Arguably the least popular Republican (in name only) Senator in the caucus, Arlen Specter today deep sixed the Employee Free Choice Act by announcing that he would not vote for cloture, thus effectively ending the chances for passage of the highly controversial union organizing initiative.
The most humorous part of this story is that Specter betrayed the unions by reversing a prior position on the legislation:
Labor officials are incredibly distraught and, in some cases incredulous, noting the Specter co-sponsored the bill in 2003 and voted for cloture just last year.
( Note the Kerry Maneuver: Specter was apparently for the law before he was against it)
As Jennifer Rubin noted, labor unions are not getting much of a return on their investments:
To say this is a huge and unexpected blow to Big Labor is to understate the enormity of the embarrassment. They spent, by some calculations, close to a billion dollars in local, state, and federal races with card check as their Number One priority.
Specter is facing a difficult primary challenge from Pat Toomey so today’s actions should be considered just Phase One of his rehabilitation strategy with conservative constituents, most of whom are not ready to forgive him for his vote in favor of the Obama spending bill.
