Arlen Specter’s fight to win the chairmanship he was slated to get anyway more or less concluded yesterday.
Every Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee has pledged to support Sen. Arlen Specter’s (R-Pa.) bid to become the panel’s chairman, paving the way for his ascension in January.
To ameliorate the concerns of his colleagues on the committee and in the Senate Republican Conference, Specter issued a statement pledging not to hamper the confirmation of President Bush’s judicial nominees or tort reform, one of the president’s top three legislative priorities.
“I speak for the whole committee that we support Arlen Specter, that he will be chairman of the committee on January 4,” said Hatch, the current chairman of Judiciary.
The controversy, in other words, is over. Specter won. Sort of.
The funny thing about this fight, when you take a close look at the message Specter’s far-right critics were stressing, was more multi-faceted than a lot of people recognized. Sure, Specter kicked off the controversy by suggesting Bush should respect Roe v Wade when naming Supreme Court justices, but as soon as the right went apoplectic, the conflict quickly included Specter’s unreliability to the conservative cause on a rash of other right-wing causes.
Once Specter’s path to the Judiciary Committee’s gavel was secured, his allies suggested he would be the same lawmaker he’s always been.
“I don’t think that he has had to concede any of his positions,” said fellow moderate Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.
This is utter nonsense.
To keep the job he was promised, Specter has had to give up any pretense of independence. He’s sold his soul to the party leadership in exchange for the chairmanship he’s always wanted. To think that Specter won’t have to “concede any of his positions” is to naively believe that Specter doesn’t owe Frist, Santorum, et al, anything. The reality is far different.
Indeed, Specter’s transformation into a reliable conservative lawmaker has already started.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the embattled heir to the Senate Judiciary Committee gavel, is assuring panel members who will vote soon on his ascension that he will not stand in the way of tort reform, one of President Bush’s highest priorities.
During a private meeting of the Senate Republican Conference yesterday, Specter, one of the chamber’s few centrist Republicans, also pledged not to obstruct legislation he opposes.
Specter, in other words, promised to be a “team player” with the GOP pretty much for the first time in his career. He’s always known that tort reform, for example, is a ridiculous scheme that protects corporate negligence and punishes families, but under pressure, Specter is now prepared to “play ball” and toe the party line.
This is why the far right really won this fight, despite the fact that Specter will take over the Judiciary Committee. They took a man who prided himself on his maverick streak and made him swear to give up every shred of independence he had left.