Talk about something other than economics.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Recent Posts
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- Day 43: The #TrumpRussia Conspiracy Goes Mainstream At Last
- Day 40: Republicans Contemplate Giving Up On Deficit Control Forever
- Progress Pondcast Episode 22 With Bill Hangley Jr, on DOGE and U.S. Alliance With Russia
- Day 37: The Last Bulwarks Protecting the Merit-Based Civil Service
What do you think about Arlen Specter deciding that now that Labor actually NEEDS his vote, he’s going to vote no on cloture for the EFCA?
I don’t know what Boo thinks, but my bet is that he’s going to have his ass handed to him in the closed PA GOP primary. in 2004, he nearly got beat by Toomey, and it took support from Bush (then quite popular) and Santorum to put him over the top. Even democrats voted for Specter because they didn’t want a toomey/santorum tag team.
this year it’s very different. no more santorum to worry about. PA democrats will vote for a democrat, especially if it’s a bob casey democrat-lite version. And obviously, Specter won’t have the support of unions this time. I’ll bet they go after him with a vengeance.
It’s telling that his staff will neither confirm nor deny specter’s decision. even when I was reading statements by Americans for Tax reform to the moron on the other end of the phone (a real slackjaw, by the way), the guy kept saying nothing’s been confirmed.
haha!
So you think that this is a futile gesture on his part?
I guess I’m thinking that now that he’s decided to go down this path, he can’t back down. He’s decided that he can’t be an “independent” member of the GOP anymore, and so he’s going to have to be supportive of everything that they do. If he doesn’t, then he will have essentially thrown away union support and “moderate” credibility for nothing in exchange – the first time he veers away from party-line support he’ll get pummeled for it until he either relents (like here) or decides that its not worth his energy to be a Senator anymore. And it can even be over something minor – it won’t matter anymore, he’ll have to kowtow to ever matter that Limbaugh and the nutters decide is “important” on a given day.
So either Specter is going to give up all of his “moderate” cred and spend the next two years being a wingnut’s wingnut in the Senate, or he tries to regain that moderate cred and has no way to recover from it (by, say, running as an Independent when it becomes obvious he won’t win in the primary). Really, to me this looks like a boneheaded decision by Specter.
Are we surprised that a Republican is making boneheaded moves in a futile effort to put themselves in front of the good of the country?
Didn’t think so.
Well, yeah.
I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if Specter was doing something that would pay off for HIM at the expense of what’s good for the country – I EXPECT politicians to do that. Of all stripes. That’s why we need watchdog groups, and primary opposition, and opposition parties to red flag stupid stuff.
But this surprises me because it doesn’t really help Specter at all. If he wants to retain his Senate seat, a better move for Specter would be to go “Independent” a la Joe Lieberman. Position himself above “partisan politics” and play that “moderate credibility” to the hilt. He’s an established brand in PA, he should be able to get the money. Maybe he even promises to caucus with the Republicans to keep the moderate suburban Republicans (what’s left of them) in his camp.
But this – this is going to destroy his cred with the moderate voters of PA who have been putting him back into that seat year after year. And it doesn’t guarantee that the GOPers are going to be assuaged – far from it. Now he has to cater to their every whim and even if he managed to do that I’d bet he STILL loses in the primary to Toomey. Because his party has gone bonkers and no matter how hard he pretends, Specter can’t be that bonkers.
To add – I’m sure this screws up Obama and Reid’s plans as well, as Specter was one of the few “reasonable” Republicans they were counting on to help pass legislation. With Specter out it not only makes it harder to get to cloture, but it also means that conservative Dems have less cover to hide behind. Conservative Dems like to look “bi-partisan” as much as possible, and having fewer Republicans on board makes them feel all queasy.
And when the only two Republicans on-board are going to be Snowe and Collins that’ll make them even queasier, since “everybody” knows that Snowe and Collins are “liberals”.
EPA puts a halt to new mountaintop mining permits (Diary on DKos)
Now that’s change I can believe in!
Noticed that supersized toilet paper rolls are no longer even numbers 6 rolls = 16, instead of 18.
Chris Bowers ponders whether whipping up a mob is the most effective method.
Sure it can work, but what happens when you lose control of the beast you decided to ride?
“The episode makes me wonder if we spend too much of our energies targeting politicians and elections, and not enough time whipping up populist anger.”
What ‘worked’ in this case? The end product was a POS legislation that may not even be constitutional that even the Senate and Obama are trying to distance themself from. This after congresscritters used a hearing to rant against a formally retired guy that voluntarilly took over the enormous task of helping the gvt get out of the AIG mess for $1 a year. In the days before this madness set in, a person performing that service might have even been considered a patriot.
Great work.
The other kick ass outcome? I saw a ‘bus tour protest’ of AIG houses that garnered all of 30-40 people, with more media then protestors.
My brother has now put his family in hiding due to the extortionist tactics Cuomo is taking. He was a little disappointed (not) his house wasn’t on the bus tour.
After reading the story on the bus tour…. why? They’re not being violent. They read a letter and put it in the mailbox.
It wasn’t because of the bus tour. He’s under a gag order, so I can’t really discuss it. But, there is a lot of seriously bad shit going on. The bus tour may have been low key, but other people are not so and thanks to the tour and the publicity, their homes are now targets. It was a prudent, and hopefully not necessary, move due to some intense pressures both due to the publicity and the threat Cuomo made. Cuomo threatened to out everyone if they didn’t voluntarily give up their pay. You can read about it here.
I’m sorry your brother and his family are going though that. It can be so easy for people to see something like that bus tour on teevee, and not realize that there are other people out there who are happy to use that information about who people are and where they live to threaten and intimidate them in far worse ways that never make it into the news.
Thank you CG. It really has been quite scary and bizarre. Never in a million years would he have predicted he would have been forced into this situation. When people talk of tarring and boiling the assholes and saying they should just kill themselves, it really hurts me and him. He agreed to help AIG FG sort things out and close down and for his efforts he is being threatened, scapegoated, and defamed. And to make matters worse, he can’t even defend himself.
coming attractions, or distractions, if you will…
tomorrow you can join howard dean’s nationwide conference call celebrating Democracy for America’s 5th B-day, online or by phone…
then you can turn out the lights, light a fire and some candles, snuggle up with your SO, and power down by participating in:
click image for details
and last, but not least, you can also participate in one of the upcoming green festivals, a joint project of Global Exchange and Green America, we’re celebrating what’s working in our communities–for people, business and the environment.
Jane Hamsher can be right a million times but I do not like her one bit.
Specter is going to have trouble in the GOP primary, but his ass is toast even if he survives that. The unions are going to nuclear on this one in the general election– they are pissed. If the Democrats can find a half-decent candidate they should take the seat.
Something other than economics…
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How about those Japanese?