The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus is credited as saying: “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.” They are words of wisdom that one could safely argue President Bush and Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., chose to ignore.
There can be no plausible explanation for their stolid support of Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., over Rep. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., in the Pennsylvania Republican primary race. Specter has opposed or opposes nearly every value Republicans should hold dear. He is a spot on the face of the Republican Party.
I voted for President Bush. I support him in the war on terror, albeit I am somewhat pricked by his capitulations pursuant to it. I support his tax cuts and the permanency of them. But I grow increasingly dissatisfied with his job performance because he has ceased to be presidential. He is trying to become an “everyman” to the very party and people that hold him in contempt, while continuing to disaffect those who put him in office. (See: “It’s January, But November’s Coming,” Jan. 27, 2004).
Specter voted for five major tax increases, including two of the largest tax hikes in history at the time. He voted to obstruct and reduce the president’s tax cut of 2001 and he voted against tax cuts eight times since 1995. Anne Coulter pointed out (“Donkey Trapped In Elephant Body,” April 21, 2004) that thanks to Specter:
- States can’t prohibit partial-birth abortion;
- Voluntary prayer is banned at high-school football games;
- Flag-burning is a constitutional right;
- The government is allowed to engage in race discrimination in college admissions;
- The nation is forced into a public debate about homosexual marriage;
- We have to worry about whether the Supreme Court will allow “under God” to be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.
All of the aforementioned are things that the president has indicated at one time or another, in one-way or another, as being important. Yet he thumbed his nose at his base by supporting Specter well beyond the obligatory perfunctory incumbent necessity.
Rick Santorum’s support of Specter is, in this writer’s opinion, even more egregious. Here again, I support Rick. I also happen to like him personally. I have defended him publicly.
But on the issue of abortion alone he should have opposed Specter. Rick has been the one elected official we could point to as a man of integrity. How could he hold disaffecting power so dear as to risk losing his self-respect by setting aside his Christian values?
He knows the horror of abortion, especially the brutal infanticide called partial-birth abortion. He also knows the grave threat Specter poses if Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, decides not to give up chairmanship of the powerful finance committee. That would be orgasmic bliss for Specter, democrats and extreme liberals nationwide.
Has Rick forgotten it was Specter who recruited pro-abortion Barbara Hafer, the former state auditor of Pennsylvania to run against him in his first state primary? Does he forget Specter did that after unsuccessfully trying to recruit Teresa Heinz, the widow of the late John Heinz, R-Pa., now the wife of John Kerry, D-Mass.? Fortunately Hafer decided not to run, but my point stands.
But I reserve the depth of my ire for the conservative people /voters of America. I am unapologetic in my opinion that there are only two things politicians care about – money and votes. And the time has come for us to withhold both until the Party of Lincoln comes to its’ senses.
These people work for us. We put them in office. We pay their salaries. If they are not going to give heed to that which is important to us, then we should fire them and install those capable who will. It is time we stop holding our nose and voting for the lesser of two evils.
As in the old fable, one shouldn’t be surprised when the injured snake, brought home and nursed back to health, bites us. After all, it didn’t stop being a snake because of its benefactor’s poor judgment.
Pam Bondi crushes Dems at confirmation hearing
Around the Web