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The Spectacle Blog
I was actually more equivocal about Sam Alito than in Quin’s reading of my earlier post. While I said flatly that John Roberts could have been confirmed without Arlen Specter, on Alito I wrote, “Alito could have been filibustered and maybe Specter stopped it.” So I acknowledge that perhaps Specter’s strong support in the committee hearings may have undercut liberal filibuster attempts (though so did the reticence of red state Democrats who feared the move would backfire politically).
But the 10-8 Senate Judicary Committee vote Quin mentions was strictly along party lines. Other than Specter, the committee’s Republicans at the time were Orrin Hatch, Chuck Grassley, Jon Kyl, Mike DeWine, Jeff Sessions, John Cornyn, Lindsey Graham, Sam Brownback, and Tom Coburn. That’s a fairly conservative group, and I don’t even see Graham or DeWine as likely votes against a Republican Supreme Court nominee barring some disastrous revelation. The most liberal Republican on that committee was Specter.
Granted, the composition of the Judiciary Committee might have been a bit different without Specter (though the partisan breakdown probably wouldn’t have been). But it seems to me that if Alito was going to be rejected, the cloture vote was the key one. And on that motion, Alito enjoyed the support of the Gang of 14, of which Specter wasn’t a member. Defenders of Rick Santorum’s Specter endorsement may be right on the judges question, but I don’t think it is the slam dunk they apparently do.
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More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/02/23/specter-and-alito
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Bill| 2.23.12 @ 4:09PM
Guess Who?
Voted for
1. Raising debt ceiling 5 times
2.Planned Parenthood
3. Medicare Part D
4. NCLB
5. Sonia Sotomayer
Voted against
1. Right-to-Work law
Ans: "Keystone RINO" Rick Santorum
PCP Smoker| 2.23.12 @ 9:24PM
"Sonia Sotomayer"
Liar. He lost in 2006. He was not in the Senate when she was nominated in 2008. Who did you vote in 2004, Bill? Did you vote for Kerry or did you vote for the guy who (1) raised the debt ceiling 5 times, (2) created Medicare Part D, (3) created NCLB, (4) introduced steel tariffs.
Bill| 2.23.12 @ 10:34PM
I voted for Bush in 2004, and Santorum was not my senator cause I don't live in PA.
Clint| 2.23.12 @ 6:19PM
" -Santorum’s Liberal Voting Record
Rick Santorum voted with Barbara Boxer with this: S Amdt 3230 – Gun Lock Requirement Amendment
Rick Santorum voted for H J Res 47 – Debt Limit Increase Resolution – Key Vote
Rick Santorum voted for taxes in the Internet Access Tax Bill
Rick Santorum voted for HR 1 – No Child Left Behind Act
Rick Santorum voted to confirm President William J. Clinton’s nomination of Alan Greenspan to be Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for a fourth four-year term.
Rick Santorum voted for HR 3448 – Minimum Wage Increase bill which allows punitive damages for injury or illness to be taxed.
- Allows damages for emotional distress to be taxed.
- Repeals the diesel fuel tax rebate to purchasers of diesel-powered automobiles and light trucks.
Rick Santorum Voted to confirm President William J. Clinton’s nomination of Alan Greenspan to be the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System for the third four year term.
Rick Santorum voted for the protection of Abortion Clinics
I would add that this list just scratches the surface of Santorum’s career-long liberal voting record. As Sen. Rand Paul said of Santorum to CNN on Monday:
“He voted to double the size of the Department of Education… He voted to expand Medicare and add free drugs for senior citizens and he has voted for foreign aid. Those are not conservative principles. Seventy-seven percent of the American people are opposed to foreign aid and Rick Santorum has voted for it every time it’s come down.”
PCP Smoker| 2.23.12 @ 9:26PM
Your turn asshole. Who did you vote in 2004? By the way, Clint. Your asshole Ron Paul is not going anywhere. Matter of fact, it's pretty clear he is teaming up with Romney to attack Santorum. Old Mr. Libertarianism acting as a hatchet man to allow a liberal republican to win.
Clint| 2.24.12 @ 3:49AM
You Talkin' To Yourself, Redeye PRK Sucker ?
Hmmmmmm ,Toughie Girl ?
Wanna Make Somethin' Of It, Cupcake ?
Hmmmm, Keyboard Mouth ?
