Rahm’s Grasp of Democracy

by Smitty (h/t PuffHo)

In the military, blue-on-blue is a Bad Thing. Here, not sure much.

Sources at the meeting tell me that Emanuel really teed off on the Dem-versus-Dem attacks, calling them “f–king stupid.” This was a direct attack on some of the attendees in the room, who are running ads against Dems right now.

Tellingly, Rahm raised the specter of a loss on health care, sources at the meeting say — which suggests that the White House may be less certain about victory than officials allow publicly.

Which seems at odds with SEIU, whose propaganda ends with “health care deserves a democratic debate”. To the extent that debate drives towards a Constitutional Amendment to state just how the 10th Amendment is over-ridden in the case of health care, one can agree with the SEIU.

‘Raised the specter’ raises Joe Sestak against Arlen Specter in PA. May they decimate each other, and make room for a non-Progressive of some stripe. The fact that “We the People” have allowed these accretions of power is to our detriment.

Arlen Specter becomes Democrat, gains miraculous power to cure cancer

Or something like that. Via Hot Air:

Here’s the money quote:

“If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”

This is the liberal fallacy of infinite resources:

Liberal: “We could cure cancer if we spent more money on research.”
Conservative: “How much more?”
Liberal: “More.”

And no matter how much the conservative agrees to spend, the liberal will always say it’s not enough: “More, more, more!” It is as if the liberal believes that anything can be done if we only spend enough federal money to do it. But the problem is, there is not an infinite amount of money in the world, and thus there are limits to how much can be budgeted for any given purpose.

I would be willing to bet that federal spending on cancer research has increased every year since 1970. Arlen Specter always has been, and always will be, a selfish, arrogant man. It is only because of his vanity — his desire to be called “senator” — that he did not retire many years ago.

UPDATE: Linked by Tigerhawk and Dad 29. Thanks!

UPDATE II: Human Ipecac!

Specter: RINO no more

Good-bye and good riddance:

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning. . . .
“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”
He added: “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

Exit lying. One less member of the Senate Republican “Jellyfish Caucus.” Specter reminds me of the high-school slut trying to sleep her way to popularity — a weak reed, blown by the shifting winds. The fact that the national GOP apparatus lined up behind this venomous crapweasel in 2004 is all you need to know about what a worthless waste of time the national GOP apparatus was during the Bush/Mehlman era.

Even if Specter wins the Democratic primary (which is certainly not a given) and wins the general election (also not a given), no one will ever respect him because he is dishonorable and untrustworthy. A pox upon him and his ilk. (Via Memeorandum.)

UPDATE: Via Jules Crittenden and Gateway Pundit, a statement from RNC Chairman Michael Steele:

Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don’t do it first.

At least Steele won’t have to spend more time pandering to the politically irrelevant “Specter wing” of the GOP.

UPDATE II: Philip Klein of The American Spectator:

If Specter had made this party switch right after his vote in favor of the stimulus package, and before he decided to oppose card check, he would have been in a far better position to claim the Democratic nomination.

Klein links Markos at Daily Kos:

Interestingly, he remains a foe of EFCA, which means that labor is free to fund and help a real Democrat in the Democratic primary. Bizarre choice. Had he decided to back EFCA, as he has always done so in the past, he’d have labor’s full support. Now, he gives the opposition an opening to take him out in the Democratic primary.

When you see Kos using the phrase “real Democrat,” it means that the Nutroots will back a Ned Lamont-style challenge to Specter in the Democratic primary, a challenge that every conservative should encourage. The more bitter the Democratic primary, the more obscure and extreme Specter’s primary opposition, the better for conservatives.

BTW, I disagree with Klein when he says this:

This is a huge blow for Republicans hoping to stop Obama’s agenda in the Senate.

Specter is a “huge blow,” in one sense of that term, but he was never a reliable vote for anything. He is one of those vain, unprincipled creatures — like Robert Byrd or John McCain — who revel in their self-created image of being a “public servant,” an image that is merely an excuse for selfishness and dishonesty.

UPDATE III: Notice how the treacherous crapweasel, after describing himself proudly as a member of the “Reagan Big Tent,” then pisses all over the Reagan legacy:

When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.

If there is one thing that Reagan firmly stood for as firmly than his hatred of Communist tyrrany, it was his opposition to the Keynesian economic hokum that led to Carter-era “stagflation.” If you don’t understand why the bailout-and-stimulus idiocy of Obamanomics is bad policy — It Won’t Work — you need to be reading Hayek and Mises.

