image adapted from Democratic Party symbol by D.B. King, used pursuant to CC license
by Damozel | Huh. As a Republican, Specter "was ranking member on the Judiciary Committee and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, as well as ranking member of the panel’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education." [John Stanton] After a resolution on the floor Thursday night, he will rank behind all Democrats, at least until the next session.[John Stanton] Oh man, that's gotta hurt.
"Democrats placed Specter in one of the two most junior slots on each of the five committees for the remainder of this Congress, which goes through December 2010. Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after the midterm elections next year," says WaPo. This is after a unanimous voice vote on the floor of the House.
Without any assurance of seniority, Specter loses a major weapon in his campaign to win reelection in 2010: the ability to claim that his nearly 30 years of Senate service places him in key positions to benefit his constituents. Tonight's committee resolution, quickly read on the Senate floor by Reid himself, contradicts Specter's assertion last Tuesday when he publicly announced his move from the Republican side of the aisle. He told reporters that he retained his seniority both in the overall chamber and in the committees on which he serves. Specter said that becoming chairman of the Appropriations Committee was a personal goal of his, one that would be within reach if he were granted his seniority on the panel and placed as the third-most senior Democrat there.
Specter, if granted seniority, would also be next in line to chair the Judiciary Committee behind the current chairman, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).
Without that seniority, though, Specter, 79, would not even hold an appropriations subcommittee chairmanship in 2011, a critical foothold Specter has used in the past to disperse billions of dollars to Pennsylvania. (WaPo)
Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog commented:
Basically, the Senate Democrats put Specter on probation. If Arlen wants seniority, he has to earn it.
And yeah, Dems are angry about his remark about Coleman, though they claim that the resolution was unrelated. .[John Stanton] Frankly, I agreed with my colleague and others: I thought he was joking. Sadly, the report didn't include any winking emoticons or anything.
Specter's now claiming that he "misspoke."
Specter was interviewed for a one-page
Times magazine feature scheduled to run May 10. Several responses
appeared tongue-in-cheek — when asked to keep his answers short and
“try not to filibuster” he simply said “sure.”
Asked whether he cared about a shortage of Jewish Republicans in the Senate, Specter replied: “I sure do. There’s still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.”
But questioned outside the Senate chamber Tuesday, Specter said the comment was a mistake.
“In the swirl of moving from one caucus to another, I have to get used to my new teammates,” he said. “I’m ordinarily pretty correct in what I say. I’ve made a career of being precise. I conclusively misspoke.”
Asked who he’s backing now in elections, Specter said, “I’m looking for more Democratic members. Nothing personal.” (CQ Politics)
Dude.
One thing the denial of seniority means is that he will be the last senator to question Obama's Supreme Court nominee. As WaPo dryly points out, this is "a dramatically lower profile than in 2005 and 2006, when he chaired the committee and ran the confirmations of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr."
The always trenchant Gun-Toting Liberal writes:
PennsylvaniaI’ve been trashing
this BUM since the birth of this blog and will continue to do anything and
everything in my power to aid him in a transition from “public service” (yeah, RIGHT)
to the free soup lines of
The latest on The Specster? As we all know,
this welfare bum switched parties to the delight of his former G.O.P. and the
chagrin of his new Democratic Party a few days ago. The question
wasn’t “if” but “WHEN” this traitorous welfare bum would be
launching his next assault upon his own constituents or the will of The People
in general. It wasn’t that big of a question for some.... — I never thought he’d stopped.
When will we learn? When will we ever learn? Pennsylvanians, only YOU can rid this country of this disease called “Arlen Specter”. Please do your civic duty. Elections 2010 are right around the corner, by the way. Thanks in advance.
I didn't feel the same about him, to be honest. As Republicans go, he wasn't the worst. He certainly did his part in probing the Bush Administration's DoJ.
I don't know what has happened to him lately; is all this carry on a cry for attention, a cry for help or what?
At any rate, it's clear that whatever sort of Republican he might have been from the perspective of a Democrat, he just sucks at being a Democrat.
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