By Caomhin
I’ve just decided to post the whole speech. Of course, I’ve made some modifications to his speech to ensure the facts are protected and honesty is properly conveyed to the audience. I have replace the filthier lies with the accurate portrayals of his views and opinions with handy strike-throughs and bold text edits:
Senator Arlen Specter
Prepared Text
June 6, 2009
Thank you for that very warm introduction. Your warmth and enthusiasm make me feel very welcome. I have so many friends there are so many suckers in this room.
Maybe it’s no coincidence that I feel so comfortable with Democrats because I’ve spent much of my life as a Democrat. My career voting record will accurately portray this. Maybe it’s no coincidence that for many years I was derided by the far right as a Republican in name only.
Well I’m no longer a Republican in name only. I’m again a Democrat in name only. And I’m pleased and proud to be a Democrat to have run away from Pat Toomey.
My memories are bright from my boyhood days when the politics and policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt were a beacon of light in the Specter home. Both of my parents, Lillie and Harry Specter, were immigrants – so-called “little guys” who looked to President Roosevelt to move the country forward from the Depression which hit the Specter family so hard. Because as we all know, the Specter family is the only thing that matters to me.
Years later in 1960, I was there when Senator John F. Kennedy came to the Democratic City Committee dinner in Philadelphia and my wife Joan, 8 months pregnant with our second son, Stephen, stood on a chair and screamed for the Senator from Massachusetts to kindly ask Teddy to stop hitting on her.
I knew John’s brother Bobby personally and some of my convictions in the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office followed up on Attorney General Kennedy’s work.
And I left my wife and two young sons for many months to work as a young staff lawyer on the Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President Kennedy. The magic bullet? All me.
My first work in politics was as a young Democratic Committeeman in Center City Philadelphia. I found the job fascinating. I worked hard to elect Democrats and I was successful. I did the same many years later when I was called myself a Republican.
And, it may surprise you, this will not be my first race as a Democrat. I ran for District Attorney of Philadelphia as a registered Democrat on the Republican ticket.
After that election I became a Republican because I felt that was the right thing to do since I had been elected on the Republican ticket. And, I kept my registration that way with the hope that I could be a moderate voice, and at times a liberal voice, on the other side of the aisle.
But now those efforts are over. Those efforts ended when I cast a critical vote for President Obama’s stimulus package. And the cat was firmly out of the bag, that as I stated blatantly in the preceding paragraph, that I was a liberal who simply used the Republican brand to get myself elected.
I would not stand by and join the obstructionist Republican straight party-line vote when the country faced the imminent prevent the prospect of a 1929 depression, the one that hit my family so hard by pursuing sane, rational economic policies. In fact, the stimulus has been more wasteful than I had even imagined as unemployment has grown from 7.2% to 9.6% since I sold out my constituents.
It’s been noted that as your senator over the past 29 years, I’ve often been more popular among Democrats than among Republicans.
And if I’ve been popular with Democrats, it’s because I’ve stood for what you’ve stood for. Because I am, in fact, a liberal self serving individual.
Yes to increasing the minimum wage, because every working man and woman deserves a living wage. With this higher minimum wage, the six of you out of the original ten who would have gotten hired can now afford the gasoline I’ve worked so hard to tax. The other four of you will benefit from my votes to expand welfare.
Yes to the right of a worker to organize a union. I know I said I would vote against this, but that was before Pennsylvania Republicans finally got sick of me and I was down in the polls to Pat Toomey by monster numbers.
Yes to the right of every citizen to be healthy, to get healthy and to stay healthy. Because when we nationalize health care, God help you if you get sick.
No to those who would eradicate stem cell research. Hey, I don’t mind killing babies.
Yes to liberating science to cure cancer and Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and other maladies. Because scientists refuse to work when Republicans are in charge.
Yes to reproductive freedom. Unless you’re a fertilized egg, in which case, you’re pretty much screwed if your parents are hardcore liberals.
