Ms. Miers was "really sort of run out of town on a rail," Mr. Specter said. Senator Specter himself helped to weaken the nomination when he suggested that Ms. Miers needed "a crash course in constitutional law."
December 2, 2005
Defending Alito, Senator Specter conveniently forgets his own role in destroying the Miers nomination.
There's an amusing passage at the end of the NYT report on Senator Specter's statement today after meeting with Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Specter opined that people ought to wait until the confirmation hearings to find out what Alito has to say about a memo on abortion he wrote as a lawyer in the Reagan administration.
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6 comments:
He said, "by me" in a really small voice after "was really sort of run out of town on a rail". The reporter probably just didn't hear it. The interview was during the 2nd half kick-off of a 'Skins game at RFK right?
Also, is it possible to be really sort of run out of town? I would have thought only one or the other.
China's leaders think about the next generation. American senators think about the next election.
I haven't been able to understand the workings of Arlen Specter's mind since back in the days when he was Philly's DA and actually hung out with Ira Einhorn, who at the time was considered some sort of intellectual guru by Specter and others. Between the time he finished his stint as DA and became a senator, Specter then served as his friend's attorney, even managing to have a miraculously low bail set, which Einhorn later jumped.
The '70s were a weird, weird time in Philly--even for Sen. Specter.
(Sorry for diverging OT, but honestly, I do take this into account any time Specter opens his mouth, and have since following the story in real time 25-odd years ago.)
Wildabout - I was lumping Spector in with her own people. About the only people who didn't run her out of town were the "obstructionist" Dems.
But they will get the blame.
gabe:
I'm used to it (as a Democrat).
Half the Democrats in the Senate were willing to vote for Roberts.
They were ready to support Miers.
But if they oppose Alito, you you will hear Republicans use the word 'obstructionism' nonstop, because giving them almost everything they want is pointless, they want 100% cooperation. The word, 'compromise' is meaningless to this crew of Republicans.
I partilly agree with wildaboutharrie, insofar as I, too, "don't think Specter HAD a role in "destroying" the nomination. For a while there he was the one keeping it afloat." However, I dissent from the suggestions that it was the moderate Republicans that ran her out of town. The Miers nomination didn't collapse, it instantly imploded on contact with reality. The moderates thought she was terrible, the conservatives thought she was terrible; in fact, the only people who thought she was any good at all were the Democrats, and they only because they thought that she was manna from heaven, a Souter-in-training that dropped fully-formed from a distracted White House. Nobody who can be taken seriously supported Miers in anything more than the most tacit sense, moderate or otherwise, and the pulling of the nomination, in retrospect, was at best a matter of time.
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