Arlen Specter Says Goodbye

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arlen-specterEver the prosecutor, Sen. Arlen Specter delivered a critical attack of partisan politics in his self-described “closing argument” this morning on the Senate floor. The speech capped Specter’s 30-year career as the longest-serving senator from Pennsylvania. In his final words on the floor, Specter called for civility in the chamber and bemoaned the lack of moderate Republicans remaining in the world’s most deliberative body.

“The days of lively debate with many members on the floor are long gone,” lamented Specter.

Specter left the Republican Party in 2009 and became a Democrat, after conservatives attacked him for supporting President Barack Obama’s stimulus package. Specter went on to lose the Democratic primary earlier this year.

Specter’s calls for moderation and civility aside, the senator has engaged in both partisan and brutal politicking along the way. Even Specter admitted he switched parties because it would “enable me to be reelected” – the kind of candor that only reinforced his reputation on Capitol Hill as a political opportunist.

A former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter presided over the confirmation of several Supreme Court justices.

Today, he recalled his early days in the Senate, when he joined the Republican Moderates Luncheon, where he met several of the most well-known liberal Republican senators: John Chafee of Rhode Island, John Warner of Virginia, Jack Danforth of Missouri, Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and his colleague, John Heinz of Pennsylvania.

“That’s a far cry from recent years, when the moderates could fit into a telephone booth,” he said.

The chamber was filled mostly with Democrats, with a few notable GOP exceptions: Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Both female senators are known moderates and have taken heat from their party for it: Murkowski was defeated in her own primary last cycle, and Snowe is expected to face a tea-party-backed challenger this cycle.

“Senators have gone into other states to campaign against incumbents of the other party. Senators have even opposed their own party colleagues in primary challenges. That conduct was beyond contemplation in the Senate that I joined 30 years ago,” said Specter in a not-so-veiled jab at South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who supported his would-be GOP primary challenger, now Sen.-elect Pat Toomey.

Referring to primary challenges as a form of “sophisticated cannibalism,” Specter called out to his moderate colleagues and would-be senators of this cycle: Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, who lost his nomination at the party convention because activists thought he was too centrist, as well as Murkowski, who lost her primary earlier this year but will likely be certified the winner as a write-in candidate.

“Congressman Mike Castle was rejected in Delaware’s Republican primary in favor of a candidate who thought it necessary to defend herself as not being a witch,” said Specter. “The spectacular reelection of Sen. Lisa Murkowski on a write-in vote in the Alaska general election and the defeat of other tea party candidates may show the way to counter right-wing extremists.”

An attentive Murkowski had no visible response to Specter’s praise, although the two are close. She stayed with Snowe until the end of the speech to greet Specter afterward, embracing him and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

Specter also directed his ire toward some of the current Supreme Court justices who ruled in the Citizens United case earlier this year, which allowed corporations to spend without disclosure in political campaigns.

“Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito repudiated their confirmation testimony, given under oath, and provided the key votes to permit corporations and unions to secretly pay for political advertising,” said Specter.

In his final words, Specter pushed to put television cameras in the Supreme Court and encouraged his Senate colleagues to travel abroad in an effort to dispel the foreign stereotype of “ugly Americans.” The two-time cancer survivor pleaded with Congress to increase funding for the National Institutes of Health.

He also pushed for the Senate to reconsider some of its rules, including allowing senators to offer amendments not regulated by the majority leader and eliminating the secret hold.

“By precluding other senators from offering amendments, the majority leader protects his party colleagues from taking tough votes,” said Specter. “Never mind that we were sent here and paid to make tough votes.”

{Capitol News Company, LLC/Matzav.com}


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