Specter, card check, and the final betrayal
Back on March 24, Arlen Specter announced his opposition to Big Labor’s card-check legislation, the “Employee Free Choice Act.” Some conservatives cheered. But as I noted at the time, Specter left the door wide open in his Senate floor statement: “I would be willing to reconsider Employees’ Free Choice legislation when the economy returns to normalcy.”
On April 28, Benedict Arlen made his party switch official. He said he would not change his opposition to card-check, to which I replied: “Snort.”
On May 5, Specter met with the corruptocrats at the SEIU and another union has launched ads pressuring the chameleon to change his colors again.
Presto, change-o, here comes the “compromise” (that’s Specter-ese for sellout):
Specter had come out against the bill in March, disappointing labor leaders. They had hoped he would be the crucial 60th vote needed to overcome an expected GOP filibuster of the Employee Free Choice Act.
The Pennsylvania senator has since switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, and he said he’s been meeting with labor leaders and fellow senators in hopes of coming up with a compromise he could support.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he hoped a compromise could be worked out.
“How do we make it easier for people who want to form a union to at least get a vote and have an even playing field?” Obama said in response to a question during a town hall meeting in Rio Rancho, N.M. “How do we do that, but at the same time get enough votes to pass the bill? That’s what we’re working on right now.”Specter wouldn’t elaborate on the negotiations about the legislation, but said he is “hard at work trying to find some way to find an answer.”
The bill is a top priority of labor groups.
Card check = massively boosting union rolls = massively boosting Democrat voter rolls = permanent GOP minority.
What a way for Arlen Specter to perpetrate his final betrayal.
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Trackbacks
- Benedict Arlen Specter flips on card check as expected | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- Benedict Specter « Heartland Musings
- What Did You ExSpecterate? Arlen Betrays Trust Again « Peace and Freedom Promises
- Specter Ready to Flip on Card Check : The American Pundit
- ‘Benedict Arlen’ Specter Flips, Then Flops on Union Card Check Bill « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Obama Fully Supports Ending Secret Ballot For All Employees–Are Voters Next?–Employee Free Choice Act a.k.a. Card Check is Ballot Check Next? « Pronk Palisades
- The Weekend Claw 5-16-09 - AllMilitary.com's Military Blog
- Michelle Malkin » Harkin: God wants Big Labor to win
- The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room » DAY’S END ROUNDUP
- Michelle Malkin » Specter makes his final betrayal official
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I will not say what I want to say about his man. I enjoy my posting privileges on here too much.
I’m shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!
The guy’s on the run; he’s toast. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
His opposition to card check was just a bone he threw to the masses, hoping it would be a distraction from his vote on Porkulus. We all knew that. Specter gives weasels a bad name.
me too….the man in questionable at best…wonder if he has something that befalls older people??
He has liberalitis!
card check = liberal union thuggery.
He apparently has no principles, other than self preservation. Which is ironic, because he is guarranteeing his own retirement by being a craven opportunist.
Specter’s only concern is how to work a deal to his OWN benefit. He is a piece of filth.
“Et tu, Arlen?”
Smartest thing you’ve said all week.
Before people continue to get bent out of shape over Specter and every little “betrayal”, keep in mind that he was a Democrat who switched parties to become a Republican. Specter should serve as a lesson to all of you who continue to vote for the letter after a person’s name.
He needs to retire .. I think he may have dementia!
Totally inevitable. The guy would never make it out of a Pennsylvania primary without genuflecting before the unions.
And he still might not! I can’t imagine that Pennsylvania Dems have that much love for a 79 year old geezer, party change notwithstanding, whose voting record places him unquestionably more Republican than Democrat.
Awesone!
The question Mr. President is “How do we make it easier for people to vote “NO” to forming a union without fear of having their tires slashed or their house set on fire?”
Just because Hoffa is missing doesn’t mean he’s dead. . . Just transformed into ACORN workers.
Senator Sphincter sums this corrupt opportunist who is addicted to power. He is the latest poster corruptocrat for term limits. Sadly he wont be the last.
The only other description of him that comes close is …“donkey”
Oxymoron of the Week
Principled Pennsylvanian Politician
I agree. His election bid will be a rerun of Robert “The Torch” Torrecelli’s. Who is the Fran Lautenburg of PA?
Fran = Frank oooops
Isn’t card check one of those things that will end up at the Supreme Court no matter what Congress does? Like the attempt to shut down talk radio?
Keeping the Congressional standards high: “I will do ANYTHING short of commiting suicide to save my job, protect my ass, and screw the general public, so help me _______!(fill in blank with deity of choice)
Is this story implying that Spector is trying to see how large of an SEIU donation to his Spector for the Cure ’cause’?
Is Spector trying to get the SEIU to lobby for at least some level of seniority for himself within the Democratic senate?
I suspect we will be finding out in the near future.
Everyone (except Freddy and MM) is ignoring the 800 lb. gorilla in this room.
