Critics of Senate Judiciary Chairman, Sen. Arlen
Specter woke Tuesday morning to discover that the senior
Senator from Pennsylvania has been a busy one-man employment agency
for liberal lawyers and Democrats.
Tuesday morning brought word that Carolyn
Short, a trial lawyer from Philadelphia, was leaving her
practice to become a general counsel for the Specter and his
Judiciary Committee.
Short, who has been on the job for a couple of days, has told
friends that she views her job with Specter as “temporary,” and
will commute from her family’s home outside of Philadelphia. Her
husband is former U.S. Constitutional Center executive director and
Democratic congressional candidate Joseph
Torsella.
Short was an active advocate for her husband’s failed campaign
last year. For a local paper, she laid out his, and by association
her, position: “The women who stand behind Joe stand behind him
because he is the clear-cut candidate to go to Washington and get
things done toward the issues that matter most to women of
southeastern Pennsylvania — creating better job opportunities,
protecting the constitutional right to choose and working to make
sure women have the health coverage they need.”
Staff on the Judiciary committee have been told that Short will
have broad responsibilities in her role, though it was made clear
that she is not the lead counsel to Specter or the committee.
“Presumably she will be working on everything and anything the
chairman wants her to work on: judges, tort reform, reauthorization
of the USA Patriot Act, you name it,” says a Judiciary Committee
staffer. “We are shocked that Specter is making this kind of hire.
On the heels of the NAACP hire, and the heat we’ve been taking, we
have to wonder how long Republican leaders will let this go
on.”
That is a reference to last week’s news that Specter had hired,
against the wishes of his staff, a former deputy counsel to the
NAACP to work on the Republican staff of the Judiciary
Committee.
On Tuesday, as word of Short’s hiring spread among
conservatives, the Judiciary staff was attempting to spin the news.
Spokesmen and advisers to Specter were attempting to set up
meetings with conservative journalists and activists to keep the
burgeoning controversy within the conservative universe.
“They don’t want this thing to get into the New York
Times or the Washington Post,” says the staffer of
another U.S. Senator. “They seem to think that they can handle the
heat from conservatives, but if the story really explodes in bigger
venues, Specter is going to have problems.”
The explosion may already be beginning. Word among conservatives
was the Specter’s actions were going to be the top agenda item at
the weekly Wednesday morning meeting organized in Washington by
Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax
Reform.
As well, conservative Senate members of the Republican Steering
Committee met at the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday, and Specter’s
hiring was one of the topics for discussion. “Nothing was decided,”
says the staffer of a conservative Southern Senator present at the
meeting. “They are taking a wait and see attitude. But they are
disturbed by what they have seen and read on this issue.”
A clearer picture of just how much damage Specter has inflicted
on himself may become clearer over the weekend when Republicans
travel to the Greenbrier resort for their leadership retreat.
There, Specter is expected to meet with a number of his colleagues,
and to explain why he has been focusing on liberal Democrats in his
hiring.
“The most troubling thing I read on this issue was that Specter
had begun speaking to these people shortly after he secured the
chairmanship,” says a Senate leadership staffer. “Specter survives
having his head lopped, has his senior staff promise that he will
hire conservatives, then turns around and talks to his liberal
Democratic chums. There is a growing impression up here that he was
less than honest with his colleagues in order to win the
chairmanship.”
While Specter and his staff attempt to kill this furor,
conservatives are awaiting some indication from the Senate
Republican leadership that they will try to clean up the Specter
mess. That may come as soon as this weekend. Given the confirmation
battles that have developed for both Secretary of State and
Attorney General, there has been little opportunity to the
leadership to consider the political goings-on with
Specter.
