Benedict Arlen Learns That Traitors Never Prosper
While contemplating his move from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, Sen. Arlen Specter was promised not only that he would be allowed to keep his committee assignments, but that he would keep the same level of seniority as though he had been first elected as a Democrat back in 1980.
Sorry, Arlen. Only real Democrats get to be senior committee members.
Complaints by rank-and-file Democrats prompted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to go back on his word and Specter is now the most junior Democratic member of the five committees on which he serves: Appropriations, Judiciary, Veterans Affairs, Environment and Public Works, and Special Aging. Apparently the seniority question will be revisited after the 2010 election.
Specter rankled many Democrats with his stated opposition to their legislative priorities, including the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) — legislation that would make it easier for workers to form unions — President Obama’s budget, and his nominee to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, Dawn Johnsen.
“But if he shows us he’s with us on health care, on Supreme Court nominees, on EFCA, some other stuff, then maybe he gets a top or senior spot on some committees in 2011,” the aide said.
In other words, they don’t trust him.
Specter is far from being the first side-switcher to be treated thusly by his new teammates. Benedict Arnold, a brilliant officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, became bitter because he felt he was not promoted quickly enough and for being court-martialed and found guilty of using the army for his own personal reasons. He also faced tremendous personal debt. What’s a sore loser to do? Switch to the other side. Arnold demanded £20,000 in return for delivering West Point to the British. The plot failed when one of his conspirators was captured and Arnold was only paid £6,000.
He eventually settled in London after the war, but didn’t find the greatness and respect he so craved. Never really trusted by the British, he wasn’t given the important military command he was promised and though he started several business concerns, died as a virtual unknown with little to his name. This sums his motives up rather well:
In the end, Benedict Arnold’s “moral failure lay not in his disenchantment with the American cause” for many other officers returned to civilian life disgusted with the decline in republican virtue and angry over their failure to win a guaranteed pension from Congress. Nor did his infamy stem from his transfer of allegiance to the British side, for other Patriots chose to become Loyalists, sometimes out of principle but just as often for personal gain. Arnold’s perfidy lay in the abuse of his position of authority and trust: he would betray West Point and its garrison “and if necessary the entire American war effort” to secure his own success. His treason was not that of a principled man but that of a selfish one, and he never lived that down. Hated in America as a consort of “Beelzebub … the Devil,” Arnold was treated with coldness and even contempt in Britain. He died as he lived, a man without a country.
There is sweet irony in the fact that the first thing Specter learned after becoming a Democrat (again) was that Harry Reid lied to him, a lesson we should all take to heart.
Arlen needs to retire. Uncomfortable question time: Is it just me or does he sound like Meghan McCain? Or does she sound more and more like him?
Call him Benedict Arlen. It would be great if he lost his primary. Maybe Operation Chaos could be restarted for a special mission in PA.
Arlen Specter is just reaping the rewards he has sewn with his betrayal of the Republicans to the Democrats; I like the irony how Specter switched parties, yet is now a junior Senator thanks to political infighting. The Democrats do not trust him either. “Benedict Arlen” is the perfect nickname for this selfish cad.
Worse, Specter might face a primary in the Democrats regardless of Obama’s stance. What does this say about Obama? President Teleprompter has no coattails since he cannot lead.
The Democrats deserve Arlen Specter.
Bob (#1), I don’t think Harry Reid lied to Arlen Specter; however, Reid did not have the political savvy & leadership to convince his fellow Democrats for Specter to retain his senior positions on his committee assignments.
Too bad about the Spectacle.
There’s another angle here as well. Read this article with bambi in mind.
BAmbi is selling the US out to its foes, foreign and domestic, for the hope of glory and power for himself and others who hate America.
He is choosing again and again to NOT protect our country or our Constitution.
SS: Reid did lie. He promised something he could not guarantee. What Dem Senator would give up his own position so Specter could have it? None, just as it turned out. Reid played him and Specter was gullible. How fitting.
He told all of us why he switched. He was not going to win in a Republican primary. He cares nothing about the people, just himself. He has always been a selfish, egotist and the dems should be happy to have him, after all that fits with their potus’s agenda and with the potus himself. It is always about me, me, me. I guess I should add it’s about soros’s agenda. Add the people of Pa to the people of Minnesota and they are perfect together.
