Senator Specter's Broken Promise

In his column in this week's World Magazine, Hugh Hewitt writes about Senator Arlen Specter's performance as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

One year ago Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter was campaigning hard for the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He lobbied fellow Republicans and took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to declare, "I am committed, in word and deed, to prompt action by the Judiciary Committee. Last April, I introduced Senate Resolution 327, a protocol to establish prompt action on all judicial nominees. Specifically, my protocol provides that all nominees will have a Judiciary Committee hearing within 30 days of nomination, a Judiciary Committee vote within 30 days of the hearing, and a floor vote 30 days later." (emphasis added)

This promise convinced Republicans, many of whom were lobbying against Specter's taking the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, to give Specter the go-ahead. But Specter has proven himself faithless.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the deep freeze given the nomination of White House Staff Secretary Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. Kavanaugh, originally nominated in July 2003, was not blackballed by the infamous Gang of 14 deal this past spring, but he still languishes in Mr. Specter's committee, just as nominee Terrence Boyle languishes on the floor of the Senate.

The entire machinery of judicial nominations seems to have ground to a halt under Mr. Specter's leadership. The White House demanded December hearings on Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court but Mr. Specter held back, and we'll now see relentless attacks until the hearings open the second week of January. The chairman has also dithered on the Patriot Act extension that representatives of the House and Senate worked out in a mid-November compromise.

What's the point of having a committee chairman who won't get the job done? What's the point of letting a RINO do a real Republican's job?

Specter has hung Alito out like a piñata, so the Democrats and their MSM mouthpieces can bash him until the nomination falls apart. And Senate Majority Leader Frist hasn't put any teeth into his leadership that would make Specter get back on the straight and narrow.

Donations to the Senate GOP war chest are way down, and that would include from me. I won't take the chance that my money will go toward re-electing RINOs who will betray the Party that returned them to office.

It's way past time for Senator Frist to grow a spine, because he's going to need it. It's time now for Senator Arlen Specter to be removed from the Chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Frist needs to lead the effort.