PCP Smoker| 2.23.12 @ 9:20PM
I love how the establishment is now running away from Bush era policies in order to attack Santorum. I would remind all that if you voted for Bush in 2004, then you endorsed every single policy he and Karl Rove introduced. That means, you voted and endorsed TSA, DHS, NCLBehind, Medicare Part D, TARP, GM Bailout. If your beef with Santorum is that he voted with the President on these issues, then look in the mirror. You voted for the guy who proposed those ideas.
Paul McGrath| 2.23.12 @ 10:46PM
Exactly PCP. Bush was the president of the U. S., and the leader of the Republican party. There is no way any Republican senator or Republican congressman could get away with standing against him. Many of them surely did not like the various awful things Bush was doing, and many of them likely called him privately about their concerns, but they really had no choice. And in certain circumstances--Harriet Miers, immigration reform--they did rise up against him.
I remember the Specter thing well. With a mere approving nod from Bush for Toomey, or even if Bush just kept his mouth shut, Toomey would have won. Instead, Bush ENDORSED Spector. Every conservative I know was outraged.
But the point is, what was Santorum supposed to do? The villain was Bush, the worst Republican president in American history. By far. Worse than Hoover, which is saying a lot.
Santorum should put it this way, rather than make these convoluted arguments about Supreme Court justices.
Drek| 2.23.12 @ 10:21PM
Meanwhile, Snarlin' Arlen was on that worthless Smerconish show this afternoon, and made news:
1} There was no deal about the judges, ----- which means Santorum is desperately lyin' about the reasons he dragged Specter over the finish line, {none who know anything of Specter thought that the guy would cut a deal over judges, so that spin by Santorum was always suspect}; and
2} Specter scoffs at the idea that Santorum pulled a floundering Specter over the finish line against Toomey.
That latter contention is pure fantasy island stuff from Specter, for he edged out Toomey by less than 18,000 votes, and the evening of that primary vote, Specter gave a swan song interview all but conceding defeat.
Joanne| 2.23.12 @ 10:45PM
Why did Santorum support Spector for PRESIDENT in the 1996 Republican presidential primary when there were many Conservative Republicans running that year?
Drek| 2.24.12 @ 12:29AM
In the Senate there is a custom that when one Senator from a state runs for the nomination, the other Senator supports him.
It's kind of like the tacit agreement between the Senators that none is supposed to show up in another Senator's home state, and politically campaign against him.
It's all this internal Senate crap.
And it has just come back to bite Santorum in a major, MAJOR way.
He was too damn gutless to stand up and be accounted when the size of the federal government doubled under GW.
When Clinton left office, the federal budget per annum was roughly 1.6 trillion dollars.
When that idiot Bush left office, the federal budget roughly doubled, to 3.2 trillion.
People here have little grasp just how much GW shafted us, shafted the party.
squalis| 2.24.12 @ 7:27AM
I think we know. As the 2008 elections approached, it was becoming clear as McCain GWB lite) self combusted.
WL| 2.24.12 @ 12:57PM
Oh We know!!!!! We know exactly how bad Bush did us in...
That is why I cannot understand why anyone would even think about tossing Jeb's name out there as even remotely possible...
If our party puts up another BUSH in the next 15-20 years...then we deserve a Liberal Run Government.
Drek| 2.24.12 @ 10:04PM
Desperation.
I don't like the Bush family, ------ but I want to win, and Jeb did have a good record in Florida.
Of course I had no sooner posted that, and such like, then Jeb came out with some ever so typical Bush family comment about the tone and tenor of -------------------- you guessed it, the Republican party.
Nary a word about the left, nary a word about Democrats, ---------but oh how that family just loves to pose at the expense of the base of the GOP.
Paul Windels| 2.24.12 @ 11:12AM
Specter's value came from the fact that he was an extremely competent committee chair who knew how to keep the nomination on track through the committee process. I don't recall the specifics, but I do recall a point in the Alito committee hearings where Kennedy started whining for more time and Spector told him that he could either make a motion that would be denied or he was out of order. Frankly I don't think there were too many other Republican Senators who would have stood up to Kennedy like that and kept control of their committee. To the contrary, I recall one Republican Senator who was also a highly touted lawyer having his lunch eaten by minority counsel when the 1995 Congress was trying to investigate the Clintons.
Specter also did a masterful job cross-examining Anita Hill -- he got just enough out of her to show that Thomas was telling the truth but never gave her an opportunity to break down and have someone pull a Joe Welch stunt on him.
I fully realize there was a bad Specter out there too, and I'm no fan of that. What made this a difficult problem was that, when he was the good Specter, he brought talent to the table that nobody else on our side and few if any on the other side had, and that talent could well have made the difference with respect to the confirmations of Justices Thomas and Alito.