In addition to the war, which he called a key factor in the losses of fellow Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum and others, Specter said his party will have to become "a lot more progressive and a lot less ideological."
Specter commended Santorum for his candor, but said Pennsylvania’s junior senator paid the price at the polls.
"Rick took a lot of controversial positions," Specter said. "You saw the results yesterday."
I do wonder if Sen. Specter campaigned for Rick Santorum as much as he had done for him? Somehow I doubt it. I truly will miss Sen Santorum in the Senate and I doubt if Senator-Elect Casey is going to be all that pro-life.
I thought this quip to be rather funny over at The Corner.
In the Senate, he will impress few and function as a wholly owned subsidiary of Chuck Schumer, except when he is occasionally given dispensation to cast a pro-life or pro-gun vote. –John J. Miller
9 comments
maybe the best thing about santorum not being re-elected is that he’ll run for president.
well a girl can dream
If Casey turns out to have his father’s fire in the belly he will not be a disaster. Senior took on the party when it moved too far left. Junior avoided the issues his father fought for, so I am not impressed yet. In fairness though, Senior wasn’t always the man he became. I’ll be praying Junior grows into the same kind of man Senior grew into.
I had the same thoughts when Santorum lost, where was Specter campaigning for him?
Pro-lifers were outraged, when on the evening of the overwhelming victories of 2004, Specter, the Judiciary Chair, declared he would not allow pro-life candidates out of committee, just after he narrowly escaped defeat in the primary by pro-lifer Twoomey, thanks to Santorum’s support. Some thanks he got!
The pro-life outrage was ENORMOUS! Sen. Graham of SC said the Senate hadn’t seem such a deluge since the Impeachment of Clinton. Specter was chastened, but Santorum’s stellar pro-life reputation was damaged.
I felt a bit consoled, like cathy, when Bill Bennett said last night, “the GOP may draft Santorum for the Presidency in 2008”.
A Hillary-Santorum shootout! Yippee!
I would LOVE to see Santorum vs. Hillary Rodham Rodham in 2008! Maybe Santorum would lose, but at least we would have a real shot at getting the first truly conservative president since Reagan. I’m so tired of the past several presidential races where the choice has been between an extreme liberal and a moderate, with no conservative choice anywhere in sight.
Didn’t Specter vote to confirm both Roberts and Alito?
Didn’t all but one GOP senator vote to confirm them?
As a genuine values voter, I’m very concerned about the future of heterosexuality now Rick Santorum isn’t there anymore. He was the staunchest advocate of the heterosexual lifestyle. The man was one solid mass of God fearing heterosexuality. God help us now the Demoncrats are back in business.
I grew up in Pittsburgh and still have most of my family and a lot of friends living in that area.
Santorum lost for a number of reasons, one being his support of Specter! There are quite a number of ‘conservatives’ that wouldn’t vote for him since he supported Specter over Toomey (who was a pro-life, conservative republican candidate)
Specter is a RINO and nearly a Democrat in most of his stances. His grandiose little speech about ‘Santorum paying the price at the polls’ has little to do with Santorum’s conservative stances, but more because of the extreme dissatisfaction many PA conservatives felt when he seemed to abandon them to get votes. Specter ought to remember that HE nearly lost his campaign, except for Santorum and Bush literally telling conservative voters to override their own instincts and pick Specter on the ballot.
As for Bob Casey Jr, I wouldn’t hold my breath in regard to the ‘fire in the belly’. Really, he seems to stand for nothing in particular. His pro life stance isn’t very clear (he just says he is, but how does he define it? is it the old “I’m against it but…”?) and as a PA legistlator he hardly ever made it to work so there is little voting record to go on.
I doubt he’ll be worth much to the pro-life cause. I hope I’m wrong.
“The man was one solid mass of God fearing heterosexuality.”
Proof that attempts at sarcasm and political humor should be left to those who are good at it, such as the Curt Jester.
Specter campaigned for Santorum. You can debate how much his heart was in it, but he at least kept up appearances during the campaign.