Patterico's Pontifications

12/22/2010

Arlen Specter: Damn This Democracy That Cost Me My Job

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 7:00 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

So on one hand we have “Allahpundit” over at Hot Air mocking Arlen Specter’s farewell speech where he whines about the primaries and Allah quoting a website that we are boycotting:

Referring to primary challenges as a form of “sophisticated cannibalism,” Specter called out to his moderate colleagues and would-be senators of this cycle: Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, who lost his nomination at the party convention because activists thought he was too centrist, as well as Murkowski, who lost her primary earlier this year but will likely be certified the winner as a write-in candidate.

“Congressman Mike Castle was rejected in Delaware’s Republican primary in favor of a candidate who thought it necessary to defend herself as not being a witch,” said Specter. “The spectacular reelection of Sen. Lisa Murkowski on a write-in vote in the Alaska general election and the defeat of other tea party candidates may show the way to counter right-wing extremists.”

You can even watch video of him saying that, here.  Get your hankies because it is a sad one.

And meanwhile Althouse tears him apart in a different section of the speech, first quoting him as saying:

“The Supreme Court has been eating Congress’ lunch by invalidating legislation with judicial activism after nominees commit under oath in confirmation proceedings to respect congressional fact finding and precedents…

“Ignoring a massive congressional record and reversing recent decisions, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito repudiated their confirmation testimony given under oath and provided the key votes to permit corporations and unions to secretly pay for political advertising — thus effectively undermining the basic Democratic principle of the power of one person, one vote…  Chief Justice Roberts promised to just call balls and strikes and then he moved the bases.”

And Althouse appropriately responds:

Bleh. You just disagree with the call.  I hate this sort of political posturing. It’s not the massiveness of the congressional record that makes a statute constitutional. It’s fitting within the Constitution.

Specter is acting as if the question at the confirmation hearing was: If we put a really, really huge number of words into the record, do you promise to let us do anything we want? And the answer was: Yes, of course. When I see a lot of pages, I always think, wow, that must be true.

Which is all a valid criticism of Specter, but notice of course the common thread between Specter’s two complaints.  Specter is whining on one hand that the people have chosen to primary incumbents who are not following their will.  And then he is bleating that certain speakers will be able to engage in speech he doesn’t like.  I mean let’s remember what Citizens United was about, apart from his spin, because no one who attacks this decision wants to talk about the facts.  A documentary film company wanted to make a movie against Hillary Clinton and to advertise for it, and the FEC shut it down.  That is political speech at its purist and apparently Specter is sad that it wasn’t suppressed.

And that is a big deal.  As I wrote a few months ago in the context of a politician saying he disagrees with the constitution:

Freedom of expression goes directly to the heart of whether this is a republic or not.  A nation that has no freedom of expression is not a republic or a democracy, even if you have the right to vote.  I mean the syllogism is pretty direct.  The right to make a choice implies the right to make an informed choice.  The right to make an informed choice requires me to hear lots of information regarding that choice.  That means in terms of speech, that people and yes, even corporations, must feel free to express themselves so that you can get the maximum amount of information about that choice, so you can make an informed choice.  Thus the right to choose between two candidates is meaningless without the right to speak freely about them.

So disagreeing with the constitution is not per se bad, but disagreeing with free expression is.  Put simply, the right to debate should not be up for debate.

And that is what Specter is opposed to.  So I suppose that Specter felt he should be Senator because, well… darnit, he should be!  And if rejecting that kind of entitlement is “cannibalism” then I only have one thing to say: can we fit him into a turkey fryer?

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

34 Responses to “Arlen Specter: Damn This Democracy That Cost Me My Job”

  1. “The right to make a choice implies the right to make an informed choice. The right to make an informed choice requires me to hear lots of information regarding that choice. That means in terms of speech, that people and yes, even corporations, must feel free to express themselves so that you can get the maximum amount of information about that choice, so you can make an informed choice.”

    Be careful, because you could be right on the verge of making a case for the Fairness Doctrine with this paragraph.

    Shudder.

    AngelaTC (10ffd2)

  2. Good post. Specter has always been annoying and sanctimonious.

    Patterico (3358a2)

  3. primary elections are like taxes … only for the little people

    quasimodo (4af144)

  4. Watching both Bennett and Snarlin’ Arlen give their pathetic and self – serving speeches last week was really annoying, but entirely predictable. I used to think that perhaps the Tea Party was being too harsh on Bennett, given his overall voting record – since then, his many bloviations about his awesomeness and the voter’s ingratitude have changed my mind.

    Dmac (498ece)

  5. BTW, why does Specter always sound like a poor imitation of Foghorn Leghorn? That accent and enunciation has always seemed strange coming from a person hailing from PA.

    Dmac (498ece)

  6. Angela

    not at all. not even close.

