Abortion, Anti-Christian Record Too Strident for Specter to Cover Up

WASHINGTON, November 11, 2004 Arlen Specter's political troubles are growing, with the Hill Times, the newspaper of Congress, saying the Republicans are not 'circling the wagons' against the growing tide of conservative opposition to his appointment as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "This is huge with the base. It's mushrooming, and it's not going away," a GOP Senate aide said. Now two new items have come to light about the abortion-supporting senator's commitment to anti-Christian dogmatism.

Two newspaper interviews report Specter vowing that he would block pro-life and "extremist" judges appointed by President Bush, contradicting claims to impartiality he made last week. In one interview, The Bucks County Courier Times reported, "Specter said he does use his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee - a panel he will probably begin chairing next year if re-elected - to weed out judges who are extreme. He points to Robert Bork, a Ronald Reagan nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court."

The Philadelphia Inquirer, published an editorial board endorsement of Specter's candidacy after receiving a commitment from Specter to block nominees from President Bush. The Inquirer editorial said, "Before the Post-Gazette editorial board, he promised that no extremists would be approved for the bench."

The Inquirer endorsement of Specter said, "Assuming that Republicans are in charge of the Senate, it would be better to have the chairman's seat filled by Specter, who says Roe v. Wade is 'inviolate' as the law of the land." Commenting on the likelihood of Specter's appointment to the Chairmanship the editors wrote, "In that capacity, he would be in a position to block some of the ideologically extreme federal judges likely to be nominated by President Bush in a second term, some of them for the Supreme Court."

On another front, a fundraising letter written by Specter in 1995 has been brought to light in which he called Christian leaders "radical extremists." Talon News reports that, naming the leaders of the Christian Coalition, Specter wrote that he was "disturbed" that the Christian Coalition had warned the Republican Party not to nominate a candidate for president in 1996 who is not pro-life.

"I don't think the Republican Party should be blackmailed by any special interest group," Specter wrote in the 1995 letter. He added, "In fact, I want the Republican Party to stand up for ... the right to choose." In a statement that will be seen by pro-life groups as deeply ironic, Specter continued, "I resent people like Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, and Pat Buchanan trying to give litmus tests to determine who can be a Republican candidate."

Specter vowed to "stand up to these extremists" and promised to "lead the fight to ... strip the strident anti-choice language" from the Republican Party platform. "I will stand up and fight those who want to criminalize abortion, those who would prosecute a woman and her doctor when they exercise the woman's right to choose," Specter wrote.

In the letter Specter urged pro-abortion Republicans to "stand up to the far-right fringe that demands that legal abortion be banned."

Specter is seeing his support drying up. Senator Rick Santorum, who initially supported his bid for the Chairmanship has issued only a bland statement. "The Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have the responsibility of voting for chairman. As I'm not a member of this committee, I will not be participating in the voting process."

"I have not heard of any Republican senators coming to his defense yet, which is good news for us," said Jayd Henricks, director of congressional relations for the Family Research Council. "This is not a good thing for keeping party unity. They may be waiting to see if the storm dies down, but I don't think the pressure's going to let up, from our standpoint."

Talon news coverage of Specter's letter:
http://www.gopusa.com/news/2004/november/1110_specter_christians.shtml