Quote of the Day

"The Supreme Court of the United States has really wrecked the American political process in allowing corporations and unions to have unlimited anonymous expenditures. And if you fund the tea party, all hell breaks loose."

Arlen Specter, on the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling.

Quote of the Day

"Within days of the start of the Obama administration, before the ink was dry on his oath of office, Republicans openly bragged about plans to ‘break him and engineer his Waterloo. Announcing that ideological purity was more important than obtaining a majority, the prevailing Republican motto was, ‘We’d rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 50 Arlen Specters.’"

Arlen Specter, lashing out against Jim DeMint, during one of his final Senate floor speeches.

I for one do not want 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate. Rubio should open a history and economics book before running for office. To say Rubio is not very bright is a vast understatement.

Specter Jumps the Stage

Arlen Specter pulled a Kayne West and jumped onstage while Joe Sestak was speaking. Sestak was taking questions at the Pennsylvania Progressive forum. Both Specter and Sestak were given separate sessions. Apparently, Specter was anxious to inform Sestak that Beyonce was robbed of best video. Either that or Specter thought he was at a Green Day concert and wanted to stage dive.

Specter Defends Sotomayor

Sen. Arlen Specter surprised me with his passionate defense of Sonia Sotomayor. Conservatives have unsuccessfully attempted to label Sotomayor a racist. Specter told Republicans they were making "a mountain out of a molehill."

"There has been a lot of talk about a 'wise Latina woman' and I think this proceeding has tended to make a mountain out of a molehill," Specter said. "We have had a consistent line of people who are nominees who make references to their own backgrounds. We all have our perspective. Justice O'Connor talked about her life experiences. Justice Alito talked about his family suffering from ethnic slurs. Justice Thomas...talked about putting himself in the shoes of other people. And Justice Scalia talked about being in a racial minority. The expectation would be that a woman would want to say something to assert her competence in a country, which denied the women the right to vote for decades, where the glass ceiling limited people, where there is still disparagement of people on ethnic background. So I can see how someone would take pride in being a Latina woman and assert herself."

In related news: Pat Buchanan offers Republicans horrible advise. The Republican Party toattack Sotomayor because Sarah Palin was not given the respect Buchanan felt she deserved. Buchanan urges the GOP to ignore the Hispanic vote and attempt to attain more white voters.

Had McCain been willing to drape Jeremiah Wright around the neck of Barack Obama, as Lee Atwater draped Willie Horton around the neck of Michael Dukakis, the mainstream media might have howled.

And McCain might be president.

Buchanan ignores the negative attacks McCain used hurt his candidacy.

But the clear perception that the Arizona senator has run a more negative campaign than Obama may hurt the Republican presidential nominee's chances of a comeback as the end of the race draws near.

"In previous elections, both candidates have been viewed as attacking the other unfairly, so the penalty for doing so has tended to cancel out in past years," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "But this year McCain faces that problem all by himself, so any blowback affects only him while Obama seems above the fray."

The Census points to Hispanics being the fastest growing ethnic groups. Hispanic voters shifted toward Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Republicans will continue to have minority status if they continue to bash Hispanics.

Quote of the Day

"I guess it was based more on a sense that he was getting around the state of Pennsylvania. Maybe it's more about Pennsylvania and where the party there is than Washington. I don't know....He's got to do what's in his heart. I'm sure it was a difficult decision for him to make. He's been in the party for an awful long time."

Charlie Crist

Crist's statement is sure to make many Florida conservatives angry.

Arlen Specter Press Conference

President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden welcome Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic caucus.

Update: Sen. Barbara Mikulski is not happy Harry Reid will let Specter retain his senioity. Obama and Biden will support Specter in the Democratic primary.

"I won't be happy if I don't get to chair something because of Arlen Specter," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sits on the Appropriations Committee with Specter and is fifth in seniority among Democrats behind Chairman Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Sens. Robert Byrd (W.Va.), Patrick Leahy (Vt.) and Tom Harkin (Iowa). "I'm happy with the Democratic order but I don't want to be displaced because of Arlen Specter," she said.

One senior Democratic lawmaker told The Hill that the Democratic Conference will vote against giving the longtime Pennsylvania Republican seniority over lawmakers like Harkin, Mikulski and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) when they hold their organizational meeting after the 2010 election.

Conservative Reaction to Specter

The Corner have longtime bashed Arlen Specter. Michael Rubin was angered by Specter's advocacy of diplomacy with Iran.

If ever the Republicans had a Jimmy Carter, Arlen Specter is it.

