whose vote was up for sale.
"Last year," Specter added, "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."
He must not have been looking for that philosophy very hard, or he would
have "found" it's been that way for decades.
What Specter saw, in fact, as he looked at the people of Pennsylvania was
that his days were numbered. Former congressman and Club for Growth president
Pat Toomey, who nearly snatched the GOP nomination away from the longtime
incumbent in 2004, has been organizing an encore effort that Specter obviously
surmised was going to succeed in 2010.
The game that the former Philadelphia prosecutor has played for so long
would no longer work. He got away with betraying party principles on everything
from tax cuts to Supreme Court appointments because periodically his
specialized abilities would come in handy — most memorably in grilling Justice
Clarence Thomas accuser Anita Hill during his Supreme Court confirmation
hearings in 1991.
It will be a new dance now. As vote No. 60 in the World's Greatest
Deliberative Body (assuming vote No. 59 belongs to comedian Al Franken of
Minnesota), Specter will be owed an incalculable debt by congressional
Democrats and President Obama.
There will be no threats of party discipline against him on the occasions
when he votes with Republicans, no warnings that campaign funds will be kept
from him. (You think they want Toomey to beat him in 2010?) Each and every big
vote in the Senate will be a bargaining opportunity for Specter. Riches and
favors will be showered upon him for the power he prostitutes.
There has never been a more important time to temper the power being
wielded in Washington, never a time when putting country before political
ambition was so consequential. The system of economic freedom that built and
sustains America is at stake, as are the fortunes of our children and
grandchildren.
Thanks to Arlen Specter, that destructive power may now be absolute.
Reserve a space for a new addition to history's Rogues' Gallery.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=325810081394462
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
<<inline: smlissues042909.jpg>>
<<inline: px.gif>>
