Arlen Specter

Most Crucial Trump Cabinet Member To Resist Is Jeff Sessions, Attorney General Nominee— A Danger To Civil Rights And Civil Liberties!

Ronald 6 Comments

The Trump cabinet choices are overall horrific, but the most that might be expected is to stop maybe one or two of the nominees.

It is so hard to judge which are the worst of all of them, but clearly, after reflection, the record of Senator Jeff Sessions disqualifies him for the position of Attorney General.

This is a man who has displayed racism, misogyny, nativism, and homophobia, and was opposed to extension of the Voting Rights Act, and he was already rejected for a federal judgeship in 1986 by a Senate with a majority of his own Republican Party.

In an age when civil rights and civil liberties are in danger from Donald Trump and his mentality, to put Jeff Sessions into the Justice Department would set back the Bill of Rights tremendously, as Sessions is no different than if one were to select former Alabama Governor George Wallace, or former North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms, or former South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond to be Attorney General.

These were the worst of all Southern politicians who undermined civil rights, and there is no evidence that Jeff Sessions is any different in 2017.

All that is needed is for a few Republican Senators to show courage, and vote against their own colleague, replicating the Republican Senate of 1986, as then Arlen Specter and Charles Mathias blocked Sessions from a federal district court judgeship, a very rare occurrence.

Pressure must be brought on Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona to show the same kind of courage now, within the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Otherwise, it is essential that such Senators as Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowksi of Alaska, John McCain of Arizona, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Dean Heller of Nevada be appealed to, to reject Sessions.

Arlen Specter, A Senate Giant, Leaves Behind A Complicated Legacy As He Dies At Age 82

Ronald 1 Comment

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who died today at age 82, was, without a doubt, a Senate giant, who leaves behind a complicated legacy.

Specter was a Democrat in Philadelphia, turned a Republican, and then, at the end of his career, a Democrat again!

Specter was a liberal Republican who became a moderate, but fought against the conservative trend in his party.

Specter was one of the most influential Jewish Senators in American history, ranking on the level of New York Senator Jacob Javits, Connecticut Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Ohio Senator Howard Metzenbaum, Michigan Senator Carl Levin, New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Senator Barbara Boxer, Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, and New York Senator Charles Schumer. Only Javits was a Republican, other than Specter.

Specter was a giant figure on the Judiciary Committee in the Senate, involved in 14 Supreme Court nomination battles, including the stopping of Robert Bork, and the defense of Clarence Thomas, and the impeachment controversy surrounding President Bill Clinton.

Specter was a prickly, ornery individual, who did not suffer fools very well, whether Senate colleagues or constituents, and became a major critic of the mindless Tea Party Movement in the Republican Party after the election of President Barack Obama.

Specter lost his seat in the Senate after 30 years, when he backed President Obama on health care, and switched back to the Democratic Party, giving them, for a brief period, a 60 member filibuster proof majority in the US Senate.

Specter was seen as a man of principle, but also an opportunist, who gained many enemies all over the political spectrum.

Specter was a key figure in the Warren Commission investigation of the assassination of President Kennedy, being on the staff of the commission, and promoting the viewpoint of a lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, which became the official viewpoint of the Warren Commission, a viewpoint he never backed away from, despite the many conspiracy theories.

Specter may have been a “loner” in many ways, but in the thirty years he was in the US Senate, he gained a lot of respect and stature as one of its giant figures, who could not be ignored, overlooked, or mistreated, as he would always fight back, including his two courageous battles with cancer in his last decade.

Arlen Specter is a person who historians will have to wrestle with to understand American politics and history in the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 21st century! His effect on so many areas and issues will be a goldmine for scholars in the future, trying to decipher the controversies and issues going back even to the 1960s!

May Arlen Specter rest in peace, knowing he had a great impact on his nation that will not be forgotten!

Senator Arlen Specter’s Farewell Speech: Condemnation Of Chief Justice John Roberts And Associate Justice Samuel Alito On Judicial Activism, And Of Right Wing Republicans! :(

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Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is retiring after a distinguished 30 year career, plus having served in local government, and on the staff of the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy almost a half century ago.

Specter, often seen as a difficult man to work with, and possessing a large ego, lost his Senate nomination race to Joe Sestak after switching back to the Democratic Party that he had long ago been a member of, until he converted for a long time to the Republican Party.

