The American Spectator

Apparently Sen. Arlen Specter’s letter denouncing the Republican Majority for Choice’s tactics against his Pennsylvania colleague, Sen. Rick Santorum, has done little to dissuade the group from its strategy.

Jennifer Blei Stockman, the RMC national co-chair I interviewed for the article last week tying Specter to the RMC, has an op-ed in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer on the South Dakota abortion ban. She couldn’t help but localize the story and take a substantial swipe at Santorum:

More and more, mainstream Republicans are alienated by the direction of the party. Relentless attacks on abortion rights, stem-cell research, and the teaching of evolution only further show how religious fundamentalists call the shots and are playing bully boy with our party leaders.

Here in Pennsylvania, rank-and-file Republicans are withholding their support for the poster child of the religious right wing, Sen. Rick Santorum. Santorum finds himself down in some polls by nearly 15 points, and yet he continues to push a religious agenda out of step with most Americans. Through his own rhetoric in opposition to contraception and his comparison of abortion to slavery in his book It Takes a Family, he continues to discount the strong moderate majority in this state and across the country who disagree with his agenda.

Last election, school board members in the Dover Area School District who had voted to mandate the teaching of “intelligent design” found themselves suddenly out of a job - just as Santorum might this November. But Republicans giving the boot to extremists isn’t just a Pennsylvania phenomenon, it’s the beginning of a movement in the GOP by the moderate majority.

In his written statement last Friday, Sen. Specter implied his decision about whether or not to resign from RMC’s advisory committee depended on their future action. I wonder if this is cause for resignation?

UPDATE: I checked if RMC has donated to Specter’s campaigns. They have, though a measly amount: $5000 in the 2004 election cycle.