Senate Republicans had hoped the controversy over Arlen Specter would go away. It hasn't. It won't. Conservatives are mad as hell and aren't going to take it anymore. And the anger isn't simply among the anti-abortion forces that critics label as "the religious fringe."
The Philadelphia Republicrat spent most of last week doing what he does best -- dodging, bobbing, weaving and rewriting history. Why, he never warned the Bush administration about the kind of judges "his" Judiciary Committee would find acceptable, Mr. Specter insisted. All the while also insisting he's the conservative and team player everybody knows he isn't.
GOP leaders, loathe to dispatch with even a problem child, had hoped that would be enough. Specter would mea culpa all over the place and, having compromised himself, been easier for the Bush administration and Judiciary colleagues to control.
Well, a funny thing happened to Operation Limp Wrist. Outrage from pro-life forces has only intensified; they and pro-family groups are planning to protest in Washington on Tuesday. And conservatives at large seized a golden opportunity to start publicizing Specter's overall record and his penchant for substituting constitutionally proscribed dictatorial judicial activism for the constitutionally prescribed legislative process.
Congress returns this week. Specter, a vainglorious man, is seeking meetings with key Republicans to plead his case. An honorable Sen. Specter would holster his vanity, recognize the distraction he has become, and remove himself from Judiciary chair consideration. But we're talking about Arlen Specter, aren't we.
