Smerky Serenades "Senator Civility"

In yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer, Michael Smerconish brought us the following here…

This was (Arlen) Specter as Pennsylvania elder statesman, anxious to deliver a message about the need for civility and compromise, not shrillness and contempt. He spoke like an ideological moderate fed up with the left-right extremism too often seen on the split screens of America today. And he thought the future should have more of the camaraderie so evident in New York City that night.

"The importance of courtesy and civility is critical at all levels - international negotiations, national, state and local government. This weekend is exactly the kind of time when we should all reflect on how much we have in common and how much harder we should try to get along."

And then came this key line:

"If you can lift a glass together with your colleague from across the aisle on a Saturday night here in New York, you can lift your pen with that same colleague across the hall on Monday morning in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, or any place in our state."

Heaven forfend, could these words have actually been uttered by the man referred to as “Snarlin’ Arlen”? The individual who patented the derisive smirk long before that mental midget from Crawford, TX arrived?

The man who made it his life mission to utterly interrogate and demean Anita Hill every way possible during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991 (as Howie at Down With Tyranny notes here)?

The man who uttered these words for which he has yet to be called (from here)?

"I don't know that there is any victory there. We're not going to be able to defeat all the crazies in Iraq."

The individual who flip-flopped on abstinence funding (adding two dozen earmarks to promote it even though it has been proven not to work)?

The man who said here that Mike (“City of Louisiana”) Chertoff would have made a good replacement for Abu G. as Attorney General?

The man who said the 9/11 attacks “could have been prevented if the FBI and CIA communicated” here (probably right, though, but funny how that was ignored along with the quote about Iraq's "crazies")?

And the man who recently blocked a vote on contempt resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Karl Rove?

OK, apparently so. I’m glad Our Man Arlen came through in all of these golden moments for which he was not called to account or asked to explain what it was that he meant or was trying to do.

And managed to do all of that with "civility,” as well.

Update 1/2/08: Looks like "Senator Civility" needs to work on his math (here).