Arlen Specter challenges Rick Santorum’s account of conversation about endorsement
is lying a sin?
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Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter said his former Senate colleague Rick Santorum was wrong when Santorum recounted a conversation they had about judicial nominees during last night’s Republican presidential debate.
At the CNN debate in Arizona, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney attacked Santorum for endorsing the then-incumbent Senator Specter, who supports abortion rights, over the more conservative Pat Toomey in the 2004 Republican Senate primary. Specter would win that race, but in 2009 would become a Democrat and vote for President Obama’s health care overhaul, which all the Republican presidential candidates oppose. He lost his 2010 race.
Santorum responded that he supported Specter because Specter was going to become the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, at a time when the most important issue before the Senate would be the confirmation of two or three of President Bush’s Supreme Court nominees.
“Arlen Specter as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, we had a conversation,” Santorum said. “He asked me to support him. I said will you support the president’s nominees? We had a 51/49 majority in the Senate. He said I’ll support the president’s nominees as chairman.” Santorum said every nominee Specter supported had passed “because it gave Democrats cover to vote for it and it gave Republican moderates cover to vote for it.”
http://articles.boston.com/2012-02-24/politics/31090096_1_arlen-specter-senator-specter-senator-santorum