Can you spell SEIU?
I’m wondering when we can serve up all of congress (lower caps on purpose) to federal charges. It should be routine for the IRS to regularly monitor their personal bank accounts, as well as, their campaign accounts.
Walter, you hit that nail on the head. It’s called extortion.
The really sad, beyond disgusting truth behind all of this, is:
Even if he loses his seat, he will still get paid THE SAME and have better health coverage than any other normal citizen for the rest of his wretched, treasonous life.
The only upside is that he will go down hated by both parties… but really, who gets the last laugh? Until judgement day that is.
Hey, Arlen knows all about twists, turns and contortions. After all he’s responsible for the single bullet theory. He’ll always come up with a way to make himself the center of attention.Way to go A baby!
How do you expect him to continue to serve in the Senate, upholding the highest standards of honor, integrity, and ethical behavior if he doesn’t sell his soul and grovel before the special interests that can get him re-elected?
I was debating one of my liberal friends concerning card check the other day and asked him if we should do away with private voting booths in elections?
It got very quiet…… and his only words were, “I see.” He’s no longer a fan of card check.
Did I mention he is a Union Lawyer?
Only he knows if he’ll admit to anyone his new thoughts on the subject.
I wonder if I should have confessed I have a friend who is a Union lawyer? We have certainly had some heated debates over the years! When I first met him he was in private practice…….. heh… jus’ sayin’
I’d call him a whore but whores don’t deserve it.
#@%^ #$@ and the horse we rode in on.
I feel a sense of doom…
+1
Level the playing field my a$$. Obama, you know as well as I do, and as well as almost ever human being who understands inalienable rights that it will have the opposite effect. Open ballots are the road to tyranny and despotism. Why do the union goons need to know who voted for this or that? The answer to that question is so clear that the question doesn’t even have to be asked. It has always been a fundamental human right to vote privately, and you damn well know it. Here’s a plan Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, let’s have open voting for political elections. Try that and you will have have your a$$es handed to you.
Arlen Specter is a filthy, unprincipled scumbag? Really?
The guy would sell his mother to get his seniority back, so who cares about a bunch of strangers? Crapweasel…
How much damage is Arlen Specter willing to do to the country to guarantee his re-election and maintain his privileged lifestyle?
I know… I know… Specter thinks he is doing the right thing.
OK… New question…
How sick does Arlen Specter have to be to convince himself that whatever lousy thing he does for his own benefit also happens to be good for the country?
Specter is a turd. No doubt. And the GOP have all but begged for the permanent minority status by becoming the democrap lite party. If shamnesty wasn’t enough, they turned around and gave us a candidate like “Reach Across the Isle” McCain. Their minority status is well earned. The question now is will they correct their wayward ways. From the looks of it now, I see “permanent GOP minority” in our futures.
Specter isn’t going to keep his seat. Pelosi’s leadership is rocky. Obama will likely be a one termer.
We need to start planning now for the long list of things Republicans will be expected to repeal when they get back into power. Somebody start a list. Looks like card-check will be on it.
No thanks to lackluster and misguided leadership, it may actually disappear in our lifetime. 21st Century Whigs.
#12 Made me smile.
Isn’t calling this the “Employee Free Choice Act” like calling a bill that legalizes birth abortions “The infant Life protection Act”?
A) I wonder … why didn’t Arlen just simply retire?
B) I thought Pennsylvania was a heavy union state? Thus Arlen in bed with the SEIU and their relatives.
C) Another example for term limits.
D) It will take years to undo what has happened and what is fixin’ to happen.
His ego won’t let him.
Keep an eye on this geezer’s freezer.
It’s going to be beautiful watching this buttwipe start his forced retirement after this November’s election.
RWR
http://www.rightwingrocker.com
Laws of the Economics do not care one’s political ideology.
Simple truth is: when you overload a business of any size with unsustainable regulations and un-cooperative work force, the business owner does with less of the labor OR he/she relocates to business friendly place.
The Rich in our country are NOT rich enough to pay for the Universal health care, free/subsidized education from KG to College, 40% of the welfare population, and big bloated Government.
Uneducated / public schooled union members can’t comprehend that their corrupt union bosses and politicians are screwing them big time.
I guess some people will never learn.
vatodio
I grew up in a city where the adjoining city had a steel mill. I saw the union call a strike for something like a $.65 raise per hour. They went out on stike for half a year it seemed. My dad laughed about how stupid they were because they lost way more than that raise could ever have paid them. Even our city was filled with ‘for sale’ signs on every street. Many had to bankrupt, but dangit, they got their raise.
I thiunk his frickin brain tumor is back…he should not be allowed to drive let a lone vote!!! Kennedy and him both need to quit!!!
Please look up Hodgkin’s Lymphoma…but yes, the two of them are a pair.
As horrid a measure as card-check IS…
it is only one arrow in BIG BRO’s quiver.