Well, I how would you know if Harry Reid lied to
Arlen Specter? Harry Reid is a leader in the Democratic party for obvious reasons. He is able to communicate his agenda to his fellow Democrats. Think it thru…don’t thro out generalizations without review of the thought process. He lied. Can you imagine offering Specter a chance at being a Junior Congressman and no political influence he very recently had as a Senior member and the commitees he has been on or lead in the recent past….? I can hear him now… Hell no and then no….that’s not enough. Someone lied to him and he niavely became a believer..I agree…he deserves this. I feel for his peeps that he presumes to “represent” back home… they are utimately the losers. Hope they vote him out next time around.
He should have never been trusted by the Republicans to begin with, when in the late 1970′s he sensed a shift coming and switched from the Democratic Party to Republican. Opportunists only bring modest short-term advantages to those they come over to.
These days the RINO’s like Specter and Snowe are crowing about how Republicans need to get back to fiscal sanity. LOL! Snowe and Collins were reported to have left the White House beaming after they assured the president of their vote for the Porkulus. They were going to get a lot of loot out of that one. So, they vote for a bill and later a budget that more than doubles the government’s share of GDP and saddles the nation with crushing debt.
Yep, getting back to fiscal conservatism…
GWB was not a model of fiscal conservatism. He and our Party wanted to appease the other side of the aisle and vote for significant increases in domestic spending during a time of war.
Remember the old adage ” there is no honor amongst thieves” that goes double for politicians. I wonder how the traitor feels about being thrown under the bus by the idiots he defected to. This couldn’t happen to a nicer traitor.
Hmmmm, no big loss, at least now a real Republican can challenge him in 2010.
Ted Kennedy hates him for the Warren Report. No way the Drownin’ Dean of the Dems would let Reid give him a seat next to Ted on the Judiciary Committee. Nobody like a snitch, no matter how noble the motive — in this case it was just an ego-ist.
Specter got what he deserved from the Dems…punked.
That’s what you DO with a punk.
He has to kiss whatever they put in front of him, because what is he going to do if he doesn’t like it?
Defect back to the GOP? Hardly.
His only option is to take his “Single Bullet Theory” and retire to obscurity.
He’s their “bitch” now, and it sure looks like they intend to use him exactly thus.
Oh, and that picture of Specter is priceless.
That shot must have been taken when he learned that his new caucus duties were to include giving Barbara Mikulski a daily foot-rub.
15. Bilgeman:
“Oh, and that picture of Specter is priceless.
That shot must have been taken when he learned that his new caucus duties were to include giving Barbara Mikulski a daily foot-rub.”
LOL! That picture does have the “poor, poor pitiful me” look to it. Good gravy! Those droopy, hound dog jowls never end.
my heart bleeds.
My husband has a favorite saying that is apropos to this “the crime is its own punishment”. Re; he switched parties, and his seniority stayed behind.
Benedict Arnold, a brilliant officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, became bitter because he felt he was not promoted quickly enough and for being court-martialed and found guilty of using the army for his own personal reasons…
For the record, Benedict Arnold was a leader of men, whereas many of his otherwise superior “American” officers were not. Arnold was not an aristocrat or politician, and most such “men” didn’t like him. General George Washington, however, did.
Early in the Revolution, Arnold’s assault on Quebec was a masterpiece that came close to turning all of Canada into territorial property of the United States. The assault on the city was — almost — a complete success. That compelling story can be found in a book titled “Arundel” by Kenneth Roberts.
Arnold later won a US Naval victory on Lake Champlain. Arnold’s small fleet of tiny gunboats — all of which where sunk at the battle of Valcour Bay — delayed a British invasion of upstate New York for a year. During that battle, all of Arnold’s expense records went down with his boat and Congress later refused to reimburse Arnold because those records were lost.
. Arnold was also present at the battle of Saratoga and under orders to remain in headquarter’s area atop a hill overlooking the battle. Arnold, consequently, was on a horse, watching the battle unfold below him … and he rode that horse into the battle after seeing that American forces were losing due to poor leadership. The men rallied to Arnold’s leadership and he led a battle charge into the British headquarters area and captured an entire British Army. During that charge, Arnold was badly wounded, but refused to allow doctors to cut his leg off.
The Battle of Saratoga was the turning point of the war and France, soon thereafter, joined the war on Americs’s side.
After Saratoga, Arnold went into rehab in the Philadelphia area and back into running his small business in merchant shipping … where he used Army wagons (payback for Congress’ refusal to reimburse his Lake Champlain expenses) to move cargo between ships and warehouses … for which he was court-martialed and convicted.
General Washington, with respect to the court martial, advised patience and later made Arnold the Commandant at West Point.
Arnold’s fury over Congress and the court martial, however, led to his eventual betrayal; and – in my mind – today’s Congress is worse than that day’s Congress.