    Patterico

    Thanks. I will post the full text when it comes out.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  7. dmac

    couldn’t disagree more on the foghorn thing. actually he reminds me of nixon when he speaks. even looks a little like him, except in the nose.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  8. Arlen, please go home. And be quiet. Thanks

    quasimodo (4af144)

  9. Specter is a pathetic little man who, like so many others in the Senate, need to go to pasture.

    Old Coot (f73cf0)

  10. Good riddance to the talking skin flaps.

    JD (109425)

  11. Aaron, I think Angela means that those in favor of the fairness doctrine can use the paragraph she quoted as their starting point and, through the magical powers of sophistry, morph the idea there into something all together different from what you intend. I think she has a point.

    quasimodo (4af144)

  12. It is just criminal the way, in light of Citizens United, that Corporations have been spending all this money on political campaigns on the sly…

    except for what they are required to report to the FEC (but nobody ever reads those reports so their secrets are safe from prying eyes).

    Like Teh Won, they speak never thinking that anyone will ever hear, analyze, and ascertain the veracity of their words, or come to the conclusion that not only are they (Leftists) ignorant and liars, but head-shakenly dumb.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  13. An interesting coincidence: Both Bennett and Specter played significant roles in the JFK assassination, Bennett before the fact, and Specter in the cover-up. Just sayin’

    ropelight (bba642)

  14. Let us not forget that Arlen Specter was part of the Warren commission, and as a young lawyer (and not as a scientist) came up with the Magic Bullet theory. It was necessary to keep the theory that their was ONLY one gun man in Kennedy’s assassination.

    Now after all these years, do we honestly think that we can trust Specter about anything? Why was it so important for him to come up with the single gunman theory?

    Wayne (abab27)

  15. I am enjoying Specter’s angst. Especially his public airing of said angst.

    ShyAsrai (921609)

  16. “thus effectively undermining the basic Democratic principle of the power of one person, one vote…”–Specter

    Since we don’t live in a democracy, I guess it’s not that much of an issue. If we did then I’d have one vote in Congress, instead of no votes.

    Dave Surls (c6c66c)

  17. 14.Let us not forget that Arlen Specter was part of the Warren commission, and as a young lawyer (and not as a scientist) came up with the Magic Bullet theory. It was necessary to keep the theory that their was ONLY one gun man in Kennedy’s assassination

    There are all kinds of reasons to dislike Arlen Specter, and to celebrate his retirement, but this isn’t one of them. There really was only one gunman in Kennedy’s assassination.

    Some chump (4c6c0c)

  18. Some Chump

    i believe that oswald killed kennedy. but that magic bullet theory sucked a55. it seriously discredited the truth for years. Idiots like Stone were able to use the suckatude of that theory to claim there was a cover up. now other people have gone back and fixed their f— up, and showed how if you did the forensics right, it still means one gunman, who was probably oswald. but if arlen specter was responsible for that bit of idiocy in the warren report, then yeah, I hold that against him.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  19. In the spirit of Citizens United and primaries, it is well to remind the Left that Eugene McCarthy opposed all campaign finance laws, since it was only 3 or 4 well-heeled backers who allowed him to challenge LBJ. To quote Gene:

    McCarthy said money helped him in the 1968 race. “We had a few big contributors,” he said. “And that’s true of any liberal movement. In the American Revolution, they didn’t get matching funds from George III.”

    Kevin M (298030)

  20. Yes, Clean Gene was financed by the guy who lived on Park Avenue (or was it Central Park West) who lived off clipping GM coupons (can’t remember his name, but it was legion at the time).

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  21. Althouse may be the single dumbest commentator on the Constitution since Judge Taney…Specter’s argument is that Alito and Roberts are as activist (defined as over-ruling duly enacted legislation and not defined how Rush defines it: Anyone who opposes a conservative idea) as everyone imagined.

    Congress deliberates and enacts the will of the people. On occasion, through a foreseen circumstance or not, through a poor implementation by the Executive Branch, or even through societal change, Congressional statues are unconstitutional. Yet, as Holmes noted, Congress is the only branch which represents the people directly. The President is the representative of several hundred million people and judges are unelected. The will of the people is expressed through which Congresspeople the people send to Washington.

    As such, when Congress conducts investigations and hearings and through a process arrives a decisions, they should be given deference. Holmes was right about that and, given that Washington is about to be inundated by hundreds of corrupt corporatist congresspeople, he is STILL right about it. Roberts is constantly able to substitute his own judgment about what is right and what is wrong, no matter what Congress or localities enact: he knows more how to integrate school, more about how to run Congressional campaigns, etc

    He’s not judging; he’s an activist with a side. For once, and just this once, Arlen Specter is right about something. There is no greater fraud in government than John Roberts.

    I used to think Holmes’s ideas about social engineering were disgusting….stuff like allowing forced sterilization of the retarded because “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” But, reading Althouse miss a perfectly obvious point, makes me think if Holmes were followed, then maybe I wouldn’t have to deal with Althouse.

    When Congress runs the country, the abuses so common by the Executive and Judicial branches are absent. It is the accumulation of Executive power over the last 50-60 years that will endanger the Republic….well, that and media commentators who can’t understand a basic governing point.

    timb (449046)

  22. He spoke of the loss of collegiality which to him is taking money and support from the RNC and then regularly sodomizing them on key votes for the next 6 years. Like charly brown they fell for the same stunt everytime.

    dunce (b89258)

  23. Arlen Specter is the most nauseating politician I’ve ever seen or heard. Adios, Arlen, and don’t darken my doorway again.

    norcal (325bd5)

  24. Perhaps The Sarahcuda will invite Snarlin’ Arlen along for their next bear hunt (or river fishing)?

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  25. His cannibalism comment, relying as it does on a sense of party loyalty, is particularly galling to we Pennsylvanians who voted for a Republican and got a Democrat.

