Just Say No

If I may take a moment to tout my own foresightedness, here is something I wrote in a post last April, shortly after Arlen Specter narrowly won his Republican primary (with the help of the White House) against an actual conservative:

If I were a Republican living in Pennsylvania, I would honestly vote for Specter's Democrat opponent in the general election in November. It would be infinitely better to have the Republicans lose their Senate majority (with which they've done precisely nothing anyway) than to have Specter chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. We're talking about the man who led the "borking" of Robert Bork leading the committee that is already obstructing all of the excellent judicial nominees it faces.

As we all know, Specter did win the general election, and in his first press conference rushed to declare his intention to be a huge pain in the presidential posterior as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Fortunately, his stupidly impulsive move is now endangering his chairmanship. If voters keep the heat on, Specter will not be chairing that committee come next session.

The Family Research Council has an excellent page of phone numbers and email links for the other members of the Judiciary Committee. Blocking Specter's chairmanship would be a breach of the usual niceties of the senatorial men's club, but if the backlash continues, these senators will have the necessary political cover to do it anyway. Let them hear from you by telephone and email.