PrintMay 4, 2009
Specter: Republicans killed Kemp
The guy is obviously eating up all the attention. Arlen Specter can't seem to keep his mouth shut. He is even offering advice on how the GOP can make a comeback; run more people like me in elections.
Perhaps Specter is unaware how difficult it is to find such extraordinarily crass, opportunistic, false, perfidious, disloyal, and traitorous candidates - even among the political class.
No matter. Specter's latest finger waving rant posits the spectacularly ridiculous idea that if only Republicans had been more like him, Jack Kemp would still be alive.
Tom LoBianco of the Washington Times reports on Specter's appearance on "Face the Nation:"
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.
Mr. Specter, responding to a question from CBS's Bob Schieffer over whether he had let down Pennsylvanians who wanted a Republican to represent them, said he felt his priorities were more in line with those of the Democrats.
"Well, I was sorry to disappoint many people. Frankly, I was disappointed that the Republican Party didn't want me as their candidate," Mr. Specter said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "But as a matter of principle, I'm becoming much more comfortable with the Democrats' approach. And one of the items that I'm working on, Bob, is funding for medical research."
Mr. Specter continued: "If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine."
Someone should inform Specter of the facts. We are spending more money on cancer research - public and private - than President Nixon ever dreamed. Not only does the National Cancer Institute spend billions on research into the many forms of the disease, but other federal government agencies also fund cancer research including NIH Institutes and Centers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Department of Defense (DOD). In addition, state and local governments, voluntary organizations, private institutions, and industry also spend substantial amounts of money on cancer-related research.
It is impossible to come up with an exact amount but the total dollars spent on cancer research is irrelevant to what kind of cancer Mr. Kemp suffered from, when it was discovered, what his family history regarding cancer was, and perhaps most importantly, what his state of mind was regarding fighting the disease.
Arlen Specter is a dunce - and that's in addition to being a hypocrite and rank opportunist. As with research into AIDS, there are only so many labs, so many researchers who are involved in the fight against the disease. There is a limit on how much money can be spent. When those limits are exceeded, you end up funding research into the efficacy of leeches curing disease or the old laetrile scam.
Besides, Specter is playing the old political game of "vending machine" research where Congress mandates a certain amount directed to curing cancer and expects results just because they spent the funds. Science doesn't work that way and Specter, who suffered from a bout of cancer himself, should know better.
Fortunately, Specter will now slink away into near oblivion as just another opportunistic pol that captured headlines for a few days. Maybe we'll get lucky and some far left candidate will knock him off in the Democratic primary. That would leave an opening for whoever the eventual GOP nominee will be and make the Specter defection even more irrelevant than it already is.
