I have to admit that I may have been wrong about Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). In the weeks immediately following the election, when the right was apoplectic about him becoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter jumped through all the conservative hoops and made all the appropriate promises that allowed to him to get the chairmanship that he had been promised. He even put assurances in writing about his commitment to the Bush agenda, including some issues that he’d long opposed (such as tort “reform”).
I thought at the time that Specter, who has been known to be an ornery, maverick type, especially for a congressional Republican, would have to abandon his independent streak altogether. I even wrote that he has “sold his soul to the party leadership in exchange for the chairmanship he’s always wanted.”
But a funny thing happened after Specter got his gavel: he went right back to irritating the GOP and its far-right base.
In less than a month, new Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) has already exasperated social conservatives and frightened members of the business community with controversial staff hires, statements and policy positions.
The start of Specter’s tenure as chairman, following a blow-up last year over public comments he made questioning the confirmation of anti-abortion-rights judicial nominees, may augur a rocky future for Specter, whom many conservatives dislike for being too centrist.
What has he done to get the right mad at him (again)? First he hired Hannibal Kemerer, a former assistant general counsel with the NAACP, to join the Judiciary Committee staff. Since the NAACP is known for being no friend to the Republicans, the announcement didn’t go over very well.
“Obviously the NAACP has not been in the president’s corner in the past,” said Connie Mackey, vice president of government affairs for the Family Research Council, a conservative group active on judicial issues. “So someone who was an assistant general counsel for them is questionable from the start. It needs to be looked into.”
Then he hired a full-blown Democrat.
After Kemerer was on board, Specter asked Carolyn Short to join the staff as committee counsel. Short is not only married to a Dem congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, but she donated $500 to — I hope you’re sitting down — Hillary Clinton’s 2000 campaign.
Specter’s conservative critics are cranking things up a notch.
“This raises grave concerns,” said Kay Daly, the head of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary, another conservative group that advocates for Bush’s nominees.
[…]
The hires have also drawn the ire of other Senate Republicans.
“The fact that Republican money is being used to hire hardcore leftists to work on the Judiciary Committee is just a travesty,” a GOP aide said.
Better yet, Specter hasn’t been a “team player” on legislation, either.
Business allies of the GOP, such as manufacturers and insurers, are worried about aspects of draft legislation on asbestos litigation reform that Specter has proposed. Industry officials are concerned that Specter would allow asbestos claims in certain circumstances to be settled in court, instead of through a proposed trust fund, exposing them to costly lawsuits.
For example, Specter has proposed that if the fund runs short of money claims would be settled in state court, where business allies say awards are often excessive and trial lawyers have greater influence over judges. Craig Berrington, the general counsel of American Insurance Association, testified before the Judiciary Committee earlier this month about his worry that Specter’s draft would not make the trust fund the exclusive remedy to claims.
Privately, Senate Republicans have also expressed their disappointment.
“It’s a terrible bill,” a GOP aide said. “Republicans are not happy.”
Good for Specter. I thought he’d have to toe the party line for the rest of his career, but it turns out he’s still the irritable nonconformist he’s always been.
I guess the only question now is: Is it too late for the rest of the Republicans to take his gavel away?