Exorcising The Ghost Of Arlen Specter At CPAC

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)
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During the first morning of the 2010 CPAC conference, two Democrats were mentioned the most by the speakers at the podium. One was President Obama and the other was Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA). Both drew the same amount of ire from the crowd.

Unlike Obama, who CPACers have dismissed as merely a teleprompter-reliant celebrity since he debuted on the national political scene in 2004, the relationship between CPAC and Specter is a complicated one. Not only was Specter a Republican for years before switching parties in April, 2009. Specter himself was one of the politicians on the dais at CPAC just three years ago. At the CPAC 2007, Specter was part of a panel on the judiciary called, “Are Conservative Judicial Nominees DOA in the Democrat-Controlled Senate?”

Today, CPACers see him as part of the problem.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), one the brightest lights in the conservative constellation, took a swipe at Specter at his speech this morning, the second of the event. DeMint was there to introduce Marco Rubio, who’s running for the Florida GOP Senate nomination against Gov. Charlie Crist in Florida. If DeMint is the brightest star in the CPAC heavens, Rubio is probably the coolest — young CPACers jumped to their feet chanting “Marco, Marco” when he took the state.

To make it clear to the crowd what Rubio means to CPAC, DeMint used raised the ghost of Specter past.

“I’d rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who believe in the principles of freedom than 60 who don’t believe in anything,” he said. “I would rather have 30 Marco Rubios in the Senate than 60 Arlen Specters.”

Rubio picked up the call when he took the stage after DeMint’s introduction.

“The U.S. Senate already has one Arlen Specter too many,” he said.

Reached at Specter’s Pennsylvania reelection headquarters, campaign manager Christopher Nicholas said he wasn’t surprised that Specter was on the minds of the speakers. I asked him what he thought of Specter becoming the unofficial mascot of CPAC’s anger against the Senate. He declined to answer that question, but said that what upsets conservatives like the ones at CPAC about Specter is his support of Obama’s stimulus package, which Specter has heralded on the campaign trail.

“Those folks don’t support that,” Nicholas said. “Some of these folks are trying to get cheap shots in in front of a friendly crowd.”

Nicholas said that Specter was getting the same treatment any Democrat would at CPAC.

“Sen. Specter is now the endorsed Democratic candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania,” he said. “The fact that conservatives at CPAC are taking swipes at him and other Democratic candidates is no surprise.”

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