Hypocrisy Alert: Specter on Why He Became a Democrat; Do Other Senate Democrats Even Believe What Specter Says?
Contact: Nachama Soloveichik or Tim Kelly - 484.809.7994
Allentown, PA – In a closed door meeting yesterday with his fellow Democrats, Senator Arlen Specter gave an impassioned speech on health care, declaring, “Don’t let the obstructionists win . . . I came to this caucus to be your 60th vote.” (Washington Post, 12/15/09)
Excuse me?
It was only nine months ago that Arlen Specter passionately argued the importance of keeping the Democrats away from a 60-member filibuster proof majority and maintaining the Republican’s 41-member minority that could stop the extremism that comes from one-party dominance.
Specter: “I am staying a Republican because I think I have an important role—a more important role to play there. I think the United States very desperately needs a two party system—that’s the basis of politics in America. I think each of the 41 senators—each of the 41 Republican senators—in a sense, I don’t want to overstate this, is a national asset, because if one was gone, you’d only have 40. The Democrats would have 60 and they would control all of the mechanisms of government. They’re trying very hard for the 60th vote. You got to give them credit for trying, but the answer is no.” (The Hill, March 17, 2009)
What happened in between to change the Senator’s mind?
Well, Senator Specter answered that question himself when he became a Democrat and declared: “In the course of the last several months since the stimulus vote, I have traveled the state, surveyed the sentiments of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania, done public opinion polls, observed other public opinion poll, and have found that the prospects for winning a Republican primary are bleak. I am not prepared to have my 29-year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.” (April 28, 2009)
Even after his party switch, Specter claimed that he would remain independent, stating: “I will not be changing my own personal independence or my own approach to individual issues. I will not be an automatic 60th vote.”
But yesterday, once again, Specter said: “I came to this caucus to be your 60th vote.”
“Nobody is surprised by hypocrisy and political opportunism in Washington. But Arlen Specter’s repeated examples of this Washington affliction are truly in a league of their own,” Toomey Communications Director Nachama Soloveichik said. “Whether it’s his party affiliation, or his positions on health care or Card Check, or on the importance of preventing one-party monopoly control of government, does anyone believe anything Specter says anymore?”
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