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Title: Dems screw newest member; Specter Will Be Junior on Committees...
Source:
ROLLCALL
URL Source: http://www.rollcall.com/news/34648-1.html
Published: May 5, 2009
Author: By John Stanton
Post Date: 2009-05-05 22:53:00 by HAPPY2BME-4UM
Keywords: SPECTER, GOP, REPUBLICAN
Views: 501
Comments: 25
By John Stanton Despite promises from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) would retain his seniority after switching parties, Specter will be put at the end of the seniority line on all his committees but one under a resolution on the floor late Tuesday. Under the modified organizing resolution, Specter will not keep his committee seniority on any of the five committees that he serves on and will be the junior Democrat on all but one — the chamber’s Special Committee on Aging. On that committee, he will be next to last in seniority. As a result, Specter — who as a Republican was ranking member on the Judiciary Committee and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, as well as ranking member of the panel’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education — will now rank behind all the other Democrats, at least until the end of this Congress. According to a senior Democratic aide, it remains unclear whether Specter — who will still retain his seniority in the Senate outside of the committees — will see a boost in his committee seniority should he be re-elected for the next session. The status of his seniority for the next Congress will be determined once the 112th Congress convenes in 2011, the aide said. Democrats said that while unrelated, Specter’s comments to the New York Times Magazine this weekend indicating he would support former Sen. Norm Coleman’s (R-Minn.) disputed re-election bid against Al Franken have angered many Democrats. “Sen. Specter better watch comments like these. They won’t help him in the caucus,” a Democratic leadership aide said, adding that the comments have “caused a lot of heartburn in the caucus.”
Specter Will Be Junior Democrat on Committees
May 5, 2009, 8:55 p.m.
Roll Call Staff 
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#19. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM, HOUNDDAWG, randge, christine, Elliott Jackalope, farmfriend, IndieTX, X-15, Prefrontal Vortex (#0)
Specter's fall is connected to the Harman case, imo. Rahmbo is consolidating the Jewish power-base in DC and is getting rid of dead wood.
Mr Specter argued that he had almost no choice but to abandon an increasingly shrunken and hardline party. More than 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans, most of them suburban moderates, shifted their party identification to the Democrats during the last election cycle, giving Mr Obama a ten-point victory in the state and leaving Mr Specter at the mercy of an ever-diminishing band of hardliners. Mr Specter’s particular nemesis, the Club for Growth, is proving to be a Club for Shrinkage. The Republican Party would be wise to think carefully about its loss of Mr Specter, one of America’s best known senators, whose views are shared by many old-line business-friendly Republicans. Some clearly realise what a mess their party is in. Ms Snowe described his decision to jump ship as “devastating” both “personally and then for the party”. But all too many others were content to respond with lame jokes (“I read that he was switching parties, but was disappointed to learn he’s still a Democrat”) and even lamer declarations of ideological purity.
As I've gotten older I've become more disgusted with people who refuse to look beyond the 'either/or' party affiliations. People DO have options besides the same old cliches-in-suits.
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#20. To: bluegrass, HOUNDDAWG, randge, christine, Elliott Jackalope, farmfriend, IndieTX, X-15, Prefrontal Vortex (#19)
Club for shrinkage
#22. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM (#20)
More than 200,000 Pennsylvania Republicans, most of them suburban moderates, shifted their party identification to the Democrats during the last election cycle
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