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| Specter `pleased and proud' to be a Pa. Democrat |
| 2009-06-07 |
| Sen. Arlen Specter told Pennsylvania's Democratic leaders Saturday he's "pleased and proud" to be back in the party he left shortly after launching his political career more than four decades ago. "I'm no longer a Republican in name only. I'm again a Democrat," the fifth term senator said in an introductory speech to the Democratic State Committee at a downtown hotel. Specter's speech capped two days of speechmaking and socializing in which the atmosphere of party unity that Gov. Ed Rendell and state party Chairman T.J. Rooney sought was clouded only by a small union rally and low-key campaigning by prospective Specter challengers in the 2010 primary. Specter, 79, said his immigrant parents were FDR Democrats, and that he was a JFK Democrat. He said he stayed in the party until after he won his first elective office -- Philadelphia district attorney -- on the Republican ticket in 1965 and he enrolled in the GOP after the general election. In a speech punctuated frequently by applause, he ticked off a list of issues -- increases in the minimum wage, abortion rights, environmental protection, stem-cell research -- on which he has voted with the Democrats even though he was a Republican. "It is really my independence that has made me strong, made me better able to represent Pennsylvania, to deliver for Pennsylvania and strong enough to come back to the party," he said. At a Friday night dinner honoring the late Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, Rendell said Specter "has voted and acted to support the constituencies that we care about" during his 29 years in the Senate. He said the senator showed courage in casting one of three GOP votes for the $787 economic stimulus package. "He cast the vote knowing that it would put his political career in peril," the governor said. |
| Posted by: |
| #10 I'm hoping my PA comrades will make Specter an "pleased and proud" retiree. |
| Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700 2009-06-07 19:15 |
| #9 People in PA must be dumb as bricks.. Yeah, some are. Many just vote their interest, which is what Fat Eddie $pendell, murtha, et al. give 'em, which is, money out of other peoples' pockets. We do need term limits, and a stop to a system that lets some people vote themselves a hand in other peoples' pockets. Difficult, but hopefully not impossible... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-06-07 11:49 |
| #8 I believe the one-word descriptor you are seaching for JohnQC is ..... WHORE! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-07 11:20 |
| #7 I wish I could feel good about Specter. He is not a donk or trunk but a political opportunist going to the highest bidder. He has no allegiance to anyone or anything but himself. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2009-06-07 10:30 |
| #6 Term limits have worked well in California. There voters have at least as much information as voters anywhere. But they keep electing donk legislatures because the donks bribe them with programs. So the unions control the legislative agenda. It's how a republic degenerates into a democracy and then anarchy. These are not the good old days. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-06-07 09:25 |
| #5 People in PA must be dumb as bricks.. When the system rewards seniority and is open ended, people vote themselves as much power as they can get. Some are more equal than others. Term limits will not remove all the effects of seniority but it will hobble it enough to force people to look up and see who they're actually voting for when they pull the lever on a more frequent basis. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-06-07 07:24 |
| #4 "I'm no longer a Republican in name only. I'm again a Democrat," Now that he's out of the closet, maybe there's a parade marshall job awaiting him in San Francisco. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-06-07 07:23 |
| #3 People in PA must be dumb as bricks to elect and re-elect scumbags like this guy and Murtha and Fast Eddie Rendell. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2009-06-07 02:11 |
| #2 And in 2011, unemployed. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-06-07 02:10 |
| #1 "I'm no longer a Republican in name only. I'm again a Democrat," Good Riddance Phony. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-06-07 00:37 |