Tag: BARACK OBAMA

It finally happened. One of the most blatant political opportunists in contemporary American history tried to pull one too many tricks. Except this time, someone was there to call him on it. On May 18^th, Arlen Specter’s inglorious 30 year reign as a Pennsylvania senator finally came to an overdue end. Except, unlike what he was promised by his odd Democratic partners, he met his Waterloo in the primary election. It wasn’t supposed to be that way for the maestro of the Single Bullshit Theory.

Courtesy Richard Bartholomew Copyright 2010 Bartholoviews Cartoons

As we reported in April and May, some of the heavy hitters in the Democratic Party had promised Arlen Specter a clear field in the primary if he switched parties and ran as a Democrat. As we noted then, this was a dumb decision made by myopic men – Gov. Ed Rendell, President Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, and Senator Harry Reid. They were so short-sighted that they could not see the forest for the trees. The reason Specter opted out of the GOP was simple: he knew he could not win the Republican primary against Pat Toomey. So the question then became: if he could not beat Toomey in the primary, was he a good bet to beat him in the general election? Probably not, since most Democrats would be lukewarm about the turncoat, and he would have little GOP support after defecting. So from the Democrats’ point of view, would it not be better to back a true Democrat who would not have those problems and therefore stood a better shot at beating the well-funded right-wing Republican?

The inside-the-Beltway crowd didn’t see it that way. To them, it’s all a club card game anyway. If Arlen was willing to bend, why not take him? After all, he’s one of the guys. He’s been in Washington for 30 years. So the Powers That Be decided to arrange a strange deal with the author of the Warren Commission’s Single Bullet Fantasy. This was especially disturbing to many at CTKA. Why? Because it was the endorsement of then Senator Obama at American University by the late Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy which gave him a rocket boost against Hillary Clinton in his race for the Democratic nomination. The other point that was bothersome was that, as noted above, it was unnecessary. The Democrats could have won the seat without Specter.

Evidently, Representative Joe Sestak wasn’t in on the deal. Very shortly after the nauseating announcement was made in Washington, Sestak put out the word that he was seriously thinking of challenging Mr. Magic Bullet. According to Jerry Policoff, CTKA’s man on the ground in Pennsylvania, the White House and the Democratic Establishment did all they could to discourage Sestak from running, and ruining their shameful bargain. According to Policoff, they gave Sestak the carrot and stick treatment: they offered him the Secretary of Navy job and when he said no they threatened to wreck his political career. Which sounds pretty much like the kind of politics played by Governor Rendell, who is a Richard Daley type. When Sestak refused to back off, the state media – largely played by Rendell – tried to picture him as Don Quixote: a deluded man tilting at windmills. You know, he didn’t know he was DOA. As he likes to do, Specter basked in the temporary national limelight. Obama praised him for an act of “courage” in switching parties, helped him raise money, and even said to a crowd at a rally, “I love Arlen Specter.” (The Daily Beast, 5/19/10)

It was all an illusion staged by Rendell and his ill-informed Washington cohorts. Part of the illusion was this: the Democratic electorate in Pennsylvania is much more progressive than its leadership i.e. Rendell. The other part is that Sestak is a good campaigner who could raise considerable amounts of money. This helped raise his local profile statewide rather quickly. The third part is that Specter is an old man whose two bouts with cancer have left him both looking his age, and not as mentally sharp as he was. Therefore, the more people saw of the two, the better Sestak started to look to them. Another advantage was that Specter had had a difficult time beating Toomey in the 2004 GOP primary. Being the stronger campaigner, Sestak looked like he had a better chance at winning in the fall.

So, according to Policoff, Rendell’s illusion began to slowly dissipate. And when Sestak began to close the huge gap between he and Specter – which once was as much as 40 points – more and more Democratic Clubs and local committees began to break from Rendell’s machine and endorse Sestak. In fact, Policoff’s own Lancaster country committee did just that.

Sestak hoarded a lot of his money until he had cut Specter’s lead down to the 15-20 point range. He then unleashed a flurry of TV ads that were well-chosen. One was a highly effective two-parter which showed just how duplicitous Specter was. It first depicted Specter shaking hands with George Bush Jr; during which Bush calls Specter a team player he can count on. The trailing ad was Obama shouting out his love for Specter and saying, “You know he’s going to fight for you!” Another ad showed Specter essentially saying that he had switched parties in order to get re-elected. Sestak then came in to say that Specter’s conversion was merely political and done to save one person’s job – his own. This whole series of ads was powerful in its effect. Especially since Specter had little defense against it. What epitomized the opportunism was when Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court. Why? Because Specter had voted against her as Solicitor General. But since he was now a Democrat, he said he was open to voting for her. Unlike with his lies and deceptions on the Warren Commission, Specter was out in the open, left unprotected by the political establishment and the media.

