Specter Watch: Senator Flip-flops in Response to CWA's Jan LaRue on CNN's Inside Politics     11/9/2004

Senator Specter's latest flip-flop compromises his credibility ... again.

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Washington, D.C. - Concerned Women for America (CWA) says Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-Pennsylvania) attempt to clarify his statement last week essentially warning the president about nominating pro-life judges to the Supreme Court is another political flip/flop compromising his credibility.

Yesterday, during Sen. Specter's appearance on CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff, he downplayed his comments and even blamed the media by saying, "I was not warning the president of anything. It was misreported."

Woodruff questioned Specter, quoting Jan LaRue, CWA's chief counsel, from her interview earlier in the program:

"[Specter's recent comments not only disqualify him], but also a 24-year record on his view of the Constitution which he does hold to be this living and growing document which sounds to me more like he's describing a fungus than the highest law of the land."

Woodruff: "So in essence it's your record in the Senate that they [conservatives] are objecting to. What do you say to these individuals who are just fiercely opposed to the idea of your succeeding to the chairmanship?"

Specter: "What I'd say to them the facts speak more loudly than those generalizations. And the facts are that I've supported all of President Bush's nominees in committee and on the floor."

"The facts are that, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial endorsing Specter on October 24, '[Specter] promised [the editorial board] that no extremists would be approved for the bench,'" LaRue added today. "He thinks Robert Bork is an extremist. He thinks Jeff Sessions-his own colleague-is an extremist. But he doesn't think Ruth Bader-Ginsburg, an ACLU Board member, is an extremist. It's clear you just can't trust him."

Specter muddied the waters further when asked specifically about nominees who might overturn Roe v. Wade.

Woodruff: But when we hear conservatives, and I interviewed earlier Jan LaRue of Concerned Women for America, when she says that we need justices who will strictly uphold the letter of the Constitution and not interpret it in some way to suit our modern sensibilities in so many words, I'm paraphrasing. In essence she and others are saying we believe that Roe versus Wade should be overturned.

Specter: "She may be right. And there may be new appointments who will do that. Look here. I think I can help the president."

"The best help he can give the president is to step aside from this important committee," LaRue concluded today.

Concerned Women for America is the nation's largest public policy women's organization.

For Information Contact:
Demi Bardsley
(202) 488-7000, ext. 1020
media.cwfa.org

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