    Amphipolis (b120ce)

  26. Tip O’Neill’s book, Man of the House, published in 1987 tells an interesting tale.

    “I was never one of the use people who had doubts or suspicions about the Warren Commission’s report on the president’s death. But five years after Jack died, I was having dinner with Kenny O’Donnell and a few other people at Jimmy’s Harborside Restaurant in Boston, and we got to talking about the assassination.

    I was surprised to hear O’Donnell say that he was sure he had heard two shots that came from behind the fence.

    “That’s not what you told the Warren Commission,” I said.

    “You’re right,” he replied. “I told the FBI what I had heard, but they said it couldn’t have happened that way and that I must have been imagining things. So I testified the way they wanted me to. I just didn’t want to stir up any more pain and trouble for the family.”

    “I can’t believe it,” I said. “I wouldn’t have done that in a million years. I would have told the truth.”

    “Tip, you have to understand. The family-everybody wanted this thing behind them.”

    Dave Powers was with us at dinner that night, and his recollection of the shots was the same as O’Donnell’s. Kenny O’Donnell is no longer alive, but during the writing of this book I checked with Dave Powers. As they say in the news business, he stands by his story.

    And so there will always be some skepticism in my mind about the cause of Jack’s death. I used to think that the only people who doubted the conclusions of the Warren Commission were crackpots. Now, however, I’m not so sure.”

    (Other than his brother, Bobby Kennedy, O’Donnell and Powers were JFK’s closest friends and advisers on the White House staff. Both were in the Secret Service car immediately behind JFK in Dealey Plaza.)

    ropelight (bba642)

  27. but if arlen specter was responsible for that bit of idiocy in the warren report, then yeah, I hold that against him

    But it wasn’t idiocy. It was based at the time on a logical conclusion, and the commission even said that there were differences of opinion about it. What Oliver Stone and other conspiracy buffs did doesn’t change the fact that it was a reasonable conclusion at the time, and has been affirmed by more advanced forensics.

    Some chump (4c6c0c)

  28. I am SO grateful that SPECTRE was booted out, I haven’t liked him since James Bond was on his case. The MSM is still referring to him as a centrist while we all know he was a far left RINO. I hope that news clip of his evil face saying “I switched parties in order to better get reelected” is studied for years to come as the face of the self-serving “I am still alive therefore I deserve to make the rules” mentality that must be removed from office. ANY office. All the way down to dogcatcher. Don’t go away bitter and still biting the hands that have fed you over the years Arlen, just go away.

    Art Fold (4e0dda)

  29. I’ll just add my two cents regarding JFK’s assassination and relate my visit on business to Dallas, where one call took me downtown, right next to the old Greyhound bus station. I knew immediately where I was, the book depository was only about two blocks away. I took the brief tour, and let me tell you one thing, there is no way in all of God’s earth than even a novice with a high – powered rifle could’ve missed that car and it’s occupants. He was incredibly close to the motorcade, and had a bird’s eye view to a caravan that was moving at a snail’s pace. Add to this the fact that Oswald was a trained marksman, and that seals the whole deal, IMHO.

    Dmac (498ece)

  30. Look the Warren Commission had to conclude there was no conspiracy, so they they did, and Specter complied. The explanation for Ruby also made no sense whatsoever. LBJ by the way wasted no time kicking Jacky Kennedy out of the White House. Why the funeral was passing by the front door, her furniture and stuff was going out the back door.

    Why had most to gain from Kennedy’s death? Johnson, the slime ball did, and he appointed that Warren commission and Specter, so he could move on. Even the back of Kennedy’s head had an exit would and some FBI immediately destroyed evidence by replacing the front window of the limo (because, maybe it had a bullet hole)?

    Wayne (abab27)

  31. Spector tried everything he could to hold on to his seat. He still got eighty-sixed. He deserved his ending. I’d curse my parents if they named me Arlen, too.

    Birdbath (8501d4)

  32. Even the back of Kennedy’s head had an exit would

    No, it didn’t.

    Some chump (4c6c0c)

  33. some

    the idiocy in the report was believing that the moment when Connolly was shot was the moment he started shouting. any person who has been seriously hurt knows that most of the time it takes a moment to register.

    If specter and the idiots on the warren commission knew that, they would have known that the bullet hit connolly about a second later. at that point, the bullet didn’t need to be “magic” or otherwise miraculous. it was just about a straight shot.

    Like I said, I believe oswald killed kennedy. they reached the right conclusion but did such a bad job reaching it that they fueled this conspiracy nonsense ever since. And if specter had a hand in that, i very much hold that against him.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  34. Aaron, both John Connolly and his wife claimed he was hit by a different bullet. They were unambiguous and never wavered on the issue.

    ropelight (0819e5)


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