Towards the end, Specter tried to ask for help from the White House. But sensing the political winds, they offered none. They understood they had erred. And they were not going to double down just because they had given their word to him. In the last week, Specter tried to explain his switch by saying that the GOP had moved to the right, and he had always actually been a Democrat at heart. He even tried to invoke the memory of JFK when he said, “I have been a John F. Kennedy Democrat. I have returned to the party of my roots. What’s wrong with that.” (NY Times, 5/11/10) To anyone who has studied the arc of his career, for Specter to make such a comment is nauseating. If Specter had really been a JFK Democrat, he would never have agreed to mastermind the Commission’s medical and ballistics cover up about his death. Secondly, it was after he won the Philadelphia DA job in 1965, as a registered Democrat on the Republican ticket, that he then switched to the GOP. He figured it would be easier to hold it that way.

So Arlen Specter got his ultimate comeuppance. Much too late of course. He had already done a lot of damage. The startling thing is that he still wanted to be in the arena at all. The man has been through a debilitating struggle with cancer. He has been re-elected four times. He is 80 years old. But evidently, Specter had grown used to being in the spotlight and enjoyed having an easy job with perks that paid well.

Of course, what this says about today’s Democratic Party is quite disturbing. Why the White House would want to be associated with the likes of Specter and Blanche Lincoln is baffling. That they would cooperate in a shabby deal with the likes of Specter tells us a lot about what the Democratic Party has become since 1968. As I wrote in the Afterword to The Assassinations, after the death of Robert Kennedy, the Democratic Party split in half between its liberal and moderate wings. Richard Nixon knew how to capitalize on the split, hence his infamous Southern Strategy. The Democrats – now toothless because of the deaths of JFK, MLK, Malcolm X, and RFK – lost its bearings. It, and the country, now drifted to the center – and then to the right. Therefore the only two Democratic presidents between 1968 and 2008 were the southerners, Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Leadership Council’s own Bill Clinton.

Obama and his advisers don’t read a lot of history. For him to back both Specter and Arkansas senator Blanche Lincoln shows a White House and president out of tune with the times and its own electorate. That is proven by what Sestak and Lt. Governor Bill Halter have done in spite of the aid to their opponents by the White House and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. If the White House and the DSCC had either remained neutral – which they should in a primary – or backed the insurgents, Sestak would have won even bigger, and there would likely be no run-off between Halter and Lincoln. He would have won the primary outright.

But as I wrote, the Democratic Party has never really recovered from the assassinations of the sixties. And Obama is not the transformational candidate many hoped he would be. In fact, he is a cautious and pragmatic man. The new president had a truly golden opportunity when he got elected. With the country facing the biggest economic blowout since 1929, with all three pillars of the economy on their back – housing, autos, and the stock market – he had the opportunity to be another Franklin Roosevelt. He could have launched a Second New Deal to get America back to work. He could have revived the economy and eliminated forever the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels. In fact, as revealed by GOP operative James Pinkerton, this is what the Republican establishment truly feared. For how could they vote against giving laid off Americans real jobs in a new energy market? And if it worked, and they had voted against it, they would be discredited in a way they could not easily recover from.

Much to the relief of the Republicans, the White House did not make that choice. Which makes the backroom deal with Specter kind of predictable. Though still reprehensible. Which indicates that the Democratic Party is still sleepwalking through its nightmare. So entranced that they were not even aware they were dancing with a man who helped cause it.

Well, at least the man who created the see-through cover story about President Kennedy‘s death is finally gone. Unfortunately, on the evidence of their ill-advised tango with him, the Democratic Party is not even close to being resuscitated. Specter and the Warren Commission did that good of a job in beginning the funeral.

The announcement came down on April 28th. Former Warren Commission counsel and longtime Senator Arlen Specter decided to switch parties. He will run for re-election next year as a Democrat, not as a Republican. This surprised many. But it shouldn’t’ t have. Especially if you know Specter and have contacts on the ground in Pennsylvania. And as my review of Legacy of Secrecy showed, CTKA does.

Specter and Obama

Specter had a difficult time getting through his GOP primary in 2004. In fact, he barely beat former Representative Pat Toomey, besting him by just 17,000 votes. In a state as large as Pennsylvania, that is a narrow victory. The so-called Club for Growth had backed Toomey. This is a very conservative and very wealthy group of businessmen who are fanatical free marketers of the Milton Friedman stripe. For them Social Security is socialism. Their ultimate goal is to repeal every aspect of the New Deal. Which is not very economically or politically practical. But if you have that kind of money, practicality doesn’t matter. Someone will take up your marker. As Toomey did in 2004.

But here’s where it gets interesting. According to our sources, Toomey had sworn off running this time around. But when Specter was one of the three Republican senators to back President Obama’s stimulus package, the Club for Growth took notice and didn’t like it. At all. To keep the Republican Party in check, they gave Toomey the OK to announce another run against Specter.