Footnote … Arnold’s story, after Quebec, is well told in the book “Rabble in Arms,” by Kenneth Roberts.
Always look before you leap. Welcome to
politics in the open minded tolerant
“big tent”.
Specter is a whorse.
“Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs,”…
Just because he left a ship that was in the process of throwing him overboard due to his lack of ‘proper’ thinking, does not make him a ‘traitor’. And comparing ANYONE who switches political parties to a man who betrayed his native country(for whatever reasons), is more than a bridge too far. No wonder the Republican Party is in a virtual death spiral.
It most often stands for NOTHING but a clueless and often petty social conservatism that is increasingly out-of-touch with both reality and the mood of the country. You think NOW is bad—– wait until 2010,2012,2016 etc.,etc.,etc. For years the corpse was saved by the even more threadbare denseness of the Democrats, but now —- not so much.
Frankly, vile and self-serving as Mr. Spector might well be, the organization he departed is pretty much finished as a political force UNLESS it finds something other than the so-cons to provide a reliable base. At some point in the relatively near future, the Whigs will look positively lively compared to the niche market Republicans that are left after the ‘conservative movement(aka the Limbaughists)’ and the ‘so-cons’ get finished with them.
Talk about ‘toxic assets’.
#21 Dougf……..You are not very old are you? I have heard this over and over again, that conservative/republicans are finished. This is all wishful thinking of the MSM and leftist Democrats.
In case you are under 30, I suggest you google the 1994 mid-term elections. This will show you the effects of the Democrat party overreaching, which they are so reliable at doing.
Bahahahahaha sucks to be him… but of course who wouldn’t hate being a spineless yellow toadie?
One thing you have to admit about Arlen Specter, he has united the left and right in America.
Both sides hate him.
Dougf……..You are not very old are you?
Another glaringly WRONG assumption. I am old enough to actually read HISTORY, have experienced HISTORY, and to NOW see the World as it is. The US is ALONE in its embrace of the so-con agenda. It has died everywhere else(well except in certain countries that perhaps you might not want to be associated with) and it is dying in the US as well. It is taking a while but dying it surely is. You might be too close to the trees to see the forest.
Tactical reactions to ‘over-reach’ are NOT the same as building a viable alternative that is not dependent upon a narrow ‘social agenda’ or the incompetence of the ‘alternative’. 1994 is therefore irrelevant in this context. The World moves on. The current version of the Republican Party can’t . It’s ‘dead-enders’ won’t allow it.
But to paraphrase Leslie Gore( which reference,in itself, should refute your ‘age’ critique) , it’s your Party and you can deny if you want to. Good luck with that. You’re going to need it.
Good riddance to Splencter, he’s among fellow scum now. Who needs stinkin’ senority!
#25 DougF:
“Tactical reactions to ‘over-reach’ are NOT the same as building a viable alternative that is not dependent upon a narrow ’social agenda’ or the incompetence of the ‘alternative’. 1994 is therefore irrelevant in this context.”
Really? That’s a VERY peculiar thing to say, since that “tactical reaction to ‘overerach’” put the GOP in control of the Congress for half a generation.
If anything, I’d say that trying to spin the reaction to a long and frustrating war coupled with an unprecedented economic downturn that has only resulted in the Democrats controlling Congress for 2 years and winning one Presidential election,(by a 10 point margin),into the death of the GOP is what is irrelevant.
Fact is, the GOP will be conservative once more, while the Democrats, like this modern tax and spend bunch, will STILL be Democrats.
“The US is ALONE in its embrace of the so-con agenda. It has died everywhere else”
Yeah, right. Socialism is the wave of the future. We’ve heard that one before, too.
Do you really think the Dems are going to avoid the blowback when the fruits of Obama’s insanity become manifest?
Dougf
“It’s ‘dead-enders’ won’t allow it.”
I am always struck by the term “Dead-enders”. Isn’t that what Dumbsfeld called the Iraq insurgency up to the point where he got fired?
We’re here, we’re clinging to God and guns, we won’t go away and the wheel ALWAYS turns. Get used to us.
#27 Bilgeman…This is all part of the arrogance, and smugness of liberal Democrats. I never once thought the GOP would hold onto power indefinitely. They must think a center-right country has finally seen the light, and the Socialist Democrats are now the answer to all their concerns.
Well, if you continue to corrupt the election process with ACORN, and allow 12 million illegals to vote in the next election cycle, I may come on board, and agree with Dougf’s assessment. I would not put anything past the Democrats, and their lust for power.
