Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a veteran of several Supreme Court nomination battles and a wily Senate tactician for three decades, bid farewell to the Senate on Tuesday with a stinging critique of the state of partisan politics and the conservative demand for ideological purity in Republican politicians.
Mr. Specter, who lost his state’s Democratic primary after switching from the Republican side of the aisle in 2009, did not mince words as he assailed unnamed colleagues (read Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina) for violating Senate tradition and politically undermining members of their own party.
“Senators have gone into other states to campaign against incumbents of the other party,” Mr. Specter said. “Senators have even opposed their own party colleagues in primary challenges.
Read the whole NYT here.
Comment: In this modern era it is Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania who typifies the need to repeal the 17th Amendment. Few senators did more to amass personal hubristic power at the expense of his elected state and this nation, even switching political parties while suffering cancer to keep his “precious ring.”
However what will surely be his lasting legacy were his efforts to systematically dismantle the US Constitution through his manipulation of the Supreme Court nomination process. It was here that Specter ensured constitutionalists were rejected and statists were advanced.
The founders never intended for the US Senate to become repositories of personal power as Specter created. If this nation truly wants to restore the federalist principles the founders created them we must return the states rightful place in Federal Government and Congress and take the power away from the oligarchs in the Senate, and that begins with repealing the 17th Amendment.
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