The Many Faces of Arlen Specter

If you haven't felt the urge to rip your hair out over some antic or another by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), I don't think you're really a Republican. Specter's always been a subject of some controversy within the party, alternately infuriating, and, well, infuriating, most often in his role as ranking member (formerly chair) of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Several of my truly conservative friends from Pennsylvania continue to rue Specter's narrow victory over challenger Pat Toomey in 2004's primary (even though a Toomey victory likely would have cost the GOP the seat).

All of the reasons for that widespread ambivalence (at best) have recently been on display. To begin with there was today's non-story story that he was planning on investigating any dissonance between statements Roberts and Alito made in their confirmation hearings and their opinions to date. That turned out to be overblown, as NRO noted with relief. That was the ugly which turned out to be not as ugly as was feared.

Then there was the good news a few days back that Specter had finally had enough of Democrats holding up Bush's nominees. The man is among the Senate's more irascible members
and thus him getting angry might actually accomplish something; more substantively, as is noted, he's got a long history of moderation and working across party lines. He's no steadfast friend of the White House nor a conservative ideologue, meaning there's merit to his complaints. At the center of the storm is the stalled nomination of Leslie Southwick of Mississippi, among other things a veteran of Iraq. In their attacks on a highly qualified nominee (especially Durbin, noted here, with more general stuff here and here), Democrats have succeeded in reaching new highs (lows?) of absurdity; I especially liked Dick Durbin's quote:

At Judge Southwick's nomination hearing, I wanted to be fair to him and I asked him maybe one of the easiest questions you could ask of a nominee. I asked him to name a single time in his career or in his life when he took an unpopular point of view on behalf of the voiceless or powerless. Mr. President, he couldn't name a single instance. And I thought perhaps that wasn't fair. The judge should be allowed to reflect on that question. I will send it to him in writing, ask him, was there a time in your life when you sided, for example, with a civil rights plaintiff when your court was split? He couldn't name a single case in his judicial career.

In the first of three parenthetical links above, Wendy Long demolishes this, so I won't bother to recap. Suffice to say, if this doesn't stick in your craw, you're probably on the wrong blog. Oh and it's worth pointing out that unlike at least one sitting Senator (Democrat Robert Byrd), no one's suggesting that Southwick has been riding around in a white hood burning crosses. No, just that he's never knee-jerk sided with a civil rights plaintiff.

The second article from Politico also notes the ridiculous claims from Democrats that more nominees have been approved under Leahy than under Specter. While I can't comment with any certainty on why that is, I have some guesses. Among other things, Democrats need to get something accomplished and to do so they've likely let some more "questionable" nominees (i.e. those that don't view Das Kapital as a serious economic text worthy of legal codification) through without serious "scrutiny," otherwise known as character assassination. On the off-chance that someone from their loony bin of presidential candidates actually wins next November, they should expect to sleep in the bed they've made when it comes to judicial nominations (something I'll touch on in a later post).

One final note in closing: I have been ambivalent about Specter in the past. But I wrote a nasty letter to the National Review when they wanted him stripped of his Judiciary Chairmanship in 2004. I think that opposition is vindicated: he's a maverick, but he knows who his team is and he has his limits. Reminding ourselves that we are a big tent and not alienating Specter seems to have been a wise move, as the moderate has become the focal point for activists while simultaneously being immune to Democratic slander (doesn't mean Durbin won't try).