UPDATE IV: Matt Welch of Reason:

By choosing to die on the hill of the stimulus package of all things, Specter reinforces whatever notion there is that stimuli and bailouts are Democratic, not Republican, pet toys. Since professional Republicans are currently scattered in the wind, trying desperately to latch onto the anti-stimulus/bailout Tea Party movement, cementing that divide may come back to haunt Democrats when those policies (inevitably, I think) become so derided that even Barack Obama’s impressive popularity can’t rescue them.

Hear! Hear! And the heroic Club For Growth:

Senator Specter has confirmed what we already knew – he’s a liberal devoted to more spending, more bailouts, and less economic freedom.

The Club For Growth is “heroic,” I say, because their support for Republican conservative Pat Toomey was what finally forced Specter to admit that he is a Democrat. As I said at The American Spectator:

Specter will be less useful to the Democrats now than he ever was when he had an “R” beside his name.

He was certainly never useful to Republicans. All things considered, swine flu has never been a greater threat to America than RINO fever.

UPDATE V: Michelle Malkin reminds us of Specter’s habitual dishonesty, when he vowed just six weeks ago that he would not switch parties.

UPDATE VI: Some commenter just suggested that, in celebrating the RINO’s departure, conservatives like myself were “purging” Sphincter. Nonsense. He purged himself. After years of zealously advancing the Democratic agenda with an “R” beside his name, he’s now joined Jumpin’ Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee in the Formerly Useful Idiot Coalition.

Time to retire, Arlen

James Antle notes the Rasmussen poll showing Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter with only 30 percent of the Republican vote against 51 percent for conservative challenger Pat Toomey.

If Specter were a loyal Republican, he would retire, rather than (a) requiring the National Republican Senatorial Committee to spend money on his primary campaign and (b) forcing Toomey to spend millions on his own campaign.

But loyalty’s only ever gone one way with Arlen. Even if he could win the primary, Specter would lose the general election. Yet, like all RINOs, the man is vain and selfish. Expect Snarlin’ Arlen to wage a bitter fight, smearing Toomey with negative add, paid for with NRSC contributions.

No conservative should give a penny to the NRSC until Specter announces his retirement.

The RINO Coalition?

Is your local Republican supporting Arlen Specter?

The five-term Pennsylvania Republican, who faces a tough primary challenge from conservative former Rep. Patrick J. Toomey, received donations from 10 Republican senators in the first three months of this year.
The pro-Specter senators, who donated from either their candidate committees or their leadership PACs, include Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky; John Cornyn of Texas, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee; and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Senate GOP Conference chairman.
Specter’s campaign report also showed that he received funds from committees linked to Richard C. Shelby of Alabama; Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia; Bob Corker of Tennessee; Michael D. Crapo of Idaho; and George V. Voinovich of Ohio, who’s not seeking re-election next year.

(Hat-tips: Jason Pye and Club for Growth.) Any Republican who is even thinking about supporting Specter should first take a moment to ponder the warning from Stephen Gordon.

Johnny Isakson is up for re-election in Georgia next year, and I know a lot of Georgia conservatives are sick and tired of him already. When they find out Johnny’s been giving money to that worthless pro-abortion Big Government crapweasel Arlen Specter . . .

Time to retire, Arlen

He should have lost the 2004 primary, but next year’s primary will do:

Apparently paying a political price for his support of President Barack Obama’s Stimulus Plan, longtime Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter trails former Congressman Pat Toomey 41 – 27 percent in a Republican primary for the 2010 Senate race, with 28 percent undecided, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

(Via Memeorandum.) “Specter is perhaps the most notorious congressional crapweasel ever to put an ‘R’ beside his name.”

Smoothville Express

When Bill Richardson pulled out, MK Ham quipped, “The Obama transition train just keeps on chugging down the tracks to Smoothville, huh?” And the Smoothville Express just keeps on a-chugging:

Eric H. Holder Jr. is facing increasing resistance to his bid to become the next attorney general, emerging from President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet nominees as the prime target of Senate Republicans, both because of troubling episodes during his service in the Clinton administration and because of the sensitivity of the post overseeing the Justice Department. . . .
Specter previewed the main line of attack in a floor speech this week, asserting that, in Holder’s years as President Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general, he at times “appeared to be serving the interest of his superiors” rather than heeding recommendations from career Justice Department lawyers. The argument echoed criticism that former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, who resigned in 2007, had acted to please his friend President Bush rather than to uphold the principles of justice.

(H/T: Hot Air.) I don’t know who’s calling the plays in the Senate GOP huddle, but having Specter take the ball on this one is very smart. Specter can’t be credibly accused of being a right-wing ideologue or a partisan hit man. Now, if the Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee can find somebody willing to be point-man on Hillary’s nomination as Secretary of State, we might be in for a few weeks of real fun.

Chug, chug, chug . . .