Conservative

By John Fay

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In 1950, President Harry Truman received a scurrilous letter from someone claiming to have damaging information about the honor of Truman’s political rival, Republican Sen. Robert Taft. Truman mailed this letter to Taft, along with a letter of his own letting his opponent know that he continued to have the utmost confidence in the senator’s integrity. I always found this to be a touching story, not only because it is a tale of mutual respect, but because such tales are rare in political circles these days.

Arlen Specter’s departure from the Republican Party is a reality check that, at a fundamental level, we are failing to show proper respect to those we disagree with. I would like to say that Specter was motivated by pure ambition and calculation, but I simply don’t believe it is true.

Ever since Specter voted in favor of Obama’s stimulus package, he has been persona non grata with the members of his own party. He has been excoriated by talk show hosts, attacked by party leaders and generally seen his good name dragged through the mud by the people who should have been the first to defend it. Make no mistake, I deeply disagree with Specter’s decision to support the Obama stimulus, but I don’t believe he ever gave anyone reason to doubt that his vote wasn’t made in good conscience. That sort of courage to disagree with one’s own party shouldn’t be castigated — it should be honored. This is not about Republicans being the “big-tent party”; this is about treating people we disagree with as human beings who have a fundamental right to human decency.

Before the Democrats start gloating over this latest turn of events, I would remind them that their history on the issue of respect has been even more sordid. In recent years, Democrats have constantly harangued those party members who failed to toe the line on sensitive issues, particularly the Iraq war. I was appalled to learn last year that Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., whose sin was honestly supporting the Iraq War, had lower approval ratings than former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who on multiple occasions cheated on his wife. We ought to be concerned when the partisans of both parties give higher ratings to men who have demonstrated a dearth of personal morality than men with a moral fiber so strong that they are willing to disagree with the party hierarchy.

Of course, partisan politics have always tended to make people a little bit jaded. The idea that this particular political period is nastier than others is a myth that ignores the historical realities of past conflicts in this country. What is really disturbing about this situation is how it has permeated the language of both the leadership and the ground troops in both the liberal and political movements.

The Republican and Democratic parties are not controlled by men like Taft and Truman, men who gave each other hell but at the end of the day respected the other’s integrity.

Instead, our parties are being run by people like Tom Delay and Nancy Pelosi, who seem to rate the morality of an individual by the degree to which they walk the party line.

This kind of political blindness can only happen in a world where people are coming to think of themselves as Republicans or Democrats first and Americans second.

It is simply obtuse to suggest that Specter is a “traitor” to the Republican Party, as if he ever swore an oath of loyalty to that party. He has, however, sworn an oath of loyalty to the United States, and if his conscience leads him to disagree with his party for the sake of honoring that oath, then so be it. The more both parties alienate men like Specter, the more they will come to be alienated from each other.

In such a situation, reconciliation, cooperation and ultimately, social harmony will become increasingly impossible in our nation.

Being a political partisan is an honorable thing, but only when you become a political partisan for the sake of helping your country. When political partisans can no longer see the country behind the party, then it’s time for the parties to do some soul-searching.

Reach columnist John Fay at opinion@dailyuw.com.

Liberal

By Greg Ryan

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Swiping Sen. Arlen Specter from the Republicans is a huge coup for Barack Obama and the Democrats. Whatever backroom deals were or were not made, the Democrats and the nation will see huge returns on the major favor they’ve just done for the moderate from Pennsylvania. It’s all about the timing. Obama’s power is now, but the future is uncertain.

Having Specter as a 60th vote for cloture today will make health care and everything else that much easier to pass through the Senate.

Apart from everything else, the senior and well-respected Specter switching parties reinforces the already powerful narrative that the White House has been pushing on the Republicans for months: The party is in the ideological wilderness. It has shrunk to such a size that only hard-right ideologues with the same tired ideas — that brought down the economy and got us into wars we can’t win — are welcome. Now they have the proof. The Republican Party is now too small, exclusive and stupid for Arlen Specter.

Conveniently for Specter, it’s the truth. He’s always been a moderate; in the ’60s, he was Democrat, and the Republican right has always hated him. Since he last ran for re-election in 2004, the Republican Party in Pennsylvania has shrunk dramatically. All that is left are those hard-right nuts who never liked him.

They’ve got a crazy economic conservative, Pat Toomey, former Club for Growth president, to vote for in a primary. Meanwhile, all the moderate Pennsylvania Republicans, who have been electing him over and over since the late ’60s, have switched registrations to the Democratic Party. So yes, him switching parties is an opportunistic move to stay in the Senate, but it’s not craven. It’s what his constituency is doing.

But so what? Why not let Specter lose his primary so any one of the Democratic candidates can easily beat the wing-nut Toomey and give us a genuine Democrat in that seat? Why have Joe Biden and Harry Reid let him into the caucus?

It’s now or never for the Democrats. Obama is riding an unprecedented wave of popularity. He and the country are on, what I think, will prove to be the longest presidential honeymoon in modern history. He has to get his big agenda items through now. Health care has got to be now, and that’s where Specter comes in. He said he won’t vote for a public plan. He also said that he voted against the budget because of provisions for the use of reconciliation procedures to pass health care with only 51 votes. All that tells us is that he wants to keep the filibuster process intact, not that he’ll help the Republicans use it to block health care.

The Republicans were sure to filibusterer health care when it came up. They have filibustered (or threatened to filibuster) everything so far. Specter made it clear that he will maintain his traditional independence and will not be an automatic 59th vote (or 60th once Al Franken is seated) for the Democrats. But, he doesn’t need to be. All he has to do is vote with his party for cloture, allowing a bill to come up for a vote and eliminating a filibuster. Then he can vote “no” on whatever he wants, including health care. It’s how all bills are passed.

It’s about jamming health care and every other filibuster target down Republicans’ throats before 2011, when it could be anybody’s game. Take this as a sign that Obama is dead serious about getting done what he said he would — and that he’s got the moxie to do it.

Reach columnist Greg Ryan at opinion@dailyuw.com.

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