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The Spectacle Blog

All Is Not Well in Specter-Land

By W. James Antle, III on 5.1.09 @ 2:30PM

It seems some Democrats are not happy with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's deal with Arlen Specter:

"I won't be happy if I don't get to chair something because of Arlen Specter," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sits on the Appropriations Committee with Specter and is fifth in seniority among Democrats behind Chairman Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Sens. Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa). "I'm happy with the Democratic order but I don't want to be displaced because of Arlen Specter," she said.

One senior Democratic lawmaker told The Hill that the Democratic Conference will vote against giving the longtime Pennsylvania Republican seniority over lawmakers like Harkin, Mikulski and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) when they hold their organizational meeting after the 2010 election.

The last Democrat quoted above says Specter should just be grateful if he's still in the Senate by the time of that meeting: "He was a cooked goose," the senior Democrat told the Hill. "He was going to lose to [former Rep. Pat] Toomey [R-Pa.] and we were going to beat Toomey. We did him a favor by allowing him to remain in the Senate." Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) isn't ready to even do Specter that big a favor.

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Pingback| 5.1.09 @ 3:00PM

All Is Not Well in Specter-Land | But As For Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

All Is Not Well in Specter-Land | But As For Me But As For

Jenna| 5.1.09 @ 3:06PM

Can you blame them? I can't imagine many rank and file democrats in Pennsylvania rallying behind Specter either.

NavyBrat| 5.1.09 @ 3:49PM

Hey Dims, be careful what you wish for... you might just get it.

Cathal| 5.2.09 @ 9:26AM

Spector is hust jouning the approx 200,000 other Republicans who dropped the Republican registration since 2004. Guess the neo-CON agenda was not working for them.

Pingback| 5.2.09 @ 10:56PM

Purity for me, but not for thee « The Forum links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…card check, and all the rest? And they’re building a foothold in the SCOTUS, no matter how much Crittenden prays. What a joke they are, these liberals. Already there are grumblings in the Democratic caucus about their new friend, Arlen Specter. No mistake about it, the GOP has a massive task ahead of them in the next few years—2010 is not looking so bright for Republicans no matter…