By John W. Lillpop
Pity poor Arlene Specter. The spent senator from Pennsylvania took a calculated risk and dumped the Republican party to join forces with his Democrat brethren back when Obamamania was still an honorable religion, at least for some.
That was soooooooooo long ago, at the end of April it was. Three months is an eternity in modern politics, especially when hitching up with our Karl Marx president on steroids, the once lovable, but now utterly laughable, Barack Obama.
Opportunist Specter undoubtedly saw Obamamania as a means to bleed another term out of the good people of Pennsylvania who have been in a funk since 1980 when they first sent this insufferable Benedict Arnold to Washington, D.C.
From the perspective of voters, the 1980 move made sense because at least it got Specter out of Philadelphia and that was a good thing.
Specter was surely counting on health care reform as a populist issue that he could exploit to push his tired old body over the top in 2010.
Much to his astonishment, the senator is finding that Obamacare has turned radioactive just as he was mauling it.
As reported, in part, at Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/03/audience-shouts-sebelius-specter-health-care-town-hall-philadelphia/
"Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Arlen Specter got a preview Sunday of the tough sell lawmakers will face over health care as audience members booed and jeered them during a town hall meeting in Philadelphia.
"Among those at odds with the officials touting the $1 trillion, 10-year plan was a woman who earned loud applause when she said she doesn't want Washington interfering with her health care choices.
"I look at this health care plan and I see nothing that is about health or about care. What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. Medicaid is broke, Medicare is broke, Social Security is broke and you want us to believe that a government that can't even run a cash for clunkers program is going to run one-seventh of our U.S. economy? No sir, no," she said. "
"While supporters offered courteous applause to the officials, Sebelius didn't earn any fans when she said that if lawmakers say they don't understand the legislation voters should urge them to go back and read it.
"Specter was shouted down when he said that lawmakers divide up the bills into sections and have their staffs read portions because, "We have to make judgments very fast."
"He then said he will have read the Senate bill before he votes on it, which Sebelius pointed out hasn't been written yet.
"The Senate bill isn't written so don't boo the senator for not reading a bill that isn't written," she said."
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With all due respect to Lady Sebelius, I say the crowd should have booed Specter anyhow. For general incompetence and liberal insanity, if nothing else.
By the way, Senator, the next time you face a hostile crowd at one of those Town Hall gatherings, have a backup issue to discuss.
For instance, when the shouting started in Philly, you should have quickly changed subjects and started talking about one of your favorite legislative objectives: Amnesty for illegal aliens!
Senator Arlene Specter, another lefty in a rush to destroy America.
Fast, or half-fast, senator?
