Dear Colleague:
Almost any Republican senator, and certainly any other Republican senator
currently serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee, would be an
acceptable Judiciary Committee chairman.  Arlen Specter, who has hinted at
future "Borkings" of pro-life Supreme Court nominees, is not.

Steven W. Mosher
President

PRI Weekly Briefing
05 November 2004
Vol. 6 / No. 34


The Unacceptable Arlen Specter
By Joseph A. D'Agostino

Every Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee would make a
fine committee chairman except one.  And that one is slated to become
chairman in January.  This man rescued the unconstitutional and anti-life
Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade (1973) by stridently opposing the
nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court in 1987, though Bork was a
highly qualified jurist appointed by a President from this man's own
party.  This man has consistently promoted abortion-on-demand and other
radically unconstitutional legal theories.  He threatened to vote against
two of the current President Bush's pro-life Catholic judicial nominees.
He consistently criticizes judicial decisions based on law instead of
elite liberal opinion on everything from abortion to tuition vouchers for
parochial schools.  He favors "gay rights."  Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania
should not be chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It's not that his fellow Senate Republicans want Specter to be their
Judiciary chairman.  Seniority rules put him next in line after term
limits force current chairman Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) to step down.  Sen.
Chuck Grassley (R.-Iowa), who actually has seniority over Specter, is
already chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.  If Grassley won't give
up Finance for Judiciary-and indications are that he won't-Senate
Republicans can vote to override seniority or waive the term limit on
Hatch.  Alternatively, they or President Bush could offer Specter a
different post where he would do less harm, or even some good.  He has a
strong record on several issues important to Republicans, but they don't
include legal interpretation or life.

Specter didn't waste any time sticking it rhetorically to President Bush
and to the pro-lifers who were essential to the President's re-election
and to the expansion of the GOP's Senate majority by four.  AP reported
November 4 that Specter said of future Supreme Court nominees, "'When you
talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose,
overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely,' Specter said, referring
to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.  'The
President is well aware of what happened, when a number of his nominees
were sent up, with the filibuster,' Specter added, referring to Senate
Democrats' success over the past four years in blocking the confirmation
of many of Bush's conservative judicial picks.  '. . .And I would expect
the President to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning.'"
 Perhaps realizing that he's not chairman yet, Specter issued a
clarification of his remarks the next day but withdrew nothing.

Specter's stab at Bush and the pro-life movement came despite the
tremendous help he received from Bush and his fellow Pennsylvania GOP
senator, pro-life champion Rick Santorum, in getting re-elected this year.
 He barely fended off a primary challenge from pro-life Rep. Pat Toomey
(R.-Pa.), relying on crucial endorsements and campaigning from Bush and
Santorum.  In the general election, Specter didn't seem to care much about
helping Bush win the state, refusing to appear with Vice President Cheney
at a campaign event a week before the election.  And, wrote Tim Carney on
NRO this week, "Most striking were the 'Kerry and Specter for Working
Families' signs posted around southeastern Pennsylvania.  Was the culprit
some particularly ambitious freelance ticket-splitter?  The signs were
created, paid for, and posted by a 527 created by Roger Stone, chairman of
Specter's 1996 presidential campaign."

So what do Bush and the Republican establishment owe Specter?  Bush likes
to say that he favors judges who hold to "strict interpretation of the
law."  He and anyone else who favors the rule of law rather than steadily
increasing judicial tyranny, not to mention party unity in supporting the
President, should be opposed to making Specter the Senate's chief judge of
Bush's judicial nominees.  Specter's judicial philosophy is so activist,
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.), one of the most aggressively liberal and
pro-abortion opponents of Bush's judges, once recommended Specter for a
seat on the Supreme Court.  He put Specter at the head of a list he
offered Bush in a June 10, 2003 letter: "While there are scores of
Democrats whom I would hope you would consider, I am offering only
individuals who either are Republicans or have previously been nominated
by Republican presidents.  The candidates I would advise you to consider
are: The Honorable Arlen Specter, Republican senator from Pennsylvania. .
. ."

Specter, 74, was just re-elected and will probably never have to face the
voters again.  He won't need any more help from Bush, Santorum, or the
Republican fund-raising machine.  He is free to follow his conscience,
which he likely will.  Republican senators, if they are truly concerned
about protecting life and the rule of law, should do the same and keep
Specter out of the chairman's chair.

Joseph A. D'Agostino is Vice President for Communications at the
Population Research Institute.
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