Friday, November 5, 2004

A Specter is Haunting the Senate

From Michael Peroutka, Constitution Party candidate for President:


Dear Friends of the Constitutional Republic,


Well, it didn't take long, did it? That flapping and squawking sound you hear are some pre-election, far-Left, Liberal chickens coming home to roost. That such a thing would happen was thoroughly predictable. In fact, I predicted it.

An "Associated Press" story (11/4/04) reports that Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), who is expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee next year, has "bluntly warned" President Bush "against putting forth Supreme Court nominees who would seek to overturn abortion rights or who might otherwise be considered too conservative to win confirmation."

In this "A.P." story, Specter is quoted as saying: "When you talk about judges who would change the right of a woman to choose, overturn Roe v. Wade, I think that is unlikely." Mr. Bush, he added, "is well aware of what happened when a bunch of his nominees were sent up, with the filibuster ... I would expect the President to be mindful of the considerations which I am mentioning."

Commenting on Specter's "blunt warning," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, says his threats are "the height of arrogance and ingratitude." He says Specter "has a history of pandering to the aggressive abortion lobby" and his becoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee would be "disastrous." Perkins concludes by saying: "Our pro-life President and his colleagues in the Senate MUST NOT ALLOW Sen. Specter to determine the makeup of the courts! Sen. Specter must not become the next Judiciary Committee chairman."

So, what's wrong with this picture? Well, a lot of things. For openers, Mr. Bush did what no truly pro-life president would ever have done -- he campaigned enthusiastically for Arlen Specter, as did Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Bush also campaigned for Specter in the GOP primary helping to defeat a stronger pro-life candidate Rep. Pat Toomey.

Commenting on Mr. Bush's support for Specter, and Sen. Rick Santorum's (R- Pa.) support for Specter, Timothy P. Carney says, in an article published by "National Review Online" (11/3/04): "Santorum and Bush were wrong. They were morally wrong, and they were wrong politically. These men saved the man who saved Roe v. Wade, and now the costs to the pro-life cause, the conservative movement, and the Republican Party -- for so little benefit -- could be deep and long-lasting." Well, amen! And I said many of these same things during my campaign. In my television ads in Pennsylvania, which showed a photo of Mr. Bush and Specter with their arms around each other, campaigning in the Keystone State, I said I, as President, would NEVER do this. I said: "Mr. Specter has been pro-abortion, including partial-birth abortion, which is really infanticide ... As President, I would NEVER, EVER support a person like Arlen Specter -- NEVER! I would NEVER put party over principle -- NEVER! ... If Mr. Specter is re-elected, he will most likely become head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This would mean no pro-life judicial nominees would EVER get out of his committee because he is pro-abortion."

For the record, it should be noted that President Bush has never said he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. In the presidential debates, he twice passed up opportunities to criticize this Supreme Court decision which has resulted in the deaths of more than 40 million innocent, unborn babies. Mr. Bush has said repeatedly that he would have no "litmus test" for judges which means, obviously, no pro-life/anti-abortion litmus test. And he said in 1999 that he was not for a Constitutional amendment to ban abortion because this would be getting ahead of "public opinion."



For God, Family, & the Republic,

Michael A. Peroutka


For the staunch Republicans out there, here's a question to ponder: If Bush is a conservative, and if he has the nation's best interests at heart, why in the world would he vehemently fight against someone who is pro-life, while championing someone who diametrically is opposed to doing away with abortion?

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