Arlen Specter's Farewell Speech Slams GOP 'Cannibalism'

WASHINGTON — Departing Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday said conservative Republicans who backed tea party challengers against establishment candidates in the recent elections engaged in political cannibalism.

In his final floor speech, Specter complained there's scant room for centrists like himself in a polarized Senate where civility is in short supply.

"In some quarters, compromise has become a dirty word," said Pennsylvania's longest-serving senator, who lost his re-election bid after three decades in the Senate.

Specter complained that some GOP senators had helped tea party challengers beat incumbent Republicans like Utah Sen. Bob Bennett and Rep. Mike Castle in his Delaware Senate primary.

"Eating or defeating your own is a form of sophisticated cannibalism," he said.

Specter said the re-election of Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski on a write-in vote against the tea party challenger who toppled her in the primary may show the way to "counter right-wing extremists."

Specter, 80, has been a fixture in American politics, emerging as a prominent centrist who used his willingness to cross party lines on key votes as a way to boost his clout in Congress. Specter has overcome a brain tumor, cardiac arrest following bypass surgery, and two bouts with Hodgkin's disease.

He lost the Democratic primary last May to Rep. Joe Sestak after taking the risky step of switching from the GOP in his bid for a sixth term. Specter would have faced a tough Republican primary challenge from Pat Toomey, who eventually beat Sestak in the Nov. 2 race.

Comments

[BillyClub]

10:11 PM on 01/03/2011

Good riddance, Arlen, and take that silly Chris Dodd with you and don't let the door...

[jsgaetano]

01:00 PM on 01/03/2011

Specter switching parties was his final gift to the Goop.
 
Rather than beating up on Toomey in a primary, he cut and ran, then beat up on Sestak in a Dem primary.
 
And we owe Obama a lot of "thanks" for the loss as well, since he was supporting Specter.

[dragonladywaltham]

08:02 AM on 01/03/2011

Now that you are one of us you will REALLY find out It hurts when they turn on you. Unlike us middle class, you have tax payer benefits to fall back on. Republicans will be taking away ours.

[logicanada]

01:08 AM on 01/03/2011

Specter has overcome a brain tumor, cardiac arrest following bypass surgery, and two bouts with Hodgkin's disease.

And you all paid his medical expenses.

[doctordawg]

07:02 AM on 01/03/2011

Gladly so, and wish I could for every taxpaying American. Universal health care is the only solution to our health care crisis, and everyone knows it. Only those who would lose the billions they extort from sick Americans would lose profits. Too bad.

Yes, I do trust my government with my health care. Arguably the finest hospital with the best doctors in the nation are at Walter Reed, a government run facility. If we allocated the resources and resolve wasted on the War on Terror to a war on disease, we would be the healthiest, longest-lived nation on earth.

[charlietuna11]

08:23 PM on 01/02/2011

it would be nice if these politicians would tell the truth when they were still in office rather than when they were defeated or retired.

[springsm]

10:12 PM on 01/02/2011

I agree...they try to end their legacy in Congress with some honest ethical behavior....but having not done so before and especially these last two years makes their words insignificant.  But Specter did switch parties. (was it only to et re-elected?)  And he gave us Alito and Roberts...Specter can not be forgiven for that.

[rjc116]

07:36 PM on 01/02/2011

He'll be missed by the people who appreciated his intelligence. No one gets everything right in 30 years, but he did his best to serve his country. Thanks, Arlen.

[doctordawg]

07:07 AM on 01/03/2011

Don't worry. He won't be gone long. These lifers always pop up somewhere, usually lobbying for some defense contractor corporation. Maybe he could sell some "magic bu.ll.ets" to the CIA.

[Slash14]

05:58 PM on 01/02/2011

What a Clown, Good Riddance

[mike dougles]

04:41 PM on 01/02/2011

This man will not be missed by either party.

