The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 9)

p> So conservatives are shocked that liberal Arlen Specter -- the darling of the Republican party's power and fundraising machine -- hired a liberal lawyer. While the Republican Party pours its resources into liberal Republicans, files briefs in support of affirmative action, increases federal education programs and interference with the private sector, and welcome illegal aliens to the financial benefits of others' earnings, and while radio talk show hosts play the role of shill and spin servant on behalf of the party elite, the same political machine thinks we peasants will write letters in support of Gonzales, Rice, et al., even as the party continues to ignore our concerns. Note to the party: The party is over. Don't count on the average, middle-class Republican who not in your circle of hobnobbing with politicos, running the rubber-chicken circuit or chatting about politics during golf games, to support you. br> -- Caroline Miranda br> North Hollywood, California /p>

Arlen Specter thinks he got a "get-out-of-jail-free" card when he snowed the Republican leadership into sticking with Senate tradition and giving him the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. He is mistaken. What he got was probation, and his actions this week prove that he has violated it. As with a felon who violates probation, Specter is going to have to pay a price for his folly.

When conservatives rightly tried to block his appointment after his outrageous post-election press conference, Specter first denied saying what he had plainly said, then meaning what he had plainly meant, and finally agreed to be a good boy and report out the presidents nominees while reserving his final vote. He also told critics to judge him by what he does, not by what he says - an interesting reversal of the usual liberal formula.

He also suggested that his close relationship with Senate Democrats made him the only potential committee chairman who could reach across the aisle and prevent the sort of Democratic obstructionism we've seen in the past. (Although Snarlin' Arlen didn't explain what it was about his winning personality that was supposed to cause Pat Leahy to vote for a Supreme Court nominee who didn't have "I [heart] Roe v. Wade" tattooed on his or her forehead.)

Well, now we have some actions to judge the Senator by, his first two staff appointments. The saying in Washington is "personnel is policy," and by that standard Teddy Kennedy might as well be in charge of hiring for the majority. A former counsel for the NAACP, a race-baiting group that once libeled President Bush in a TV commercial by suggesting he was somehow to blame for the dragging death of a black man? A Democratic activist and former associate of Hillary Clinton? These are Specter's idea of the kind of staffer's the Republicans should hire. I can only assume that Larry Tribe was too busy, whoever's running the ACLU these days wasn't interested and that the general counsel for NARAL didn't return Specter's call until the interviews were over. At this point the Democrats should be pitching a fit because they won't have any decent candidates left to propose for the minority staff.

Maybe this is Specter's secret plan to avoid Democratic obstruction of the President's nominees on the floor. He'll just have the staff torpedo all the genuine conservatives before they get that far.

At this point Specter has passed beyond the joke, embarrassment and annoyance he has always been, and spun into Ted Turner/Howard Dean insane fantasy land. By rights he should be expelled from the Republican caucus entirely. It isn't like he voted with it often enough for this to be a loss. Let the Democrats have him and good luck to them.

If there is anybody in the so-called Republican Leadership either capable of or willing to show a little actual leadership (yes, Senator Frist, I'm talking to you) now is the time to act, before the committee gets down to its serious work.

Enough already. Throw the bum out!

Let our motto be, "Spectero Delenda Est!"

p>That's how I'm ending every letter and e-mail to any Senator, no matter what the topic. (Surely they all have someone on their staffs who can explain it to them.)

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