Arlen Specter, who as an ambitious young counsel to the Warren Commission intimidated witness Jean Hill in an attempt to make her repudiate her statement that she heard four to six shots at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 23, 1963, was also the chief architect of the \u201cmagic bullet theory,\u201d in which a single bullet from the clunky Italian-surplus bolt-action rifle of Lee Harvey Oswald was presumed to have changed direction several times in order to wound both President Kennedy and Gov. John Connally.<\/p>\n
This \u201csingle bullet theory\u201d — accepted by the slimmest possible 4-3 majority of a commission headed by the man who signed the order to intern the Japanese-Americans in 1942 — had to be embraced to justify the single-assassin theory of the Warren Commission, a conclusion rejected by 81 percent of Americans, according to a 2001 Gallup poll. (President Kennedy\u2019s head flew backward, as his brain matter sprayed in a cone to the rear. That was caused by a bullet from the rear? It\u2019s possible. But John Connally, who was there, testified to the Warren Commission that \u201cThere were either two or three people involved, or more, in this — or someone was shooting with an automatic rifle.\u201d (Warren Commission Hearings, vol. IV, p. 133.) <\/p>\n
(Oddly enough, the Carcano fires a 6.5 mm round — hard for forensic analysts as apparently undistinguished as those available in Dallas in 1963 to distinguish, spent, from the 6.5 mm round of the extremely accurate Swedish Mauser, which since 1942 has also come in a readily available semi-automatic variant, the Ljungman.) <\/p>\n
A man who learned early how to sacrifice truth — and any other inconvenient principle — in search of personal advantage, Arlen Specter wrangled his loyal service to the forces of \u201cLet\u2019s Put a Lid on This\u201d into a 30-year career in the U.S. Senate. But this year, Sen. Specter\u2019s refusal to be tied to any \u201cinflexible\u201d GOP principles — limited government, balanced budgets, things like that — finally placed him between a rock and a hard place. <\/p>\n
Sen. Specter was faced with the prospect of a strong challenge from conservative Pat Toomey in the GOP primary, in a state of Pennsylvania now trending heavily Democratic, thanks to a 40-year federal policy of increasing the welfare population of Greater Philadelphia by subsiding serial illegitimate births.<\/p>\n
What to do? <\/p>\n
Not a hard question, if you\u2019re as politically \u201cflexible\u201d as Arlen \u201cMagic Bullet\u201d Specter. <\/p>\n
Tuesday, April 28, after 30 years, Arlen Specter came out of the closet. All this time, he now reveals, he\u2019s been, yes … a Democrat.<\/p>\n
There just to serve and represent the people, were we, Arlen? <\/p>\n
The switch puts Democrats — who currently hold 56 seats — within one vote of a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. The Senate\u2019s lone Independent and its single admitted Socialist also typically vote with the Democrats, who find little over which to disagree with them. Republicans have 41 seats. <\/p>\n
With Magic Bullet Specter switching sides, Democrats will reach the magical number of 60 if professional comedian Al Franken, who has been entangled in a protracted recount battle with incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (\u201cRecount: a procedure in which votes are recounted until the Democrat takes the lead, at which point the recounting ends\u201d), is seated for Minnesota. <\/p>\n
Sen. Specter, one of just three congressional Republicans to vote for President Obama\u2019s wasteful, inflationary, and properly unpopular $787 billion stimulus package, is now likely to face a general election challenge from Mr. Toomey, former head of the conservative Club for Growth, who almost defeated Specter in a 2004 GOP primary. Mr. Toomey was already beating Sen. Specter in public opinion polls of GOP primary voters. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest — Sen. Specter didn\u2019t leave the GOP based on principles of any kind,\u201d said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. \u201cHe left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told FOX News Specter\u2019s decision now puts pressure on a lot of red-state Democrats, who campaigned on their conservative credentials, to step up. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey may be the only thing that can stop this radical liberal agenda,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Political experts in Pennsylvania told Fox News that Sen. Specter has alienated the Republican base over the years with his support for abortion rights and gay rights, and other more hard-core conservative issues. His approval rating among Republicans hovers in the 30s. <\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised Specter\u2019s decision and the man himself, noting, predictably, that he has \u201calways been willing to work in a bipartisan manner.\u201d <\/p>\n
(If a Democrat voted against rationed medicine, or against victim disarmament, or against the proposed Democratic tax on each American for every mile we drive, or against union \u201ccard check,\u201d or against any other part of the current radical Democratic agenda, do you suppose Sen. Reid would praise the move as \u201cbipartisan\u201d?) <\/p>\n
In the short run, the risk of Barack Obama gaining the ability to bankrupt the nation by pushing through his radical agenda — complete with \u201ccarbon taxes\u201d high enough to vastly degrade the standard of living of the entire middle class — is a legitimate cause for concern (unless you\u2019re ready to declare \u201cLet them try it and fail, and the sooner the better,\u201d which I\u2019m not sure I am.) <\/p>\n
In the medium and long run, however, shedding cynical fake conservatives like Arlen Specter — while moving toward freedom and the Ron Paul libertarians — is precisely what the Republican Party needs to do. <\/p>\n
In 2008, the party nominated a candidate who ended up shouting \u201cMe Too!\u201d to bailouts, federal meddling with the Bill of Rights, and \u201cgreen\u201d economic nonsense little different from that of the Democrats. <\/p>\n
Faced with a choice between \u201cReal Democrat\u201d and \u201cDemocrat Lite,\u201d many voters predictably chose the less watery brew. <\/p>\n
If the Republican Party is to return, it must do so by rediscovering its 20th century roots and principles as the party of less government, lower taxes, and more freedom. <\/p>\n
Arlen Specter rarely stood for any of those things. If the GOP congressional delegation is now one fewer, it also stands, contradictorily, that much closer to victory. <\/p>\n
\u201cWish not one man more,\u201d as Henry the Fifth advised, \u201cRather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, That he which hath no stomach to this fight, Let him depart … We would not die in that man\u2019s company, … we few, we happy few, we band of brothers. … <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd gentlemen in England now-a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs\u2019d they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin\u2019s day.\u201d <\/p>\n
Henry was outnumbered five-to-one. All he had was a unified command, a strategy, and a bunch of peasants with longbows. He did OK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arlen Specter, who as an ambitious young counsel to the Warren Commission intimidated witness Jean Hill in an attempt to make her repudiate her statement that she heard four to six shots at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 23, 1963, was also the chief architect of the \u201cmagic bullet theory,\u201d in which a single bullet from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-3k","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions\/207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}