This will be one more checkbox in the Dem column for Specter.

He’ll say anything to get elected. Always has, always will.

It’s not just “saying” its “voting”. Actions speak louder than words.

If he walks like a Dem, talks like a Dem and VOTES like a Dem…….. Dems are going to support him.

It’s about time Arlen. But don’t think that one (potential) vote will be sufficient. For example, where’s your enthusiastic support for Judge Sotomayor? Etc. The jury still is out and we’ll be watching.

If I was a bit cynical, I easily could believe that Arlen went public with his (welcomed) support of the public option component of the health care plan now because of his weak showing in the recent F&M poll.

I’m a moderate Democrat and I’m going to support him. He was a Dem in the 60s and he’s always voted independently. I’ve always liked the man and I respect him and his service to Pennsylvania.

That being said – it’s about damn time he started supporting the public option.

Imagine all the Americans that would have been a whole lot healthier now had Specter and his chart not derailed Clinton’s health care plan.

I’ll wait to see what the actual bill looks like and if he actually puts his vote where his mouth is this time around.

That’s a good tact against Specter. If this were such an issue, where was he when the political winds were different during the Clinton health care debauchery.

Jack-
Clinton’s health care plan was derailed by Hillary herself because she crafted it in secret, without consulting the congressional leadership or bringing the interested parties into the process. You can’t hang “Hillary Care” on Specter when it was fellow Democrats that offered alternate/competing plans. That whole fiasco was a self-inflicted wound and helped the GOP take over the House in 1994.

Clearly, Obama has learned from those mistakes. He outlined the goals, but left the details for Congress to work out, yet still exerted influence from the White House to shape the debate and push some aspects.

Lee-
Specter was clearly open to the public plan the other week when he was addressing Dems. There’s been a lot of churn on the plan details, but it was very obvious that Specter would support Obama and the Dems on health care.

Joe-
No one’s going to care about Specter’s non-support of a 1993 Clinton health plan that was a liability for the Dems for years. When (not if) Specter votes for Obama’s plan, he will sew up the health care issue (already has backed stem cell research).

The bottom line: this is a winning issue for Specter, and a losing issue for Sestak to attack (though he will fruitlessly continue anyway).
I’ll fill out the voting scorecard for you in advance:

Healthcare: YES
Sotomayor: YES
EFCA: YES
Cap and Trade: probably YES (though I haven’t followed this one closely)

All the moderate Dems in PA opposed cap and tax. Specter would be wise to tack to the center on this issue. THe Dems have a 70-seat majority in the House, yet the bill only passed by 7 votes, and it would have been closer than that because two REpublicans missed the vote. SO what does this tell you?

pardon my french everyone but i have only one thing to sum him up…. jackass

Cap and TRADE (not “tax”) was used effectively to reduce sulfur-dioxide (which causes acid rain).

Bush/Cheney bent the rules to allow companies to violate EPA and clean air rules by upgrading their plants without using greener upgrades. More people die each year from pollution than terrorists, yet we waste billions fighting the wrong killer.

The GOP is (and has been) short-sighted on up-front costs vs long-term gains. We’ve seen how reductions in smoking in cities/states contributes to a drop in heart attacks and emergency room visits.
From Wikipedia:
“Several studies have documented health and economic benefits related to smoking bans. In the first 18 months after Pueblo, Colorado enacted a 2003 smoking ban, hospital admissions for heart attacks dropped by 27% while admissions in neighboring towns without smoking bans showed no change. The decline in heart attacks was attributed to the smoking ban, which reduced exposure to secondhand smoke. A similar study in Helena, Montana found a 40% reduction in heart attacks following the imposition of a smoking ban.”

The polluters have gotten away with murder for years. It’s time to clean up their act (and our air).

Liberal whackos like Al Gore have ZERO credibility on this issue! No one has personally put more pollutants into the air than jetset, SUV-driving. five-house owning Al Gore. Now he and hypocritical control-freak liberal, holier-than-thou extremists want to impose their neurotic indulgences on the rest of us. Well, thankfully, the Senate is going to kill this Big Brother, economy-crushing bill.