Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter said Sunday that he is open -- if ever so slightly -- to supporting a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to secure enactment of a health care overhaul law.
Specter, who famously switched from the Republican Party to the Democrats in April, said on FOX News Sunday that he would consider reconciliation -- which requires just a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to break a filibuster -- "as a very last, last, last resort, if you can't get anything else."
"But," Specter added. "I think that is undesirable."
Nonetheless, the remark signified a subtle but significant shift from his stance just a few months ago.
In March, Specter laid out a prosecutorial-style case against employing a budget tool intended for deficit reduction to revamp the nation's health care laws.
"I believe any such effort would be a colossal mistake," he said on the Senate floor. "There is strong reason that we should not have 51 votes somehow created in this body to misuse the reconciliation process."
Of course, he was a Republican then.
He is now bidding for a sixth Senate term as a Democrat (and is facing a potentially stiff primary challenge from Rep. Joe Sestak). The likely Republican nominee is conservative former Rep. Patrick J. Toomey, who nearly upset Specter in Pennsylvania's 2004 Republican Senate primary and entered the 2010 race seeking a rematch for the GOP nomination.
CQ Politics currently rates the Pennsylvania Senate general election as Leans Democratic.
![[RSS]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/rss_icon.gif){kind=icon}
![[ARCHIVES]](http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/templates/images/archives_icon.png){kind=icon}
Comments
THIS is why half the country HATES politics and politicians and doesn't bother to participate. This thing called Arlen Specter has got to be one of the most vile and loathsome creatures EVER to darken the halls of our Government. Pennsylvanians should be appalled and embarrassed at the fact that he is from their Commonwealth.
Posted by: NObama
| August 25, 2009 12:42 PM
Post A Comment