Results tagged “U.S. Senate” from Fun with Politics

This kind of cracked me up. I got an e-mail from the campaign of U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who will likely be U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's opponent in the Democratic primary.

Sestak's campaign collected a bunch of excerpts from news stories highlighting Specter's grilling of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Here's a representative sample, from Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post:

"Specter apparently forgot he had switched to the Democratic party a few months ago. He was irritable and challenging of Sotomayor -- often spending five minutes asking his question before allowing the judge 30 seconds of response time before interrupting her."

My reaction was -- well, duh! Specter comes across as irritable and challenging with pretty much everyone. He's well known for this among his colleagues in the Senate, where he's picked up the nickname "Snarlin' Arlen."

I can tell you from experience that he's not the easiest guy in the world to interview. But I'll give credit where it's due. Whatever else you say about him, it's hard to accuse him of being a political glad-hander.

Looks like newly minted Democrat Arlen Specter is in for some competition in the Democratic primary.

Read about it here.

Now that Democrats are done celebrating U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's defection from the GOP, they're faced with the same question Republicans have been asking for years. Will having him on board really make any difference?

That question is particularly germane where organized labor is concerned. I spoke to Clark Ruppert, president of the York-Adams Central Labor Council, after Specter first announced his party switch. Ruppert was pleased to see the Democratic majority stengthened, but at no point did he have to put down to phone to do joyous cartwheels.

Labor's always had a love-hate relationship with Specter. You can see evidence of that with the Employee Free Choice Act, which Specter actually co-sponsored in 2005, and which he's lately been saying he'll oppose.

So now that he's switched parties, will he support it to show unity with his new Democratic colleagues? Or will he oppose it to demonstrate his stated commitment to remain independent? I guess we'll see.

In the meantime, expect to see commercials like this.

As promised, here's the video of Arlen Specter's visit to our newspaper yesterday.

On a personal note, it was the most robust I've seen him look in person since his bout with cancer. Regardless of what you think of him politically, I think you'll agree that's good to see.

How's this for timing? U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. ... Oops! Make that D-Pa. ... is coming to our newsroom on Monday.

Obviously, in light of yesterday's announcement that he's switching parties, we've got a lot to talk about.

I'm talking to one of my editors about the logistics of this, but we're trying to get some video of that talk on the York Daily Record Website. If so, I'll try to post it here as well.

This whole affair may carry a note of bitter irony for state Rep. Eugene DePasquale, D-West Manchester.

I believe the term rhymes with "goalie spit." Word just came over the wire that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter is changing his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.

I just found out about this minutes ago. I'd like to find out more about what Specter himself has to say. But my first thought was: Damn! He went ahead and called their bluff!

By "their," I mean the more conservative wing of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, who almost handed Pat Toomey a primary win over Specter four years ago. Toomey, who's long criticized Specter for not being conservative enough, was talking about running in next year's primary too.

The general consensus was that Toomey was too right wing to win in the general election. But I suspect a lot of Republicans were figuring that it wouldn't come to that. The prospect of another bruising primary fight would oblige Specter to lean further rightward, because there was no way he would actually switch parties.

Oops.

So what do you think? Am I right? Am I an idiot? Is Specter simply making a logical choice based on his beliefs, or is he an opportunistic sell-out?

Please feel free to weigh in.