Arlen Spector....please explain?

War supplemental bill

quote......
the Senate approved the $94.5 billion bill by a 98-to-1 vote. Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, voted against the measure, saying it did not provide enough for domestic health and education programs.
end quote.......
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/washington/16spend.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Specter is my Senator and i can tell you if there's a problem about an issue or a certain bill in the senate he'll tell you. He's not cut from the same republican cloth, he disagrees alot with the administration and he always trys to do the right thing in DC.

And plus he's the exact opposite of Rick Santorum and pro-choice and that's just fine with me. I wrote an letter to the editor about him, would you liuke to read it?

Any local news about his health?

endorsed him in 2004 -- they could see the writing on the wall, and realized they would need someone to curb the worst excesses of the Bush administration should he rig the election (as he did, although many of the media and self-same institutions are reluctant to say what we all know)...

but the Human Rights Campaign the nation's largest (if not foremost) gay rights organization was not one of them; they endorsed his Democratic opponent, and Specter's recent vote against the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage makes it clear that they made the right decision.

Specter, as well as the Window Media publications, run by gay right-winger Chris Crain, of course was not happy with the fact that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) endorsed Joe Hoeffel, who voted against the amendment in the House.

But HRC reaffirmed their decision, even after Specter won his race against Hoeffel.

The Log Cabin Republicans, meanwhile endorsed Specter despite his vote to end cloture on the FMA in 2004. Patrick Guerriero, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, said gay voters cannot continue to abandon gay-friendly Republicans simply because they do not support every single gay issue.

Hate to break it to the Log Cabins, but isn't this the same logic many gay conservatives (and progressives, although usually in states that Kerry would have won with or without their vote) thought John Kerry was 'unworthy' of support, because of his stance on gay marriage? Also, I'd ask those self-same gay conservatives if by that logic, they will be registering as Democrats, so they can vote for Russ Feingold in their state's presidential primary in 2008, or if they'll find some other excuse (I know people on the left will be supporting him, for sure). Wasn't this also the reason why Chris Crain himself has attacked many Democrats, most notably Howard Dean?

After the fact, Crain cited Specter's vote on the amendment in committee as proof that HRC was wrong, but is deafeningly silent on his vote against the amendment on the floor. Perhaps Specter now realizes that, if he wants the endorsement of gay rights groups, he has to vote for gay rights!

And perhaps one day Chris Crain will realize that his double standard on Republicans vs. Democrats makes him look like a Republican apologist (luckily, I have experience dealing with those).
This proves it. Right wing gays like Crain are laden with hypocrisy.

I'll admit that he's a decent guy compared to most Republicans but he's no hero by any means.

Just because he's not your ordinary bible toting republican. I feel proud just to say he's my senator, here's my letter to the editor i wrote about him:

Give Specter credit

I watched the Senate hearings on the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court, and I must say I am proud of the job our senator, Arlen Specter, did overseeing the hearings as chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

In my mind, he has been a fair conservative who was open-minded when asking Judge Alito hard-ball questions, such as those regarding abortion, unlike the other Republican senators (such as Lindsey Graham and Mike DeWine), who talked to Judge Alito as if they were his friends.

He also was aggressive during the hearings, when he basically told Ted Kennedy to shut up after he was nagging Sen. Specter to subpoena certain documents.

He deserves a pat on the back just for being our U.S. senator as well. I am proud of him because he is well respected and dignified among his peers and voters. He's liberal on certain subjects, such as abortion and labor unions, and he never goes on rants and starts bashing Democrats for every little thing.

The citizens of Pennsylvania should be proud of Sen. Specter and the job he is doing in Washington, looking out for our best interests. As for Democrats, look at it this way -- he's no Rick Santorum.

DAYLIN BYAK
North Huntingdon

And come 2010 when he's up for re-election I will be proud to go to the polls and cast my vote for him. But that probally won't happen cause he'll probally retire in '10 due to his health problems.