Specter was head of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the hearings for the nominations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, and today he denounced both Justices for violating their testimony during the hearings, which indicated they believed in precedent (stare decisis), but then proceeding to use judicial activism and violating the separation of powers doctrine, particularly in the Citizens United Case in January of this year, allowing unlimited spending by corporations after nearly a century of strict regulation by Congress of such actions.

So Specter joined the criticism of President Obama, enunciated by the President in his State of the Union Address, which annoyed both Roberts and Alito, with Roberts making a clearcut statement of dissent, amid hints that neither Justice might attend future State of the Union Addresses, which if actually done, would be highly inappropriate.

Specter also condemned right wing Republicans such as Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who worked against moderate Republicans in a number of states, causing the loss of seats for the party.

One thing about Specter–he does not worry what others think of him, and his leaving Congress will make it a less interesting and principled place for sure!

Conventional Wisdom On Incumbents Being In Trouble May Be Wrong!

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It has been said that this is the year that incumbents will lose seats in Congress on a large scale, but at least in the primaries, it turns out that only SEVEN incumbents have lost, which means more than 98 percent of all incumbents have won renomination!

Of course, Election Day in November could see a massive wave of incumbents losing to their challengers, but at least so far, that is NOT the trend!

Three Senators–Robert Bennett of Utah, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska,–have lost renomination, but Murkowski is running a write in campaign and is seen as running evenly with the person who defeated her in the primary–Joe Miller–, and has a good chance of being only the second person to win a Senate seat by write in votes, after Strom Thurmond of South Carolina in 1954!

Four Congressmen have lost–Parker Griffith of Alabama, Bob Inglis of South Carolina, Alan Mollohan of West Virginia, and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan! This is about average in any congressional election year, occurring every even year. And this round, the losers are three Democrats and four Republicans!

So standard thoughts may just be such, and not be the action of the electorate in November! Again, we shall see, very soon!

Arlen Specter’s 30 Years In The Senate Come To An End!

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Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has had his distinguished 30 year career in the Senate ended by Democratic primary voters, who elected Congressman Joe Sestak as a sign of change that they see as necessary!

Specter, who only switched to the Democratic Party last year, failed to accomplish his goal to have a sixth term in the Senate, but it is clear his time was up, as there was no realistic way that he would have been renominated if he had remained a Republican!

Always an individualist and maverick with the tendency to be moderate to liberal, depending on the issue, Specter often showed courage in his years in the Senate, and his willingness to back President Barack Obama on the economic stimulus and health care legislation was crucial to the passage of both bills!

For that, of course, Tea Party people and conservatives hated his guts, but Specter will go down as a man of great ambition and ego, and often demonstrating a difficult personality, but also at key moments doing what many would term the “right” thing to do!

His career was distinguished enough, and he dealt with enough controversial issues over three decades, that we can see that he will be well remembered, and will have historians and biographers want to research and produce scholarly works on the impact he had on American history!

Being already 80, and having survived two bouts with cancer, Arlen Specter can be described as a “profile in courage”, who will not be forgotten when the history of the last thirty years is written! May he enjoy a retirement that he deserves!

Barney Frank And Jerrold Nadler: Two Congressmen Telling It As It Is!

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Congressmen Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Jerrold Nadler of New York are to be applauded for their reaction to the disruptive, mob like mentality of many attenders of Town Halls across the country.

Frank confronted a stupid woman who said health care plans of the Obama Administration made the President a “Hitler”, and that she was shocked that Frank would back Obama. How ridiculous, to say this to a gay Jewish man! So Frank let her have it, not acting like a gentleman, asking what planet she spent most of her time on! LOL

Nadler said that the loud mouthed, disruptive demonstrators at many town halls were facist like in their tactics, and to that, I say AMEN! Instead of having a serious discussion of health care, the purpose of many of these characters is to simply prevent any discussion, and destroy the purpose of the meetings. Widespread ignorance and prejudice has also been demonstrated, and Nadler rightfully condemned this mockery of public discourse.

I must say that I think Senator Arlen Specter, while trying to be gracious, should have been much stronger in his reaction to the insults visited upon him at several rallies in Pennsylvania in the past two weeks. The news channels showed it as it happened, and it was indeed a sad moment that we saw such disrespect for a public official, who no matter what you think of specific votes or statements by him over 30 years, deserved more respect and appreciation than he experienced.

It is important to have town halls and discussions, but only if there is order and respect by all sides. Sadly, that is lacking, and it will be a relief when Congress comes back into session after a very tumultuous August recess!