[Daniel R Cobb]

04:06 PM on 12/23/2010

In this same speech, Specter attacked the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision in these words: "The Supreme Court has been eating Congress' lunch by invalidating legislation with judicial activism after nominees commit under oath in confirmation proceedings to respect congressional fact finding and precedents." And:

"Ignoring a massive congressional record and reversing recent decisions, Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito repudiated their confirmation testimony given under oath and provided the key votes to permit corporations and unions to secretly pay for political advertising - thus effectively undermining the basic Democratic principle of the power of one person, one vote." Specter's words are a damning indictment of the Court's activism. Republicans and Democrats need to listen to this man and work to 1) impeach these justices for flagrant abuse of power 2) pass a ConstituTional Amendment invalidating the decision 3) in the mean time, PASS THE DISCLOSE ACT.

[springsm]

10:15 PM on 01/02/2011

Mr. Specter, tell us about John Roberts and Sam Alioto..then give that speech.

[HeyTheist]

03:01 PM on 12/23/2010

Politics, n: Poly "many" + tics "blood-sucking parasites"

[Edward Adler]

01:57 PM on 12/23/2010

Right on!!

[asiclilpup]

12:35 PM on 12/23/2010

The best public speech I've ever heard from Sen Specter.

[ibsteve2u]

11:47 AM on 12/23/2010

lollll...it isn't "political cannibalism"....it is the targeted destruction of Republican politicians who fall into a specific category: They have a public record that is too extensive to conceal with last minute pandering to the Tea Party (the threat of the moment).

It ain't about beliefs...for the Republicans, it is about holding enough power to serve their true masters: The owner/operators of Corporate America. Any Republican who may attract the ire of the Tea Party (the threat of the moment) is a weakness whose election loss would jeopardize the Republicans' ability garner and maintain the power to serve those masters.

Whoever replaces/d such as Specter...whatever they may say to please the Tea Party types (the threat of the moment) in order to win elections will be expected to kowtow to adhere to that overall Republican goal.

And they will.

[Lucy1886]

11:12 AM on 12/23/2010

The tendency to EQUATE so-called "left wingnuts" with "Right wingnuts" is a form of LAZY thinking that poses as being "balanced and therefore thoughtful". You have to define your terms a little more specifically, or you end up being just like the "right wingnuts". Since the whole discussion has moved so far to the right (where Clinton and Obama were actually to the RIGHT of Nixon on some things), what used to be called "mainstream liberal" is now being called "leftist extremism". Is one a "left wingnut" for opposing the useless war in Afghanistan, or opposing the wage cuts that regular folks endure while the rich get richer? Is one a "left wingnut" for wanting quality health care in the world's richest country?"

To equate that position with people who deny global warming, deny evolution, block life-saving stem cell research, denounce all Muslims, rewrite history, are obsessed with Obama's birth certificate, and want the rich to get richer while attacking Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Pakistan....you name it.......to equate that progressive opinion with the superstitious, racially and religiously bigoted positions of the far right --- well, it "appears" to be a "balanced, thoughtful, intellectual" opinion, but it is actually a very LAZY form of shallow thinking.

Be specific or be revealed as just another shallow sloganeer.

[Binx101]

11:53 AM on 12/23/2010

That is delightful commentary. Well stated !

'Sloganeer' is apropos in so many ways - I am though, concerned, that the easily distracted center forces even the intellectually inspired members of Congress to speak / write with the usual politically charged fanatical affectation in order to keep the attention or regain the attention of the fickle center which is the more easily manipulative component of the political mechanism. I wrote concerned, but perhaps I would be more precise by saying I'm 'confused' but hopeful.

Binx101
The Almost Daily Binx
http://binx101.wordpress.com

[Edward Adler]

01:58 PM on 12/23/2010

Right on Lucy1886!!!

[teapot90]

11:06 AM on 12/23/2010

It's nice to hear the truth spoken once in awhile, even if it comes from a long-time fixture in an utterly corrupt GOP, a man who justifies his 30 years of cynical behavior with the term "centrist"

Would have loved to see Sestak win the seat. It would have been good for PA and America.

[richj45]

05:43 PM on 01/02/2011

compared with todays republican ideology he's almost a liberal.. I'm sure after a few months of Toomey, Speckter will be sadly missed..

[Michael Samra]

12:12 AM on 01/03/2011

Im glad PA had more sense than to elect Sestak. Im glad the country had enough sense to elect a whopping 63 GOP house members to put the kybosh on Obamacare and all the other evil things happening under the liberal dictatorship. Thank goodness we will have some sensible balance now.