Specter: Another Walking, Talking, Breathing Reason for Term Limits

Specter: GOP priorities contributed to Kemp death

Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

Mr. Specter, responding to a question from CBS's Bob Schieffer over whether he had let down Pennsylvanians who wanted a Republican to represent them, said he felt his priorities were more in line with those of the Democrats.

Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn't want me as their candidate," Mr. Specter said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "But as a matter of principle, I'm becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats' approach. And one of the items that I'm working on, Bob, is funding for medical research."

Mr. Specter continued: "If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine."

Mr. Kemp passed away Saturday, after fighting with cancer. Mr. Kemp ran for the White House in 1996 with Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole.

Copyright The Washington Times 2009

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"Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn't want me as their candidate." Oh, really Arlen? Hmmm...? So, rather than work your ass off between now and primary day to prove to your Pennsylvania Republican constituents that you do in fact represent them, that you do in fact hear them and do in fact care about their issues and concerns, you jump ship at the first sign of trouble with your polls.

Well Arlen, we all know the saying about rats and sinking ships. Your problem is that you are confused about the distinction between your too long political career and principles; its your political career - battered by your long history of favoring statist interventionism over free market principles - that is the ship that ran straight into Obama's wildly bloated and irresponsible stimulus nightmare iceberg. So Arlen, I predict that you will be the author of your own political demise. You won't be missed by me.

You also said in the course of your chat "[b]ut as a matter of principle, I'm becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats' approach." Bluntly Arlen, the only "principle" to which you seem capable of sticking is your own endless re-election which it now seems is far from a certain outcome; just ask Chris Shays. Again, when you finally do lose you won't be missed, by me, or even by the permanent Georgetown cocktail party circuit; you will simply be gone, and all you'll be left to see is plain old citizen Arlen Specter, senza the senatorial honorific, in the mirror every morning. I bet the thought of that scares the shit out of you, doesn't it Arlen?

Finally, you said: "If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today..."

Neither you nor anyone else could possibly know to any degree of certainty whether Jack Kemp would be alive today. In any event, by your own admission, there is and has been substantial on-going cancer research and it has saved many lives, including yours. That said, you are a privileged Senator and therefore by definition an elitist entitled to the very best medical care to be found in the United States as part of your health care plan (funded by me, among many others). I for one have no faith or expectation that the level of care that you get as a Senator would be available to me or any other average unwashed citizen through the sort of government health care rationing system your former Senate colleague (and now, apparently your shaykh) plans to impose on all of us in due course.