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The Spectacle Blog
The Hill is reporting on some tibdits from Arlen Specter’s forthcoming new memoir, Life Among the Cannibals. Specter feels that Democratrs used him to pass health care reform and then didn’t follow through on their promises to help him win his primary.
“I realized that the president and his advisers were gun-shy about supporting my candidacy after being stung by Obama’s failed rescue attempts for New Jersey governor Jon Corzine and Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley. They were reluctant to become victims of a trifecta,” he writes.
The snub was made all the more painful by Obama flying over Philadelphia en route to New York City a few days before the election and then on primary day jetting over Pittsburgh to visit a factory in Youngstown, Ohio, 22 miles from the Pennsylvania border, to promote the 2009 economic stimulus law. The painful irony for Specter is that his vote for the stimulus legislation, which was instrumental to its passage, hastened his departure from the Republican Party.
Specter was also abandoned by Harry Reid, who had promised to protect the party-switcher’s seniority.
Instead, Reid stripped Specter of all his seniority by passing a short resolution by unanimous consent in a nearly-empty chamber, burying him at the bottom of the Democrats’ seniority list.
Specter found out about it after his press secretary emailed him a press account of the switch. Specter was floored that Reid had “violated a fundamental Senate practice to give personal notice to a senator directly affected by the substance of a unanimous consent agreement.”
Specter was left simmering after Reid’s spokesman at the time told the AP that Specter had known about the resolution and even joined in a deal to draft it, which Specter characterizes as a “falsification.”
If Reid had kept his word, Specter would have run for reelection as chairman of the Senate Labor, Health, and Human Services Committee and would have been next in line to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee (where he presumably would have promised to support all of Obama’s nominees, the pledge he made with regard to Bush in order to keep the gavel as a Republican).
I review Life Among the Cannibals in the March issue of The American Spectator.
View all comments (27) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by W. James Antle, III
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/03/12/specter-feels-betrayed-after-b
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albert constantine jr.| 3.12.12 @ 5:08PM
Snarlin' Arlen feels betrayed, huh? Sic Semper Proditoris.
Evan| 3.12.12 @ 5:18PM
Scottish law Arlen needs to go away.
albert constantine jr.| 3.12.12 @ 6:28PM
I'm sure there are some with positive thoughts about Mr. Specter, but in the end, they were NOT PROVEN.
Grey Bear| 3.13.12 @ 10:55AM
William Jefferson BLYTHE for one !
It's A Cunning Plan, Actually| 3.12.12 @ 5:19PM
As that old Starkist Tuna commercial tagline went, "Sorry Charlie!" No one trusts a man with two faces Arlen. But don't despair. I'm sure "conservative" talk host Michael Smerconish will devote a year of his show appealing to his listener for sympathy on your behalf. A man reaps what he sows. I still feel guilty for voting for you after I initially registered to vote when I turned 18 years old. I learned to look into a candidate's background instead of just looking at the "R" or "D" next to their name before pulling that lever. You should have stayed a Democrat from the outset. If you had you would probably still be a U.S. Senator & you wouldn't be writing books bemoaning your fate.
Drek| 3.12.12 @ 5:27PM
I'm glad you mentioned that turncoat Smerconish, who we can all be sure will twist himself into knots rationalizing his endorsement of obama for 2012.
Clint| 3.12.12 @ 5:47PM
" Michael A. Smerconish, lawyer, author and nationally syndicated radio host, joined Kline & Specter in 2011 as of counsel attorney.
He was previously of counsel at The Beasley Firm, where Tom Kline and Shanin Specter were his colleagues before forming their own firm in 1995. Smerconish has focused on legal cases ranging from complex tort matters to business litigation. "
Shanin's Arlen's Son.
W| 3.12.12 @ 7:29PM
It is a personal injury firm, very succesful.
Grey Bear| 3.13.12 @ 10:52AM
Ergo - "Ambulance Chasers !!!!"
Clint| 3.12.12 @ 5:20PM
Apparently, Specter Is Pickin' On Bones In: Life Among The Cannibals
MikeBee| 3.12.12 @ 6:19PM
So, Snarlin' Arlen is disappointed that he was doublecrossed. Seems to be excellent justice for one who doublecrossed the Republican party often. I think it's hilarious! Poor baby......don't cry too much, Arlen!
Trinacria| 3.12.12 @ 6:19PM
What!!!? There was less than 30 pieces of silver in the bag? And they seemed so trustworthy...
W| 3.12.12 @ 7:30PM
Shocking.
No honor among thieves and Democrats.
zombyboy | 3.13.12 @ 2:57AM
Perfect. Absolutely perfect.
Quartermaster| 3.13.12 @ 7:40PM
Trinacria, that's rich. I hope you don't if steal that.
Cpm| 3.12.12 @ 6:34PM
Well Arlen, when you lay down with dogs.....
Collatinus| 3.13.12 @ 1:16AM
...the dogs get up with fleas.
Gregory Markle | 3.12.12 @ 7:20PM
So the fair weather RINO opportunist feels betrayed because another fair weather opportunist got the best of him? Tell ya what Arlen, I felt betrayed when the GOP ran you over Toomey because they wanted to exploit your seniority only to have you stab them in the back, when your public statements had already outed you as the Quisling you would become. Your betrayal of the GOP and those you voted for you was ALMOST worth watching Reid treat you like the disposable vote you had made of yourself by following the path you thought would make you popular and keep you in office rather than having any sort of convictions.
Spector's whining does fill me with a nice warm feeling of schadenfreude though and made my day a little brighter. If only we could hear a few hundred more of these come November.
Teflon93| 3.12.12 @ 8:15PM
Dishonest Democrats? Huh. Imagine that!
chuck| 3.12.12 @ 9:39PM
I wouldn't use Specter's book for toilet paper. My ass is better than that.
Tom| 3.12.12 @ 9:50PM
If anyone goes to bed with the devil, he should expect to get a pitch fork rammed up his rear end.
spike59| 3.13.12 @ 6:32AM
i understand Judas Iscariot and Benedict Arnold were also a tad bitter about how things turned out as well...
JohnInFlorida| 3.13.12 @ 7:20AM
"Specter feels that Democrats used him to pass health care reform and then didn't follow through on their promises to help him win his primary."
Specter's surprise at this just goes to show that even though we believed him to be two-faced, in addition he is far dumber than even we believed.
Miles Gloriosus| 3.13.12 @ 8:56AM
Specter one of the great equine glutesus maximus!
Grey Bear| 3.13.12 @ 10:46AM
My Mother & the Nuns in grade school always said, "If you can't say anything good about a person then say nothing at all". You in turn handicap my opinion of this Phila. lawyer, by not allowing me to use profanity. Imagine, Al Gore would have been president except for this meddling fool.
TMI| 3.13.12 @ 11:05AM
Specter's defeat restored my faith in the American voting public. Now if only we can rid ourselves of John Dingell and Louise Slaughter...
Rob| 3.13.12 @ 6:34PM
I had the misfortune of meeting Arlen Spector on vacation back in the 90's at the Jersey Shore. I recognized and greeted him, to which he snarled and replied, "everybody has to be somewhere". What an arrogant jerk. Glad Pennsylvanians finally came to their senses.