Maybe the Senate Republican caucus decided the religious right wouldn’t really punish them, maybe Arlen Specter gave up every shred of independence he had left, or more likely some combination thereof. Regardless, Specter’s ascension to Judiciary Committee chairman seems secure.
Key Republicans said yesterday they believe that Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) will be approved by GOP colleagues as chairman of the Judiciary Committee despite an uproar over his expressed doubts that a Supreme Court nominee who opposes abortion rights could be confirmed by the Senate.
“I expect him to have the support” necessary to win the chairmanship, said the outgoing committee chairman, Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). He was joined by former Senate GOP leader Trent Lott (Miss.) and deputy party whip Robert F. Bennett (Utah) in predicting victory for Specter.
Bennett characterized the controversy as a “tempest in a teapot.”
After a couple of weeks in which only a handful of Republican senators would express tepid support for Specter’s chairmanship, the flood gates opened yesterday. Hatch got the ball rolling and the rest of the caucus seemed to follow suit.
Do not, however, consider this a win for “moderation.”
Specter had to sell his soul to get the job he was promised in the first place. He effectively guaranteed support for every Bush judicial nominee, no matter how extreme, backing away from his commitment to Pennsylvania’s voters to be an independent “free agent.” For Specter, this is, at best, a Pyrrhic victory.
The religious right will, no doubt, grumble about this for a while, but the GOP knows full well that one committee chairmanship won’t be enough to fracture its far-right coalition.
So, tallying up the scorecard for this entertaining two-week controversy, I’d say Specter gets 0.5 points (he’ll get his gavel but has lost his dignity), the religious right gets zero (the movement demanded Specter’s head and won’t get it), and the far-right agenda gets a full point (a so-called centrist will now follow a right-wing playbook when it comes Bush’s judicial nominees). All’s well than ends…oh, never mind.