Kathryn Jean Lopez did muchraking reporting by using her anonymous wealthy friend as a source. K-Lo's thesis was Specter's vote for the stimulus package would help Pat Toomey's campaign contributions. The Corner repeatedly hammered Specter's postion on abortion. The Corner has repeatedly stressed for Specter's exit and less government. With Specter, Democrats have 60 seats once Al Franken is seated. The Corner is not happy about Republicans having less government.

I read that he was switching parties, but I was disappointed to learn he's still a Democrat.

The DINO remark is funny. Did the Cornerites expect Specter to join Bernie Sander's Vermont Progressive Party? Seriously.

In related news: RNC chairman Michael Steele told CNN he did not know Specter was going to defect.

Steele: Cornyn went out on the line for this man. For the senator to flip the bird back to Senator Cornyn and the Republican Senate Leadership, a team that stood by him, who went to the bat for him in 2004, to save his hide is not only disrespectful but down right rude. I'm sure his mama didn't raise him this way.


Q: Did he give you a heads up on this?

Steele: No, not at all. Which is another form of this respect that I don't count. At least give me a call or give the party leadership a call and let us know this is what I'm thinking. This is where I'm going so you can be prepared. I'm not one to be caught flat-footed about these things.

Oh really! Steele explains to CNN that he didn't know Specter's plans and then declares he doesn't get flat-footed. Steele is a comedy quote machine.

Steele declares, "Get ready to go to the mat, baby, because we're coming after you and taking you out." Will Steele be RNC chair in 2010?

Michelle Malkin goes nuclear. Specter is finally leaving the GOP and she is pissed? Malkin hates Specter. Yet Malkin is pissed. This is a seriously conflicted conservative blogger?

I am not a Specter fan. I agree that Specter's motivation is political survival. Republicans have bashed Specter for years and and are shocked he joined the opposition. Democrats went through this with Joe Lieberman. The base backed Ned Lamont and ended up stuck with Lieberman in the caucas. Republicans don't have a backup plan. Specter isn't likely to rejoin the GOP. Obama will campaign and raise money for Specter in the general election. Conservative principles don't mean much if you can't govern.

Quote of the Day

"Because [Chris] had a really good friend of his say to him, 'What are you going to do when you get there?' and he couldn't answer the question and he realized that, and that's why he didn't run," says Todd. "It was a childhood dream to be a senator, but he didn't know what he was going to do if he got there."

Chuck Todd, on why Chris Matthews did not run for Arlen Specter's Senate seat.

Quote of the Day

"I think there is a national leader, his name is President Obama."

Gov. Charlie Crist, on Meet the Press.

Crist is a smart pol. He understands Republicans are getting smashed in the polls by Obama. Secretly, Republicans want the stimulus bill to pass. Gov. Sarah Palin made a stimulus wish list and went to Washington to lobby for passage of the stimulus bill. Publicly, Palin said, "I agree with the decision of Senator Murkowski and Congressman Young to vote NO on the package."

Senator Arlen Specter had this exchange with a fellow Republican.

Arlen Specter was one of just three Senate Republicans to buck his party and vote in favor of President Obama’s stimulus package. After he announced his decision, he says, a fellow GOP senator approached him in private to offer congratulations.

When asked, however, that unknown senator declined to join Specter because he was too afraid of drawing a primary challenge. He was glad somebody was doing the right thing, but he wouldn’t risk it himself.

As Specter put it, “there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation. … I think a good part of the caucus agrees with the person I quoted.”

"They're like sheep in a way," former Florida House Speaker Johnnie Byrd said of fellow Republicans. "They're looking for someone to tell them what to do." Beltway Republicans were under the misguided impression John Boehner, Eric Canter and Mitch McConnell are more politically astute than Barack Obama. Obama got his stimulus package passed and Congressional Democrats are polling better than Republican rivals. The stimulus package hasn't hurt Crist's numbers, either.

Why are Congressional Republicans listening to the leadership that lost the past two elections? I don't know why, but it makes me happy.

Collins-Nelson Cloture Vote

The Senate voted 61-36 for cloture on the Susan Collins-Ben Nelson compromise. Collins and Arlen Specter were the only Republicans to break ranks. The revamped stimulus bill will go for a floor vote.

Policy wise: Obama is going to have to ask for another stimulus package. The House version was too small. It is simply too small to make a significant impact. The added tax cuts and stimulus spending will add to the deficit.

Politically: Obama has never shown an inclination to get in the mud. The Republicans got their tax cuts. Obama got a stimulus plan that will failed. Republicans are positioning themselves for the midterms. Republicans were never serious about returning Obama's efforts at bipartisanship.

