More Fluffery For Our Man Arlen

The Bucks County Courier Times is now the latest newspaper in these parts to prostrate itself on behalf of our Repug U.S. Senator (here)…

Arlen Specter met several times with Fidel Castro in Cuba, visited with Saddam Hussein and welcomed Yasser Arafat into his Washington, D.C., office.

He met Muammar Khadafi (“the worst terrorist in the history of the world”) in the middle of the desert.

Of course, far be it for Specter to criticize Dubya for this little maneuver on behalf of Libya, then.

He spoke with so many enemies of the United States, he considered putting up photos on a “wall of shame.”

His point: “We need dialogue with Iran.”

Specter is right, but then again, why is that OK for him, being a supporter of that “straight-talking maverick,” but bad for a certain Democratic senator from Illinois who happens to be running for president also (here)?

Silly me – just another case of IOKIYAR…

And of course, Specter stopped by to visit the Courier Times and Doylestown Intelligencer to endorse someone named Frank Farry, a Repug running against Chris King for Chris’s PA House seat in the 142nd district (please take note of that number by the way, Courier Times...it would help for Farry to complete the Project Vote Smart bio, by the way; what is it with the Repugs this year – between Farry and Tom Manion, you would think, based on their online non-presences, that they’re campaigning for a job at the CIA instead).

And Arlen predicted that John W. McBush would “do well” in Bucks County in November, by the way. Well, if McBush wins (and don’t hold your breath), it would reverse a trend dating back at least eight years; Bucks supported Al Gore in 2000 by a comparatively thin margin over Incurious George, and did the same for John Kerry by an almost equally thin margin in 2004 (noted here). And the political climate was decidedly more favorable towards the Repugs back then, of course, and they still couldn’t pull it off.

And I love the way Specter says that “there are no profiles in courage” in Congress anymore; gee Arlen, doesn’t this vote by the brother of a former president who you besmirched with that remark (a former president who happened to write a book with the title you mentioned in that quote) count for “courage” as far as you’re concerned?

And by the way, Arlen, when you attack in part the legislative body where you reside, make sure you don’t let anyone forget that you supported an oil windfall profits tax before you opposed it.

Finally (perhaps in an alternate universe somewhere), the issues surrounding Specter raised here will be addressed also.