Wednesday, March 25, 2009
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Why Primaries Are Good (and Why Specter Opposed Card Check)
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
7:36 AM
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 News that Sen. Arlen Specter would vote 'no' on cloture and final passage of card check (a.k.a., the Employee Free Choice Act) was greeted by conservatives with excitement. To the establishment media, though, it seems to have received a collective yawn. For example, the story is on page A-17 of today's New York Times.
It's probably worth noting, however, that this was, in fact, a huge deal. Other than the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," you'd be hard-pressed to find an issue more important to conservatives this year than card check.
Many believed this issue was the single most important legislative decision that will be made this year. The reason? If union bosses can intimidate workers into unionizing -- not only does this violate the rights of the workers -- but it will ultimately result in more unions and more union members (which means more and more money to the Democratic machine).
Like rigging the census, same day voter registration, and even "motor voter", card check was essentially a scheme for Democrats to rig the system and dramatically increase their odds of future political victories. In this case, more union members means more money (via union "dues") flowing into Democratic coffers. As you can imagine, this would have long-term results that could last for decades.
And yet, it was stopped by one man. No -- I'm not talking about Senator Arlen Specter -- but about conservative former Congressman Pat Toomey. It is generally believed that Toomey's likely primary run at Specter was largely responsible for Specter's decision to oppose card check (after all, he had supported it in 2007).
Conservatives are often warned not to "primary" liberal Republicans, but yesterday was an example of how the mere threat of a primary can yield tremendously favorable results.
Specter was essentially the deciding vote on this important issue, and the threat of losing his seat appears to have been enough to make him see the light ...
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