Yes to civil liberties even in time of war, because the defense of the Constitution is a battle to be fought and won in every war. Which is why, as a Democrat, I will help get rid of that pesky document.
No to judges who are stuck in the 18th century like Robert Bork whom I helped defeat and caught hell from the far right along the way. Because as well all know, nothing that came from the 1700’s, like capitalism, individual rights, self empowerment, and limited government, mean anything to me.
Yes to educational opportunity for every American of every talent or skill. I will work tirelessly to ensure your child is stuck in a government run, failing school like everyone else’s child.
Yes to a clean environment and to the green jobs we need to create. I have earmarked $2 billion dollars for a green screen so that you can get a CGI rendering of you working after I help to destroy the economy with Obama.
And last but not least, yes to a stimulus for our economy special interest groups when we are facing the greatest threat to our economic security system of kickbacks in three generations.
Yesterday I was pleased to come to Braddock to announce an award of 115 million dollars from the stimulus package. The locks and dams and Pittsburgh’s inland waterway system support 218,000 jobs directly and indirectly. The additional 115 million dollars will add 3,000 new jobs for this community. You’ll be glad to know, that no one will be keeping track of the spending or the jobs, though.
So what was the reaction of the far right my constituents to my vote for the stimulus package? The far right used me for target practice. And they didn’t like it when I wouldn’t stand still. A far better candidate, one with morals and spine emerged and began beating me mercilessly in the polls.
So I’m especially glad to be here with you, where I feel so welcome where I am begging you not to let Joe Sestak run against me. So welcome and so comfortable because we share core beliefs. Beliefs I have advanced and defended for decades even when my party was against me, even when it might cost me an election, even when my wonderful wife Joan might disagree with me – now those were the really tough times to stand my ground. Those core beliefs? Do anything to win, this is my seat, I’m entitled to it damnit! Screw the will of the people!
But it is my independence that has made me strong, made me better able to represent Pennsylvania, deliver for Pennsylvania and strong enough to come back to the party, where I started as an FDR, Kennedy Democrat.
And it is that independence that may result in our disagreeing sometimes.
I have voted 10,000 or more times and I don’t expect everyone to agree with all my votes. And even I don’t agree with some of those votes.
But I promise you this.
I promise that I will make you proud and keep you proud of me as your US Senator.
I promise I’ll come to your meetings. To beg for money.
I’ll be available to help with constituent problems Joe Biden tie his shoes. My office is noted for its constituent service and my branch offices in Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Allentown and Philadelphia will be available to help you and our constituents.
I will work hard to replace our great cheesesteak sucking, corrupt Governor Ed Rendell with a new Democratic governor and for our entire ticket. Many have asked me to help with your candidates this year and my answer has been and will remain: Yes. If you pay me.
I promise that if I’m fortunate enough to earn your support and be your nominee for Senate next year that I’ll carry the Democratic banner high.
Because we don’t need a Senator from Pennsylvania with a 97 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.
We don’t need a Senator who’s a tool of the far right a man of conviction. We need an Obama shoe licking lackey.
We don’t need a Senator who says it’s his intention to sit in the back row and vote no on everything all those terrible, terrible bills that I voted yes on as he did for six years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
We don’t need a Senator who is far outside the mainstream answerable to the people… a Senator who makes Rick Santorum look like a liberal… or a Senator who would take this state back to the political dark ages respectability.
We need a Senator who will say yes and vote yes when yes is the answer this state and this country need.
We need a Senator who can work with suck up to President Obama and who can help President Obama.
And we need a Senator who can work with Republicans the UAW and Democrats alike.
Because when the history of this century is told it must be a story your children and grandchildren are proud to tell.
Together, we can make that history when we’re destroyed by Pat Toomey in the general election and my pork loving, liberal leaning, self centered person is scouring the help wanted ads. Thank you very much.
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