This put Specter in a difficult situation. In 2004, he had a tough time of it against Toomey. But now it would be even worse. Why? Because the Democratic primary for president in Pennsylvania last year lasted almost seven weeks. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama went at it mano a mano in every town, village and city across the state. In the process, they switched over 150,000 voters from the GOP ranks to the Democratic Party. This trend was evident even in traditionally conservative enclaves like Lancaster. Obviously, the great majority of those switching had to be moderates and not bedrock Rush Limbaugh type conservatives. Consequently, the defections hurt Specter and helped Toomey. What makes it worse is that Pennsylvania primaries are closed: Only Republicans can vote in the GOP primary. Specter saw the handwriting on the wall. He was going to have to face a very well funded challenger in a very hard fought primary. And now the make up of the electorate had drastically changed. An early Rasmussen poll had Toomey with a substantial lead.

Putting his finger in the wind, he nevertheless found a way to draw the defection as a matter of principle. (He always does.) Specter said, “I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party.” Being a bit more candid, he added “I am not prepared to have my 29 year record in the United States Senate decided by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”

If you know anything about Specter’s career, this is not really surprising. Here is a guy who really didn’t care much about the death of President Kennedy. He saw very early what the heavy hitters on the Warren Commission wanted. He went ahead and gave it to them. And they sensed he was so eager to do their bidding that they gave him free rein over the medical and ballistics evidence. And after several meetings, Specter got the Kennedy pathologists to go along with the unbelievable and nonsensical Single Bullet Theory. Which he has stood by since, knowing the MSM will back him up on it. After that disgraceful performance, when he couldn’t win the Philadelphia DA’s office as a Democrat, he switched to the Republican Party. And he stayed on that side for forty years. As long as he stood a good chance of winning. But now he doesn’t. So he tries to paper that over by saying its really about philosophical differences.

What is surprising to me though is that the Democrats seem eager to accept this guy. In addition to being a cover up artist in the Crime of the Century, here is a man who backed the shameful Vietnam War. Who voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. Who was the appointed attack dog in the absolutely nauseating Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill hearings. Who was part of the GOP lynch mop in the goofy impeachment hearings against President Clinton. And in fact, just a little over a month ago, he told the Washington political newsletter The Hill that he would consider running for re-election as an independent, but not as a Democrat. Since if any GOP senator would switch, the Democrats would have control of all Congress, and he didn’t find that an appealing prospect.

Yet Governor Ed Rendell, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and President Obama are eager to get him on board. For instance, Reid said, “I welcome Senator Specter and his moderate voice to our diverse caucus.” (AP story, 4/28) And Rendell-a Democrat– suggested a meeting in Washington this week so the party leadership could endorse Specter’s candidacy. (ibid) What is incredible about this last statement is that it came from Specter. So Rendell and he have been talking about this at length. Which of course, tells you something about Specter. Here is a guy who will be 80 years old next year. Yet five terms in the Senate is not enough for him. He feels entitled to the seat for life.

My question to Obama, Reid, and Rendell is simple: Why? The ostensible reason seems to be that the Democrats are salivating at the chance to get a sixty-vote majority in the Senate. And when Al Franken is finally sworn in to the senate seat from Minnesota, with Specter, they will have the sixty votes. But at what cost? As one can see from the record above, Specter is not a Progressive dream of a Democrat. He is very damaged goods. Further, the Democrats will almost certainly win that Pennsylvania Senate seat next year, against either Toomey or Specter. So in actuality, Specter needs the Democratic Party more than they need him. Bottom line: Do the Democrats really want or need another Joe Lieberman in their party?

The answer apparently is: Yes. They would rather back someone like Specter than have an open Democratic primary. That would risk the prospect of having a progressive, e.g. Joe Hoeffel, Barb Hafer, or Chuck Penacchio win the race and beat Toomey. Rendell is an old style party boss in Pennsylvania-think Richard Daley. He backed Clinton in the primary last year and forced the major city mayors to jump on board, or he would cut them off from party funds. In 2006, he forced Hoeffel and Hafer off the senate ballot to clear the way for the moderate Robert Casey. And the early reports off of MSNBC, say he cut the same deal for Specter. Which is probably why Specter now finds running as a Democrat “an appealing prospect” when he didn’t just a month ago. Imagine promising a free ride in the Democratic primary to a Republican with a track record like Specter’s. So from the early indications, it appears that Rendell and Clinton probably worked behind the scenes to invite the Warren Commission mastermind inside the party he helped kill. And of which he was a member at the time.

This is the man the Democrats plan to back next year. In a race they could win easily on their own with a real Democrat. First, Kirsten Gillibrand and the NRA in New York. Now Arlen Specter and the Warren Commission in Pennsylvania.

The Democrats may have won the election. But thanks to the likes of Rendell, Reid, Markos Moulitsas, Jane Hamsher, and Thom Hartmann, they are still in search of their souls.

– Jim DiEugenio