There is apparently NOTHING BIG BRO will not do to push capital out of the US…
We all meet friends who wind up with strange loyalties, but whom we can trust on other issues with our backs turned to them….I have a neighbor i’ve gone duck hunting with who thinks the Dems can do no wrong…I usually have a beer with him so I can take his odd point of view slightly unsober.
I agree RWR…THAT work begins now…
*Surely the people of Penn. have enough sense to get Spector to vote no on any measure, compromise or not; They know he is a typical rat bastard politician, and they can’t change that other than to vote him out in 2010, but with card check in place we will see a mass exodus of jobs from this country, no question about it.
When a person has no principles they find it easy to switch positions. He and other Rinos, like Romney who recently flipped on immigration, look out for number one. Number One is always themselves!
You and PP keep chanting that, but I’ve yet to see anything other than somebody saying he did it…usually on the LEFT.
Next, card check in Congress…They will demand no lay-off policy…
That would be McCain-Feingold, the Incumbent Protection Act.
Too true, unfortunately…
I highly disapprove of you calling Senator Spector “Benedict Arlen”, Michelle.
Before Benedict Arnold sold out his country he was a patriot and a man of principals. Senator Spector has never attempted to aspire to either.
Well said, PK…
I have to say that Spector was “good guy” during the confirmation ordeal of Clarence Thomas. He really stood up. I guess it would not be too much to thank him for that service, amidst all the other disservice.
I thought they already had one – why else would Pennsylvania keep sending Specter and Murtha back? BTW, along the same line, I see that the Dem who was going to run against him in the primaries has dropped out.
He’ll go the way that gives him the most votes. It’s not about PA, or 300mil residents of the USA, but about what’s best for the Sphincter.
We can throw good men into the machine. They only get ground up.
The problem is in the gears of the machine.
That is true to a large degree; I have seen a lot of people go into the beltway and change-too many.
Fire the incumbents and dismantle the machine–local level right up to the Slimballs Havens of Congress, the Supreme Court and the White House.
Power knows the laws of power.
Power is the name of the machine. As long as the power remains, you can change the meat. The gears will always grind it up.
We have to break the machine. We have to take the power.
It is good news that Obama’s minions are going after Google. Tick off the Technology mavens and “Yes, We can” may become “No, You can’t”. They have a a direct line to the younger voters, one of Obama’s bases,
I sincerely hope that Card Check passes. That will be a huge kick in the teeth of union members. They make good enough money. They can afford to lose this right they have enjoyed for too long IMHO.
If nothing else this will remind them that they are owned, and that they’ve voted to be the slaves they are today.
While the freedoms are taken away from us, not slowly, but at supersonic speed, I am reminded of Julius Caesar’s last words, when he was attacked by the group of senators, led by Brutus. To this I say unto Arlen Spectacle:
“Et tu, Brute’?”
Thanks for nothin’.
Specter is a miserable piece of trash.
Period.
As is Obama.
This is about Union votes. Nothing else. Unions are no longer needed. They once served a purpose, but they have been perverted and corrupted, along with Democrats in Washington.
The votes required on Unions is regarding their termination.
Many, many years ago, I was in a healthcare union. We were only about 10% of the total employees of the hospital system. When it came that time of year to get pay increases and bonuses, union members got theirs about a month later than the rest, and at a rate less than the others, plus a letter in the mail telling us how the union won a major victory.
We kicked their ass out one day, then all was well. Never looked back either.
Gestapo/Shop Steward: “Zeigen Sie mir Ihre Papiere.”
We have to break the machine. We have to take the power Yes, that is the goal and meant to convey Ragspierre.
The Power of Government needs not a scalpel of a meat ax.
Specter likes to paint himself as a free-thinking moderate who deliberates and agonizes before making his move. By now, we know better.
Don’t count this idiot out yet. Look how Murtha’s district voted for him after he called them rednecked idiots. Pennsylvania has been moving farther and farther to the left with the help of ACORN and the out of state voters.
Given the massive amounts of spending Democrats have planned and their subsequent dependency on Chinese financing, it is hard to imagine them [Democrats] passing Card Check or any other measure that may reduce China’s ability to recover it’s money.
Absolutely.
The only thing that guy agonizes over are polls and his chances in the next election.
He’s the epitome of a self-serving politician.
He’s not questionable at all he is exactly what he appears to be a traitorous slime ball. I know many older people with senility and none of them have sold out the rest of us.
This is entirely the fault of GOP and conservative small tent rigidity. You call anyone with a whiff on common sense a RINO and expel them from the party. The result is that there’s nobody left to fight for the things you want. Hello card check. Hello government health care. Goodbye torture. Goodbye Christmas. (OK, the last one was just to push a fun button.)
The POS knows damned well he stands no change of being elected on the Dem line next election – with or without Zeros help – Chicago style – of muscling contenders off the ticket. This is his way of trying to avoid going down in flames and losing his Senate percs.
Damn him to hell – he’s nothing but trash, and he belongs in the party of trash.