Perfidious Arlen
In his forthcoming memoir, Life Among the Cannibals, former Senator Arlen Specter outlines the betrayal that he experienced at the hands of the Democrats after his party switch. Expecting an effusive welcome, Specter was sorely disappointed that Obama and Biden didn't come through for him in his tight race against Joe Sestak in the 2010 Democratic primary. From The Hill's preview of the book:
Specter writes that Obama turned down a request to campaign with him in the final days of the primary, because the president’s advisers feared he would look weak if he intervened and Specter lost.
“I realized that the president and his advisers were gun-shy about supporting my candidacy after being stung by Obama’s failed rescue attempts for New Jersey governor Jon Corzine and Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley. They were reluctant to become victims of a trifecta,” he writes.
The snub was made all the more painful by Obama flying over Philadelphia en route to New York City a few days before the election and then on primary day jetting over Pittsburgh to visit a factory in Youngstown, Ohio, 22 miles from the Pennsylvania border, to promote the 2009 economic stimulus law. The painful irony for Specter is that his vote for the stimulus legislation, which was instrumental to its passage, hastened his departure from the Republican Party.
Specter was also disappointed that Biden, who was only a few blocks away at Penn University, did not attend a pre-primary day rally at the Phillies’s Citizens Bank Park — a missed opportunity Specter attributes to a failed staff-to-staff request.
And Harry Reid, who had allegedly promised that Specter would be granted seniority as though he were a Democrat elected in 1980, stabbed Specter in the back on his way in the door.
Had Specter been given the seniority he was promised, he would have become chairman of the powerful Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations subcommittee and next in line to chair the Judiciary Committee.
Instead, Reid stripped Specter of all his seniority by passing a short resolution by unanimous consent in a nearly-empty chamber, burying him at the bottom of the Democrats’ seniority list.
Ah, but what satisfying schadenfreude.
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Mar '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
To misquote Oscar Wilde: One would have to have a heart of stone to read the hosing of Arlen Specter without dissolving into tears...of laughter.
Aug '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Percival is pointedly (De profundis) poignant.Aren't all the good political tomes scratched in the joint ?Specter could be tossed in the hoosegow just for the straddles .
Edited on March 13, 2012 at 12:18amJun '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
There is nothing quite so pathetic as the bloated self-esteem of a once-powerful politician brought back to earth, and then listen to him whine about it.
Man up, Arlen! No one cares how it all made you feel.
Apr '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
I hear that Benedict Arnold wasn't very popular in the British Army either...
Jul '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
I am so sad he gets to die all depressed. Ok, I've moved on.
Mar '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Alas, poor Arlen! I knew him, flownover: a fellow of infinite betrayal, of most excellent fatuity: he hath knifed me in the back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it. Here hung those lips that I have heard lies from I know not how oft. Where be your fibs now? your prevarications? your evasions? your flashes of mendacity, that were wont to set the party on a roar?
Nov '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Re: Perfidious Arlen
What I don't understand is why he would betray his party and then complain about his new party's disloyalty. Doesn't the man possess even a shred of self-awareness?
Dec '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
I bet his mistress cheats on him, too.
Dec '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Diane Ellis, Ed.
What I don't understand is why he would betray his party and then complain about his new party's disloyalty. Doesn't the man possess even a shred of self-awareness? · 21 minutes ago
You've got to be kidding, Diane. Arlen Specter has self-regard, not self-awareness... but that puts him into the same league as just about every other elected official. Look how Bill Clinton and John Edwards and Gary Hart (to name but a few) thought that they were above the rules that constrain the behavior of mere mortals. Heck, ask yourself why Ted Kennedy thought he could win a Presidential campaign with a literal skeleton in his background. And consider our Commander-in-Chief and his "I'm LeBron, baby" attitude and affectations.
Most people go into politics with the opposite of self-awareness. One has to believe one is worthy of the public trust to run for office... and self-awareness all too often leads to self-disqualification.
Apr '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Stuart Creque
Diane Ellis, Ed.
What I don't understand is why he would betray his party and then complain about his new party's disloyalty. Doesn't the man possess even a shred of self-awareness? · 21 minutes ago
You've got to be kidding, Diane. Arlen Specter has self-regard, not self-awareness... but that puts him into the same league as just about every other elected official. Look how Bill Clinton and John Edwards and Gary Hart (to name but a few) thought that they were above the rules that constrain the behavior of mere mortals. Heck, ask yourself why Ted Kennedy thought he could win a Presidential campaign with a literal skeleton in his background. And consider our Commander-in-Chief and his "I'm LeBron, baby" attitude and affectations.
Most people go into politics with the opposite of self-awareness. One has to believe one is worthy of the public trust to run for office... and self-awareness all too often leads to self-disqualification. · 2 minutes ago
That may be one of the most perceptive things I've ever read about American politics.
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Exit Arlen snarlin.
Mar '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Stuart Creque
Most people go into politics with the opposite of self-awareness. One has to believe one is worthy of the public trust to run for office... and self-awareness all too often leads to self-disqualification.
That would explain why Mr Ryan is not running for President.
Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for the Republic, unless we can find another George Washington, who seems to be the exception, rather than the rule.
May '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
When you lie down with Rats you should expect to be treated like one...
Dec '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
David Williamson
Stuart Creque
Most people go into politics with the opposite of self-awareness. One has to believe one is worthy of the public trust to run for office... and self-awareness all too often leads to self-disqualification.
That would explain why Mr Ryan is not running for President.
Unfortunately, this doesn't bode well for the Republic, unless we can find another George Washington, who seems to be the exception, rather than the rule. · 5 minutes ago
At least with Paul Ryan, we can reasonably expect that he self-disqualified based on his assessment of his lack of years of experience and his lack of campaign resources, not based on his assessment of his lack of character. He will gain years of experience and the connections that will make resources available to him; I reasonably expect that he will also remain a man of good character.
The astounding examples are the politicians who know their own character flaws and believe that somehow their personal greatness will keep those flaws from becoming public knowledge, as if their wonderfulness was some kind of Cloak of Invisibility around their graft and debaucheries.
Dec '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
The other astounding aspect of l'affaire Arlen is that the Democrats are so petty and inept in their treatment of the Republicans they turn. It wasn't a matter of failing to keep Arlen Specter happy so much as it was failing to prepare the ground for the defection of the Senators from Maine and a host of Representatives in Blue-leaning districts. There was a reason the Coachman took the boys to Paradise Island: he wanted word-of-mouth to help him recruit in greater numbers before exposing the whole lot of them as the jackasses they were and making a pile of money off them.
Feb '11
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Of course there was a "misunderstanding" with Harry Reid. That always happens to Mr. Roper.
Jun '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
I agree that he's "snarlin." On the other hand, do you think there are a lot of people who will buy his book; or, having bought it, actually read it? I think not, in which case his exit will be more whimper than bang.
Jun '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
Also, could he have thought of a worse name for his book? He certainly would know about life among the cannibals, being one himself.
Edited on March 13, 2012 at 2:01amSep '10
Re: Perfidious Arlen
The Left has never treated useful idiots well. They use them, and then treat them with contempt.