Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently revealed that during the 2008 campaign he was so wowed by a speech Barack Obama gave that he went up to him and told him so.
“With what I would describe as deep humility,” Reid recounts, the then-candidate replied quietly, “I have a gift, Harry.”
By “gift,” the future president was of course referring to his own vast amazingness, in particular his capacity to move great crowds with the power of his oratory.
Those Americans who remain unenthralled by the president’s mode of ponderous, self-important, prompter-driven delivery may dispute the idea that this constitutes a gift, but even the crankiest conservative won’t question that President Obama has, indeed, received one: Arlen Specter.
If the 79-year-old Pennsylvania senator were wrapped in multi-colored tissue paper and tied with a silken ribbon, he could not have been a more delightful present for a president who is racing to fulfill his campaign pledge to remake fundamentally the American economy.
Specter’s defection from the GOP means that Democrats are now just one tantalizing vote away from having a filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.
It cannot be long before Minnesota provides the missing link, in the person of diminutive humorist Al Franken, at which point the great Democratic chain will be able to choke off opposition from its discombobulated Republican rivals.
We will be in a new place then. Our republic built on the concept of checks and balances will have, barring some wild and unforeseen upset in the 2010 congressional elections, few political checks and no political balance at a time of fierce executive-branch activism.
As America’s almost-Commerce Secretary Judd Gregg realized – he’s the Republican who shied at the last minute from joining the Obama team — the new White House is full of “really capable, dedicated, smart, sharp people with an agenda that they intend to pursue aggressively.”
Thus Specter’s vow to remain his own man, one willing to defy the pressures of his party, is not reassuring. He has said, for instance, that he won’t bend in his opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as “Card Check.”
This undemocratic union-backed legislation, heavily favored by Democrats, would remove the secret ballot from unionizing workers. Hurrah, it is tempting to think: At least Arlen Specter won’t cave on that!
Let’s wait and see, shall we? Only six weeks ago, Specter was dampening speculation that he was considering a bolt across the aisle. “I am staying a Republican,” the Pennsylvania Republican told “The Hill” newspaper as he reflected on his potential to swing complete power to the Democrats, because “the United States very desperately needs a two-party system.”
“I’m afraid we are becoming a one-party system, with Republicans becoming just a regional party with so little representation of the Northeast or in the middle Atlantic,” the selfless patriot went on, “I think as a governmental matter, it is very important to have a check and balance.”
Yes, well, the two-party system is all very desirable when your pollster hasn’t yet told you that you face certain defeat at the hands of irritated GOP voters in your own state. Then a man is inclined to adjust himself, to act with dignified pragmatism — and to make sure to extract from his new allies the promise that he’ll get to keep all the perks that come from having five-term seniority in the U.S. Senate.
A whiff of where we’re headed comes from Democratic pugilist James Carville, who has a new book coming out next week: “The Next Forty Years: How Democrats Will Rule the Next Generation.” The title is revealing, for he’s not talking about leading or inspiring or persuading.
The monarchic term “rule” has about it in the American context always the unpleasant scent of ermine. Americans are not “ruled.” Politicians serve at our pleasure and are made to go away when they lose our confidence – unless they happen to be Arlen Specter, at which point they switch sides so as to keep their cozy seats.
The idea of Democratic “rule” may help Mr. Carville sell books, but it ill suits our republic. America may have czars galore, but we do not need an emperor, no matter how gifted he may be.
Examiner columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon is a former foreigtn correspondent and a regular contributor to books pages of The Wall Street Journal. Her Examiner column appears regularly on Thursdays.
