To: GROUND ZERO™ who wrote (660348 ) 11/15/2004 8:21:18 AM From: CYBERKEN Respond to of 769667 As the Jeffords Affair proved once and for all, a Republican majority is nothing but a silly pork vehicle, unless the scourge of BobDole's Disease is completely eradicated from the party. NRO Editors-possessing an eloquence that Trent Lott couldn't even DREAM of-respond... <<The Editors respond: Senator Specter sometimes feints right and sometimes left, but at least his critics cannot accuse him of trying to disguise his personality. No one can say that he has embarked on a charm offensive with the Right. We preferred Specter's primary opponent to him on all kinds of issues, from Social Security to taxes to cloning. In considering his elevation to chairman of the Judiciary Committee, we have objected only to his position and record on the pertinent issues: chiefly judicial selection and confirmation, but also tort reform and racial preferences. It's not as though we are objecting to his chairmanship of the Labor-HHS appropriations subcommittee (though come to think of it. . .). He's the one raising the primary campaign, not us. And he's the one mischaracterizing his statement the day after the election. He said that he considered Roe to be "inviolate"; said that it was settled law, like Brown v. Board of Education; said that any nominee who disagreed was likely to inspire a filibuster; did not say that he would oppose such a filibuster; and said that he "would expect the president to be mindful of the considerations that I mentioned." The clear import was to warn the president not to nominate anyone who might oppose Roe. Add that to the senator's past statements opposing originalism as a judicial philosophy, demanding that judicial nominees treat "diversity" as a justification for discrimination, and the like, and there is reason to doubt the sincerity of the comments the senator now feels it necessary to make to control the damage from his remarks.>>