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For some time, Specter was the sole Republican supporting card check in the Senate. Now, facing a primary challenge from Pat Toomey and a lot of corporate money and pressure, he's folded. Hot Air reports:
According to Americans for Tax Reform, Senator Arlen Specter has committed to voting against cloture and passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, better known as Card Check. In a message to a conservative listserv, ATR announced Specter’s opposition, a switch from his declared position in previous sessions of Congress.The timing of the announcement is curious: It comes days after Costco, Starbucks, and Whole Foods coordinated a high profile intervention into the card check debate by declaring themselves open to compromise with the unions. That shifted some of the momentum towards the unions, and presumably ratcheted up conservative pressure on Specter to announce his opposition. Which he has now done, in a rather scared-sounding statement that hastens to say, "If efforts are unsuccessful to give Labor sufficient bargaining power through amendments to the NLRA, then I would be willing to reconsider Employees’ Free Choice legislation when the economy returns to normalcy." (Full statement after the jump.)Meanwhile, I'll just add that I'm shocked -- shocked! -- to learn that some conservatives also use e-mail lists to communicate.