Obama should had the bill sent back to the House. Strip the tax cuts and put in the infrastucture spending. Let House and Senate Republicans vote against it. Newt Gingrich tried to force Bill Clinton's hand by shutting down the government. Clinton refused further Medicare, Medicaid and education cuts. Gingrich lost. Badly. The next year, Clinton was elected for his second term.

Maybe Obama wants the Republicans to attack him. The latest CNN poll show with a 76 percent approval rating. A key number is 39 percent say Republicans are cooperating with Obama.

Update: Andrew Sullivan calls the political battle in Obama's favor.

Should Obama become a partisan attack-dog in response? Check out the Gallup poll here. If Krugman, Yglesias and Brown are right, these polls are very wrong. Obama is winning the stimulus fight - because he seems more connected to the actual crisis people are confronting than his rivals in both parties, and more reasonable in finding a way forward.

Senators Respond to Dodd's FISA Filibuster

Christopher Dodd's live chat on putting a hold on the FISA bill has caused a stir in the netroots. The candidates' aides have been paying attention. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been forced to take a stance.

Obama's spokesman Bill Burton issued this statement.

"Senator Obama has serious concerns about many provisions in this bill, especially the provision on giving retroactive immunity to the telephone companies. He is hopeful that this bill can be improved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. But if the bill comes to the Senate floor in its current form, he would support a filibuster of it."

Hillary Clinton was directly asked about the FISA bill.

Q: Can you discuss your position on the reauthorization of the FISA bill?

Hillary Clinton: I am troubled by the concerns that have been raised by the recent legislation reported out of the Intelligence Committee. I haven't seen it so I can't express an opinion about it. But I don't trust the Bush Administration with our civil rights and liberties. So I'm going to study it very hard. As matters stand now, I could not support it and I would support a filibuster absent additional information coming forward that would convince me differently.

Joe Biden has come out against the bill. That's three Senators. How this hurts the Bush administration is Dodd, Clinton, Obama, and Biden are presidential candidates and can give increased media attention to how awful an idea giving retroactive immunity to telephone companies that illegally released private information.

Biden serves on the Judiciary Committee. Arlen Specter has already expressed reservations the bill. Specter and Patrick Leahy couldn't hide their frustration of the White House's refusal to release documents relating to warrantless wiretapping.

You have now had more than ample time to collect and process the relevant documents. Responsive information to those subpoenas is long overdue. You have made commitments to provide responsive information over the last several months and even recently, but no such information has yet been provided.

Instead, we read that a White House spokesperson has now conditioned the production of information on prior Senate agreement to provide retroactive immunity from liability for communications carriers. That is unacceptable and would turn the legislative process upside down. If the Administration wants our support for immunity, it should comply with the subpoenas, provide the information, and justify its request. As we have both said, it is wrongheaded to ask Senators to consider immunity without their being informed about the legal justifications purportedly excusing the conduct being immunized. Although the two of us have been briefed on certain aspects of the President's program, this cannot substitute for access to the documents and legal analysis needed to inform the legislative decisions of the Committee as a whole.

One Senator and bloggers started an avalanche against BushCo. This FISA bill would have been a done deal before the age of blogging an online chats. This is grassroots mobilization that has potential longterm consequences oon civil liberties. If Dodd defeats this bill, this will be proof that political apathy is inexcusable.

I have never seen apathy as a justifiable excuse in politics or one's personal affairs. Every person, I have known whom is apathetic has serious issues in believing in themselves. There is the cynical saying that you can't fight city hall. Right now Chris Dodd and bloggers are fighting the White House an winning.

Arlen Specter On Alberto Gonzales

Arlen Spector is hinting Alberto Gonzales may resign before confidence vote.

In a television interview Sunday, Senator Arlen Specter said he expects a number of Republicans will join the Democrats in a "very substantial" vote against Gonzales, if the measure comes to the Senate floor.

Senator Arlen Specter, 17 May 2007
Specter says he thinks Gonzales will resign in preference to having such a mark on his record.

Specter spoke on Face the Nation on the no confidence vote.

Schieffer: "What leads you, Senator, to the conclusion that he will probably step down before such a vote is taken?"

Specter: "Because of the likelihood of a very substantial vote of no confidence, and I think that if and when he sees that coming that he would prefer to avoid that kind of an historical black mark."

Specter said Gonzales was no longer a credible Attorney General. He will still not vote against Gonzales.

"I think the actual termination is a personal one for the attorney general, and also for the president."

A true profile in courage.