During his appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) appeared to give out some inside dirt from his days as a Republican — alleging that the GOP plotted early to stop any bipartisan cooperation with President Obama, and to instead look towards the 2012 election.
“I’d like to pick up on what Sen. DeMint says about the process. I think the process was very bad. But the process was really caused, in large measure, by the refusal of the Republicans to deal in any way,” said Specter.
“Sen. DeMint is the author of the famous statement that this is going to be President Obama’s ‘Waterloo,’ that this ought to be used to break the president,” said Specter, referring to the political battle over health care. “So that before the ink was dry on the oath of office — and I know this, because I was in the caucus — the Republicans were already plotting ways to beat President Obama in 2012.”
It’s not often that a Senator will divulge private conversations from within the party caucuses. In Specter’s case, he appears to be dishing out information from his former party caucus, declaring that they decided early on to focus on opposing Obama politically, and they now complain about a lack of bipartisanship that they themselves caused.
Specter’s office has not yet responded to our inquiries for further comment, nor has the office of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
However. Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) spokesman Wesley Denton gave us this comment, declaring Specter has no credibility after having switched parties and changed his political positions:
“No one better represents what’s wrong with Washington than Senator Specter who proved this year he has no principle but political self-interest. He’s flip-flopped on issue after issue and has lost all credibility with voters. The fact is that Republicans put many serious health reforms on the table like ending state insurance monopolies, tort reform, and fair tax treatment for folks who don’t get insurance at work. But Democrats were never serious about listening to any idea that didn’t include a government takeover of health care, which they knew Republicans would never agree to. Specter and Democrats don’t want bipartisanship, they want political cover for their wildly unpopular health care bill that raises taxes and premiums without even covering the uninsured.”
