When the Dems eked out control of the Senate in November, I knew it would be hard for them to govern with such a slim majority. And yet my heart was light. Heading the list of my reasons to celebrate was this simple phrase:

Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy.

I have not always agreed with Leahy’s votes, but he is a man for his times. We have an executive branch with an almost fetishistic obsession with testing the boundaries of its constitutional powers. We need somebody on that dais with enough piss and vinegar to pick a fight and keep fighting it. This is not a time for exemplary displays of typical Senate comity.

Here in Pennsylvania we are represented by the previous Judiciary Chair, Arlen “All-Bark-No-Bite” Specter. What a contrast.

Is there anybody in Washington who really gets nervous when Arlen Specter barks?

Continuing in the vein of my hack-job cartoon on Arlen Specter the other day, I note that Michael Scherer did a few hundred good words on the same topic in Salon.

“The issue for Specter is: What does he think he is getting from this in terms of his reputation by just walking up to the line and flinching?” said attorney Bruce Fein, a veteran of the Reagan Justice Department. Fein has been working closely with Specter on legislation to challenge the numerous presidential signing statements Bush has been using to circumvent bills passed by Congress.

Ouch. When even your collaborator goes on the record that you flinch a lot….

After years of being attacked and ignored by his own party, I think Specter should gives some serious thought to taking a page from the Jim Jeffords playbook and just go independent. Sure, he can wait until after he’s repaid the favor he owes to Santorum. (It won’t help.) But if he’s finally seen the error of his ways, and is prepared to caucus with the Democrats, he can still have a significant role in the Senate when we wrest control of it in a few months.

That committee chairmanship didn’t turn out to be everything that it was cracked up to be anyway.

Our senior senator… committed moderate or compromised soul?

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