Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Arlen Specter, off my naughty list, at least for a while.

Sometimes your right, sometimes your wrong and sometimes your boots are too tight.

Senator Arlen Specter and I have had not seen eye to eye in the past, probably because we have never met. Me, being a loathsome blogger on the left coast and Arlen sitting in mahogany paneled rooms filled with staffers reporters and lobbyist. The senior Senator from Pennsylvania is not a Reagan conservative and when he was appointed as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I was all balled up about it. Senator Specter seems too affable and his goal is to never upset his Democratic friends. But he sure makes me a little upset at times.

I appreciate the history of the Senate and its cordial behavior and etiquette, but many are the times I would have risen from my seat to tell a reprehensible blowhard like Ted Kennedy to shut his pie hole. This is perhaps the reason I will never be a threat to Senator Feinstein in any upcoming elections. I do not have the patience for the job. It appears that Senator Specter does, but it was great to see that even affable Arlen has his limits. When he rebuked Teddy during the Alito hearing for continuously interrupting the proceedings with his call for papers concerning the CAP group, I wanted to send him flowers.

The President may appoint one or possibly two more justices in his remaining three years. Chief Justice Roberts and soon to be Justice Alito were easy to push through, Rehnquist was pretty solid conservative vote and while O'Conner was a swing vote, the next vacancy will most likely be a liberal justice. I believe the President has been fortunate in the order these vacancies has come about. The left and the democratic leadership tried to vilify Roberts and Alito with very little effect on public opinion. The next vacancy, if it should be a liberal justice stepping down, is where the left will bring out the long knives, but the cry of 'extremist' and 'balance of the court' will fall on deaf ears. The general public will remember the fervor and hysteria worked up by the democrats over Roberts and Alito and come to the conclusion that the left is up to its same old tricks.

Arlen, you are two for two, don't go squishy on me now.

2 comments:

pappy said...

That was the best part of the hearings, now if he can stay frosty so much the better

Ralph said...

He was certainly questionable in the early stages and permitted unconscionable delays but if it was necessary to get the steamroller going, I am ok with him too.... for now.