GOP "Maverick" Arlen Specter

Bloomberg has a story pushing the line that Arlen Specter is an independent, maverick Republican who dances to the rhythm of his own drummer.

It begins with an anecdote about Specter getting smashed in the face with a squash racket and showing up the next day to finish the match. This earns him a comparison to Winston Chuchill from Sen. John Warner.

The piece goes on to laud Specter for his gritty determination to hold the Bush administration to account for the NSA warrantless surveillance scandal.

Now, Specter is questioning the legality of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance of suspected terrorists without court warrants. He called Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Judiciary Committee and has repeatedly voiced dissatisfaction with what he called the attorney general's refusal to provide answers.

Specter also convened a hearing on a Democratic senator's plan to censure Bush for authorizing the eavesdropping and has proposed a special court to oversee counterintelligence wiretapping and review the legality of the spying. To pressure the president to give lawmakers more details about the surveillance, Specter floated the idea of cutting off the program's funds.

``The party needs somebody to stand up to the president,'' Specter said in an interview in his corner seventh-floor office of the Philip Hart Senate Office Building that overlooks the Supreme Court. ``I do that, by the way, in a very respectful way.''

I suppose one could describe Specter's attitude toward Bush as "respectful."

Another word to describe it might be "deferential."

A few other words to describe Arlen Specter's approach to dealing with the Bush administration might be:

• accommodating


• acquiescent


• bootlicking


• compliant


• docile


• supplicant

One could go on and on.

But, do you know what word one really can not and should not use to describe Arlen Specter? "Maverick." That's one word that just does not apply to the man.

A maverick does not enable the illegal activities of an outlaw regime by refusing to place its attorney general under oath when he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee, thereby allowing said attorney general to lie with impunity.

A maverick would not warn the Bush administration to obey the law, or else, when the TV cameras are rolling, and then do absolutely nothing to compel the administration to obey the law.

A maverick would not conduct a series of toothless show hearings that are designed primarily to give the administration cover for activities it has no intention of stopping anyway. Nor would he even entertain the notion of agreeing to make said activities legal so that the administration wouldn't have to worry about it at all.

A maverick would not rest on a wholly undeserved reputation as a pro-choice Republican while at the same time ushering through judicial nominees whose hostility to abortion rights is their most identifiable trait.

Note to Bloomberg: in Arlen Specter's attitude toward the Bush administration, he's about as maverick as Harriet Miers.

On top of everything, the story dismisses Democratic observations about Specter as "complaints" to reporters.

That's the liberal media for you, I guess.