Specter sullies his reputation (and the Senate dining hall)

It may seem a little early to be thinking about the 2004 Senate elections, but in Carpetbagger Land, it’s always campaign season. In particular, I was thinking today about Pennsylvania.

Arlen Specter has always been something of an eccentric Senator. He’s the only Jewish Republican in the Senate, for example, and he hasn’t been afraid to buck the party leadership from time to time. Specter has gone against the GOP on abortion (he’s pro-choice), Clinton’s impeachment, minimum wage increases, hate crime legislation, and even HMO regulation.

For Democrats like me, this makes Specter one of the more palatable Republicans in Congress. Yet for conservatives in the Keystone State, it makes Specter unreliable and the target of right-wing scorn. His moderation, in fact, has led the far-right wing of the Pennsylvania GOP to recruit a fire-breathing House conservative, Rep. Pat Toomey, to challenge Specter in the 2004 Republican primary, a very unusual move for either party against a long-serving incumbent.

I had hoped Specter could more or less ignore Toomey. Specter has recruited support from Bush’s White House, which has said in return that they’ll be taking Specter’s side in the primary. Just as importantly, Specter will have a considerable financial advantage, making Toomey’s challenge look more symbolic than serious.

Specter, however, apparently feels that a guy can’t be too careful. So he’s doing the one thing I had always hoped he would never do: reach out to the religious right.

This week Specter had lunch last week with Jerry Falwell in the Senate dining room, which followed Specter’s recruiting of Tom Bowman, who ran former Christian Coalition leader and TV preacher Pat Robertson’s 1998 presidential campaign in Pennsylvania.

Arlen, how could you? Falwell??

No one likes to be challenged in a primary, but Specter can take Toomey. There’s simply no need to tarnish a reputation by cozying up to a clown like Falwell.

This is, after all, the same Jerry Falwell who took to the airwaves just 48 hours after the attacks of 9/11 to blame Americans for the murders.

“The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked,” Falwell said. “And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the Pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle…all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.'”

The Senator’s spokesperson, William Reynolds, actually said the moderate Republican shares common ground with the disgraced televangelist.

“There are a lot of things that they do agree on,” Reynolds said of Specter and Falwell, such as religious liberty and the benefits abstinence programs.

I don’t know if hanging out with Falwell will end up helping Specter in the GOP primary or not, but it should be big news to Pennsylvania Democrats and centrist voters who’ve often considered Specter one of them.