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Too Clever By Half?

May 6th, 2009 at 5:32 am Gusher | 4 Comments |

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As Gomer Pyle would have said, “Sur-PRISE, sur-PRISE, sur-PRISE!” The Senate Democrats have placed Arlen Specter on what amounts to probation, consigning him to the lowest seniority slots on his committee assignments. They say the issue of his seniority will be “negotiated” after the 2010 elections. Translation: be a good boy, Arlen, or else. So he may have saved his Senate career, but at the price of being reduced, in effect, to freshman status. And, indeed, it is not even clear he will be around to do any negotiating in 2011. Was it a coincidence that, on the same day the Senate was gelding Specter, SEIU capo de tutti cappi Andy Stern was meeting with Pennsylvania Dem Rep. Joe Sestak (who is interested in running for Specter’s seat), and told ABC that it would be “hard to imagine” his union or any other supporting Specter next year if he continues to oppose card check? Is it all that hard to wonder if, in the darkness of his bedroom, late at night, Specter questions just what, exactly, he got out of this whole deal?

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4 Comments so far ↓

  • ottovbvs // May 6, 2009 at 6:00 am

    Who can blame them. You can’t have your newest recruit running around saying he’s not a loyal democrat and voting against key democratic legislation. If Specter want to be an independant he should have said so. If you join a party’s legislative bloc you have to play by their rules. What I actually think they are doing is firing warning shot across Arlen’s bows. Basically telling him he goes around ticking off the party base he’s going to find himself with a challenger in Sestak and the party mandarins don’t want that. They can see a blood bath looming on the right if Ridge enters the race and they don’t want one on the dem side. I’m sure they’ve told Sestak the seat is his when Arlen falls off the perch but as Obama demonstrated it’s not always wise to wait. As for what Arlen got out of this? What a dumb question. He gets the chance to stay senior senator from PA. Without the party switch he was doomed. He’ll have to eat some crow but I’m sure he’ll manage it. Whining about the Dems enforcing some party discipline seems a bit futile.

  • ChristianMiller // May 6, 2009 at 6:00 am

    You can thank conservatives for forcing the issue. See? I’s not the end of the world that Spector is gone. Other Republicans, if they think they can escape primaries by bolting, will have second thoughts, eh?

  • ottovbvs // May 6, 2009 at 6:09 am

    “Other Republicans, if they think they can escape primaries by bolting, will have second thoughts, eh?”……I doubt it….if the price for survival is eating a bit of crow….baked with a mustard topping it can be very tasty.

  • nealjking // May 6, 2009 at 11:54 am

    If he hadn’t blown it by saying that the Minnesota Supreme Court should “do the right thing” and give the election to Coleman, he might well have maintained some degree of seniority. That was pointlessly antagonistic; might even have been a sign of Alzheimer’s.

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