Democratic Senatorial candidate Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA7) (photo: Progress Ohio)
Joe Sestak’s primary campaign against Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter just hasn’t been able to gain traction, and he’s been searching for some angle to get back into the race. You cannot go wrong in a Democratic primary linking your opponent to Rick Santorum, I’d gather, so Sestak has to love this development:
Rick Santorum said Saturday that he endorsed then Republican Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in the 2004 U.S. Senate primary because he received a guarantee from the incumbent that he would support President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees.
The statement could be politically tricky for Specter, who faces Joe Sestak in the Democratic Senate primary on May 18, and his opponent immediately jumped on the statement as more evidence that Specter puts electoral survival over principle.
Santorum, speaking at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, responded to a question from a conservative who asked why he supported Specter over Toomey in what was a bitterly fought contest that year.
“The reason I endorsed Arlen Specter is because we were going to have two Supreme Court nominees coming up,” said Santorum, according to The Washington Post. “I got a commitment from Arlen Specter that no matter who George W. Bush would nominate, he would support that nominee.”
With the Supreme Court in the spotlight with John Paul Stevens’ retirement this has the potential to be major news. If this deal is correct, Sestak can lay a multitude of bad decisions from the Roberts/Alito court at Arlen Specter’s feet, up to and including all the truly horrible corporate decisions, like the Citizens United case.
Sestak’s initial statement was extremely aggressive:
“Rick Santorum’s stunning confirmation that Arlen Specter sold his influence as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee for a political endorsement should be extremely troubling to Pennsylvanians. There are few people in this nation who have a greater impact on the lives of the American people than the men and women who serve lifetime appointments on the Supreme Court. For Arlen Specter to take his marching orders from Rick Santorum and George W. Bush and pledge to support any nominee — no matter how partisan, no matter how unqualified — in order to win an election is a stunning betrayal of his duty as a public servant. This is one of the most glaring of the many red flags in Specter’s record that he is willing to put his own political survival over his principles and his duty to the people.”
Sestak actually cited the Citizens United decision in a follow-up statement.
Specter denied the existence of any deal today, but Santorum appeared to confirm it. . .:
UPDATE: A spokeswoman for Santorum didn’t back down from the former senator’s account despite Specter’s denial.
“Senator Santorum stands firmly by the statement he made today about the commitment he received from Senator Specter in 2004 to support President Bush’s nominations to the Supreme Court,” Santorum spokeswoman Virginia Davis told PoliticsPA. “And there was no better illustration of that commitment than Senator Specter’s ardent defense of both Justices Alito and Roberts during their confirmation hearings.”
Santorum could be engaging in a political dirty trick here by trying to choose Pat Toomey’s opponent for him, as well as defending himself from some conservative purists as he seeks (no really) a Presidential nomination. Regardless, I think this controversy has the potential to become a cornerstone of Sestak’s argument in the final weeks of the campaign. The primary is May 18.