The Democrats, with the help of Bernanke, are creating a faux economy with borrowed money being thrown at every foreseeable problem ,and only as a temporary solution. I am hoping for a complete turnaround, but I just don’t see it. If the DOW gets near 10,000, I plan to pull out completely, and most likely never put a dime in the market again.
Usually, retired or ousted congressmen/senators can move on to being a well-paid lobbyist. However, I doubt even that path is open to Specter. What use to a lobbyist firm would a guy so disliked and distrusted by his former colleagues actually be?
Is Arlen Specter going to make his Sunday talk show rounds after the Democrats put him in a junior senator position? I thought not. The MSM has to keep the charade of being objective while the Ministry of Information keeps spewing manure for the masses.
28. Bill: Do you really think the Dems are going to avoid the blowback when the fruits of Obama’s insanity become manifest?
How many years in the future are you talking about?
Don’t forget most Americans vote for “what the country can do for me”. They blamed W for the dot-bomb recession, and credited Clinton for the economic bloom right after he was inaugurated. Americans are not very good at cause-and-effect analysis. Obama will be gone when the 70′s style inflation hits. Anyway, Reagan barely won over Carter. His big landslide was for his second term.
Come on, guys; dougf is right. Socialism is the future. It was the future in Russia in 1917 and it is the future here now. Being opposed to it is being “out of touch”. Haven’t you learned anything?
Sit back, enjoy. Let the State absorb the evil private sector. We should be taxed at 100% and given the minimum to survive in return. We will be cared-for and happy. Our rulers should enjoy the finer things in life, not us. They deserve it, we do not.
Our freedom will be defined by our ability to have sex with whomever will let us, and what a freedom it will be.
Gosh my alligator tears of pity are rolling down my face even now. Hated by the left cause he betrayed his friendships and fellow Republicans, hated by the right cause he jumped over the aisle, what a poor old reprehensible reptile to do? Hey I have an idea Arlen, do the honorable thing. You know, the honorable thing..t h e h o n o r a b l e t h i n g…wink wink
Amazing, isn’t it?
A swears fidelity to B.
A betrays B.
A swears fidelity to C.
C mistrusts A.
And a United States senator can’t figure this out?
There’s a lesson in here somewhere for prospective converts to islam.
‘..I am old enough to actually read HISTORY, have experienced HISTORY, and to NOW see the World as it is.’
DougF, Sociology or Humanities major?
Your young naivete is on display. Not only by your misuse of punctuation but the ‘NOW’ comment specifically.
Apparently the wise, know-all politicians, in your case is Democrats, are peaking your interest politically. That’s great.
As Winston Churchill (No no no, that’s ‘Warren’.. big difference) had said:
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.
Or this one:
“This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never.”
Enjoy your reading, though experience is the first and foremost ally in knowledge. St. Augustin said:
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
Arlen Specter may not even come out the Democrat primary at this point; he looks like dead weight, an extra vote for the Democrat column.
#21 Dougf wrote: “Frankly, vile and self-serving as Mr. Spector might well be, the organization he departed is pretty much finished as a political force UNLESS it finds something other than the so-cons to provide a reliable base.”
This board may be getting tired of this post, but it needs to hear repeatedly – perhaps ad nauseum – that the person to head the Republican ticket in 2012 should be Sheila Bair, current head of the FDIC.
May I humbly suggest that Sheila Bair would make a worthy candidate. Her views are fact-based, her stage-presence is superior to that of President Obama, her intellectual achievements and personal history are available to public view, she has run for office as a Republican in the past, her values are mainstream, and she has a grasp of economic issues that is so advanced that she leaves Mr. Obama in the HEPA-filter dust. She can win, becoming America’s first female American president.
Should you not be in a position to start a committee to support her nomination, then kindly include the above-paragraph in every one of your emails. Chances are someone will ultimately decide to look into her as a real alternative to President Obama.
#30 steveg:
“They must think a center-right country has finally seen the light, and the Socialist Democrats are now the answer to all their concerns.”
That’s what they’re saying, and perhaps the glazed-eye true believers even think it is so, but I’m fairly sure that the adults over there don’t believe their own rhetoric.
I give you the Porkulus, which for all the world looks like nothing so much as either an adolescent weekend booze-up while the folks were away, or a “smash and grab” robbery.
In both instances, the idea is to get what’s wanted before the authorities return and put a stop to it.
“Well, if you continue to corrupt the election process with ACORN, and allow 12 million illegals to vote in the next election cycle, I may come on board, and agree with Dougf’s assessment. I would not put anything past the Democrats, and their lust for power.”
