Specter Previews Primary, Hits Toomey on Social Security, Wall Street, Card Check

Reader Comments
Back to blog

nice, really nice!

Invexixheli of AL 8:12AM April 17, 2009

This is a clear example of why these career politicians need to go. The early campaigning has started. Where are legitimate ideas/solutions to the problems we are currently facing? Is this what we should continue to expect from the so called wisdom on Capitol Hill? There need be term limits so these representatives can go back to trying to survive in the real world with jobs that they must compete for with they rest of us after they've pushed all this crap through. This way we do not have the same faces decade after decade shoveling the same old crap while accomplishing absolutely nothing.

Lynn of CA 1:23PM April 07, 2009

Senator Specter and his staff are running early attacks at Pat Toomey and have had it all wrong. Specter and his campaign staff made the a "gaffe" in their first attack ad that says
"Pat Toomey, as a Wall Street trader, sold risky derivatives called credit default swaps, the same swaps that have now plunged us into this financial mess."
The only problem was that FactCheck.org reported that when Toomey was an empolyee on Wall Street from 1984 through 1991 the dangerous credit default swaps didn't exist. So Specter and his campaign staff are wrong trying to paint Toomey as as cause of the financial collapse. In truth, Arlen Specter has taken more money from AIG, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan Chase and other financial services companies than any other Pennsylvania member of congress in the last twenty years. Why doesn't he talk about those contributions to his campaigns from these firms that have received billions in TARP money.. a TARP bill that Specter VOTED FOR!
No number of ads will distract any Pennsyvlania Repbulican voter from remembering that Specter and and two other RINOS (Republicans In Name Only) voted with the Democrats allowing the "Stimulus Bill" to be passed. He allowed the bill to pass even though 2 out of every 3 Repulicans in Pennsylvania OPPOSED it.
Voting against the card check? Specter was the only Republican Senator to support it. He recently pulled his support when he knew Toomey would run against him in the primary... but Democrats take heart! Specter said he would "reconsider" his vote when the economy changes (probably after the election).
Specter mentions that Toomey "fought regulation" while in Congress. He is referring to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This bill rolled back Depression-era restrictions that prevented commercial banks, insurance companies, and investment banks from merging. He is right, Toomey voted FOR this bill. What Specter forgets is that Specter VOTED FOR THE BILL too.
I can now see why Toomey spokesman Mark Harris responded to these attacks by saying this: "Arlen Specter's bad poll numbers must be causing him hallucinations. Everything he attacks Pat Toomey with is either proven false by neutral analysts, or is something Specter himself has done. There isn't enough mud left in Pennsylvania for Specter to cover up the fact that he voted to spend billions of tax dollars to bail out Wall Street. He has pocketed millions from Wall Street firms, while Pat Toomey strongly opposes these bailouts."

Bob of PA 1:06PM April 07, 2009