IN a call with President Obama Tuesday morn ing, Sen. Arlen Specter declared: “I’m a loyal Democrat.” Given that Specter already broke with the party once — he left to become a Republican in 1965 — one could forgive Obama for waiting to see whether the Pennsylvanian will keep this latest pledge.
A few tests coming up should help Democrats determine quickly whether they’ve gained a loyal foot soldier.
Of course, Specter’s already made clear that he serves only one master: his own interests. But to keep from looking too cravenly self-serving, he must avoid inconsistencies that would provide fodder to foes on the left and right. And after months of voting with a Republican primary in mind, Specter faces a tricky tightrope walk in fulfilling his promise to Obama.
The balancing act could begin as soon as this week, during a vote on a contentious housing proposal. Known as “cram-down,” the provision would allow bankruptcy judges to adjust the terms of existing mortgages — by lowering payments and reducing interest rates, for example. The measure is opposed by the banking industry and many Republicans, who argue that it is bad for banks and antithetical to fair play, the rule of law and the principles of a free-market economy.
Cram-down passed the Democrat-controlled House in March; it’s an important piece of Obama’s homeowner-relief agenda. Sources say its Senate sponsor, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, has been working furiously to marshal 60 votes before the end-of-April deadline set by the majority leader.
Will the Senate’s newest Democrat be one of them?
In April 2008, Senate Republicans succeeded in blocking cram-down — with help from a vote cast by one Arlen Specter. If he’s willing to perform such an acrobatic flip-flop to help push through cram-down, mark it as a first “pass” in his loyalty test.
Then, sometime before Memorial Day, the Senate will take up supplemental funding for military operations. The Obama team is pushing for $80 million — no strings attached — to help close down the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Republicans want the White House to produce a concrete plan for stashing current detainees, and to show that the terrorists won’t end up on US soil.
The vote will probably be a close one, and Democrats could use Specter’s help. In 2007, he voted for a resolution stating that Guantanamo detainees should not be sent to “A Correctional Facility Near You.” Will Specter make an embarrassing backtrack to help Obama deliver on one of his biggest campaign promises? Watch and see.
Also keep an eye on the senator’s approach to Obama nominees. Before Specter’s pollster told him he was more likely to win Powerball than the Pennsylvania Republican primary, Specter had tacked right in this department — most visibly voting against Obama’s choice for solicitor general, former Harvard Law dean Elena Kagan. While liberal, Kagan is respected on the right, and her nomination was supported by reliable conservatives like Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn and Arizona’s Jon Kyl.
Not Specter. So it will be interesting to see how the new Democrat responds to far more divisive nominees — particularly Obama’s picks for top legal posts at the State and Justice departments, Harold Koh and Dawn Johnsen. Koh places America in a legal “axis of disobedience” along with North Korea and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq; Johnsen once compared to slavery the idea of making a woman carry an unwanted pregnancy to term.
After nixing Kagan, supporting Johnsen and Koh would be public lunacy. But Specter may be necessary to block a filibuster, and if either nominee got canned, it would be a huge blow to Obama. Seems loyalty has its price.
The Judiciary Committee will help settle one other important question — whether Specter has any lingering obligations to his former party. Committee staff are especially concerned about Specter’s files: nearly 30 years’ worth of GOP committee activity, including fights over Supreme Court justices Rehnquist, O’Connor, Scalia, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, Ginsberg, Breyer, Roberts and Alito and failed nominee Robert Bork. Democrats would love to get their hands on Republican ammo stores from such judicial wars. Will Specter’s new friends win out over the old? Only time — and headlines about leaked memos — will tell.
Democrats have given up a lot to obtain Specter’s pledge of fealty. In Pennsylvania especially, they’ve crossed labor and leftist activists, and probably forfeited their chance to elect a real Democrat to the Senate instead of a GOP reject. Democrats should therefore watch Specter closely, because he has only a few weeks to start proving that his loyalty is worth the price.
Meghan Clyne is a Washington writer.