No…I think in very large swaths of the country, they only get ONE funky election. I suspect that ACORN “get out the vote/campaign workers” might be in for a very rude welcome in many, many places…and if they do pull off some scams, they might conceivably get shot down in the streets.
And I wouldn’t see a blessed thing.
15. Bilgeman writes:
Oh, and that picture of Specter is priceless.
Bilge and Delia, if you think that shot is great, then get a gander at this one. It provides new meaning to the sobriquet, Arlen Sphincter.
Also, check out the the root website for the analysis of The Dear Leader’s obsessively-practiced signature and other cool things.
Throwing social conservatives overboard won’t merely make the Republicans as irrelevant as the Whigs; it would actually make them the Whigs. Social Conservatism is part of what the Republican Party is, from the day it was founded. We are the Anti-Slavery Party. We hate slavery. Abortion is a form of slavery, wherein a human being is treated as a piece of property, which can be destroyed at its owner’s whim. Many people would be shocked to know how many young people are pro-life. It’s a small wonder, though. Have you ever met any survivor of a genocide support genocide?
Reagan barely beat Carter?? Carter carried all of eight states in 1980!!!
As my wfe said while reading about a celebrity who was marrying his mistress, “Surely she knows she is marrying a guy who cheats on his wife???” Thus the Dems deserve what they will get. Actually, I’m not at all sure the PADEM crowd feels bound to beltway deals with someone they have detested for 30 years.
The Republican Party is Finished–Time Magazine 1964 after Barry Goldwater’s defeat and yappers today
“The Republican Party is becoming more Conservative”–the yappers today-Goldwater in 1964, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and since? Bush l, Bush ll, McCain.
MILLIONS of Republicans stayed home last November-McCain-Obama was just no real choice. We need a really BIG RINO roundup, tag their ears and ship them out.
#46 RobertG…You are so correct…I stayed home last November, and I know many more like me that did the same.
Steveg, RobertG,
I know it has been postulated hundreds of times here, but I wonder how much bigger of a victory Obama would have had were Sarah Palin not on the ticket. Like your persnal experience Steve, I was not even intrested in McCain until he made Palin his running mate.
..by the way, all of the noise that is made about Palin by the left reminds me of that old Uncle Remus story about Br’er Rabbit imploring Br’er Fox to do anything with him that he likes except throwing him in the briar patch which is, of course, his laughing place.
#43
Mythbuster,
Thank you. Perfectly said.
Pennsylvania is a big union state. If Specter votes in the affirmative on EFCA his re-election is all but reassured. If he votes no then the unions will primary him and take him out. Either way a Democrat will hold the seat. Toomey (the Republican challenger) is too much of a conservative for this northeaster state.
#50 In other words, they like unions running everything, and high taxes. Yep, The Dems will hold the seat.
The Dumicrats deserve this PUKE.
Re Specter, no one has said a thing about the voters who put him in office. They elected a Repub, and Specter just said to hell with them. He is a traitor, a rat, a skunk.
#50 Praetorian:
“If Specter votes in the affirmative on EFCA his re-election is all but reassured. If he votes no then the unions will primary him and take him out. Either way a Democrat will hold the seat.”
Did you catch the Democratic primaries in PA?
I live close enough to have media bleedover.
Hillary was the polled choice of union rank and filers, but the Labor bosses endorsed Obama.
As I recall, this same split held true in West-by-Gawd, and Ohio and Kentucky.
I wouldn’t automatically assume that Sphincter can pull it off by voting for card-check. A lot of those rank and filers, (like me), have been through enough bogus union elections to know that the leadership only cares about the leadership.
Arlen Specter, United States Senator from Pennsylvania, has recently left the Republican Party and joined the Democrats, because, he said, it was increasingly clear he would not win the Republican primary in 2010, and he so much wanted to remain a United States Senator. Benedict Arlen, as some have taken to calling him, will find he has traded his name for a mess of pottage, as he will not win the Democratic primary either. His apostasy was all for nothing.
He is a man of principle
His word his every bond
He thought he was invincible
He had a magic wand
That caused his warm adherents
To pull the lever down
With no Dem interference
He owned his Philly town
Of course there were some questions
‘Bout loyalty and such
And even some suggestions
That he displayed too much
Affection for the party
Of lefties, gays and greens
And every one whose hearty
Grin betrayed behind the scenes
A hunger for the power
To make us unto them
To make us all to cower
In fear of every Dem
So now he’s joined the other
Who cheered at his left face
But did not call him brother
Nor gave him honored place
I leave you with this thesis
That coupled with his name
The thirty silver pieces
Forever share his shame
benedict arlen?nice cotten hill.
should have written the article like he would have,though.