Arlen Specter: "Santorum is too extreme"

(CBS News) - On CBS News" "Face to Face," former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter said his former colleague, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, will not be the Republican nominee.

"America is finding out what Pennsylvanians knew," Specter told CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante.

Santorum has been criticized by GOP front-runner Mitt Romney for supporting Arlen Specter's 2004 Senate re-election bid. Santorum recently said "that certainly wasn't one of my prouder moments." Santorum explained his endorsement was part of a deal with Specter about Supreme Court nominees.

Specter, who has a new book on the "extremists" in American politics, told Plante that is "laughably not true," and he had harsh words of his former Pennsylvania Senate colleague, noting that he lost his re-election by 18 points.

"You can't have a position, as Senator Santorum does, against contraception, saying that the woman has no place in the workplace. Saying that, with respect to gays, that it's bestiality, it's man on dog. John Kennedy's famous speech in Houston, separating church and state, is wrong for America. That's the basis of America." Specter said about Santorum. "Next Santorum's going to attack Jefferson."

"Santorum is too extreme to be the Republican nominee, let alone the president," Specter said.

However, Specter said the American people are not drawn toward former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney because he changes his position "for political expediency."

"I think that Bill Maher had it right the other day on his comedy show when he said that Romney has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen. So it depends on which Romney comes forward. We have to wait," Specter told Plante. "We have to wait and see how much the American people will tolerate on changes of position for political expediency."

Specter -- who left the Republican Party in 2009 shortly after Mr. Obama took office, but lost his re-election bid in the Democratic primary in 2010 -- did not hold back when talking about the Supreme Court either.

"We have an ideological court today," Specter said. "They've gone far beyond what they should do. They are changing laws, not interpreting laws."

Specter predicted the court would strike down the president's health care law, which hears arguments next week.

Plante asked Specter, who was head of the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation of President Bush nominees Samuel Alito and John Roberts, if he was sorry he voted for "all of these justices."

Specter said: "No, just maybe some of them. I'm glad you didn't ask me which ones."

Plante asked which ones and Specter declined to speculate.

As for the legislative body where he worked for three decades, Specter said it is now overrun by "extremists" leading to gridlock and dysfunction.

"When you have people running on the platform that I won't compromise; When you have a Republican leader saying the Senate agenda is to defeat Obama four years from now; When you have a key leader of the tea party saying that we're going to make this Obama's Waterloo. Nobody cares about governing, all people care about is winning an election," Specter said.

His new book called Life among the Cannibals, is about what he calls right- and left-wing activists "cannibals" that are electing people that "took over the primary process" and he says are creating a dysfunctional government.

[MartinTimothy]

Arlen Specter US Senator from Pennsylvania, wrote the Warren Report, the official inquiry into President John Kennedy's death, that said Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone, shot the President in Dallas Texas, 22 November 1963.

http://i.min.us/ib5j8i.jpg

Specter should go before a court of capital jurisdiction, and explain why he neglected the photo, that shows Lee Oswald at the door of the Texas School Book Depository, the building from where he is alleged to have fired, as the shots rang out.

[dman6015]

About the only thing I agree with Specter (he's NOT a Democrat!) on is that America is finding out exactly who Santorum is and that he will never be President.

[wizardlady]

It should make everyone nervous when you look at the total number of votes cast for SANTORUM. Either these folks are uninformed about him or, more scarier than a natural disaster, they agree with him on his ideology.

[starving1968-3]

by MakeMyDayLiberal March 22, 2012 7:23 AM EDT
No more sick than Mrs. Obama going on the the David Letterman show when she knows that he makes fun of Down Syndrome children. That's not only sick, it's classless, and lower than a snake. Her and her husband live under the same rock.







What did Letterman say about Down Syndrome kids?

[starving1968-3]

"Santorum is too extreme to be the Republican nominee, let alone the president," Specter said.

However, Specter said the American people are not drawn toward former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney because he changes his position "for political expediency."

"I think that Bill Maher had it right the other day on his comedy show when he said that Romney has changed positions more often than a pornographic movie queen. So it depends on which Romney comes forward. We have to wait," Specter told Plante. "We have to wait and see how much the American people will tolerate on changes of position for political expediency."







This is by far, the most accurate political assessment on this year's republican candidates, that I've heard.

[Raptorsmasher]

Exactly!

[bobnjersey]

["We have an ideological court today," Specter said. "They've gone far beyond what they should do. They are changing laws, not interpreting laws."]
--------------------
they're authoritarians ... they believe they're entitled to change them to reflect their vision of the world ... ignoring that there are others who think differently than they do.

["When you have people running on the platform that I won't compromise;]
---------------------
another authoritarian

[ When you have a Republican leader saying the Senate agenda is to defeat Obama four years from now;]
---------------------
another authoritarian

[When you have a key leader of the tea party saying that we're going to make this Obama's Waterloo]
---------------------
another authoritarian

[Nobody cares about governing, all people care about is winning an election," Specter said.]
----------------------
that's because they're 'ends justify means' authoritarians ... who have poisoned the well of political discourse ... caring only about forwarding their own deluded world view ... and willing to burn down the house to 'reach their ends'.

http://www.whale.to/b/authoritarian_followers.html

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

[smittyc]

For Spector to be taking a swing at Santorum, Santorum must be making them nervous.

[smittyc]

Price of gas at the pump. Thanks a lot Obama.

[bobnjersey]

[Price of gas at the pump. Thanks a lot Obama.]
--------------------------------
obama has created the unprecedented world demand for fossil fuels?

[AAnnie52]

Thank the oil speculators on Wall Street. Presidents do not control the price of gas at the pump. We have a higher supply of oil than in many years past and decreased use at home but you have unprecedented demand from China, India and other parts of the world, political uncertainty in Iran and Syria, and refineries offline for spring maintenance and switch-over (done every year at this time.) But if they camped down on speculation, even goldman Sachs - a big offender - estimates prices at the pump would drop by over 50 cents. 80% of the increase is due to speculation.

[b4uigo]

Arlen Specter? Really? He's as irrevant now as Obama will be in 2013. That being said, I agree that Santorum is unelectable. The independants and moderates of this country just simply will not put up with this guy who seems to want to legislate everyone's bedroom behavior. I am a conservative but Santorum is not my choice. Let's hope the voters of PA remember who they voted out of office.

[markag55]

Anyone who thinks the politics at this point in time are anything like Germany when the Nazis came to power is a lunatic. Germany is finding itself the linchpin of European economic power, not political power. The United States, while not quite finding our place in politics (especially Obama having to deal with George W. Bush's wars as well as Bush's politics of allowing "Wall Street" to dictate its wants to the Federal Government with no oversight), is better off now than it was almost 4 years ago.

So, don't compare our situation to Germany before WWII. Don't compare our situation to any before the one in which we find ourselves at this point.

We are finally seeing that Obama's policies are slowly taking effect. He sees beyond the "now" that we can all see. I'm not saying he's 100% right; however, he is slow but sure in his policies. He needs another four years!