No Deal: Specter Denies Santorum Debate Claim

|| "I made no commitment to him about supporting judges," Specter said about Santorum's claim. ||

“Not Correct.”

One of the biggest blunders of Rick Santorum’s political campaign was his 2004 endorsement of fellow Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter.  In last night’s debate Santorum claimed he backed Specter over conservative Pat Toomey in exchange for the then Chair of the Judiciary Committee’s pledge to usher George W. Bush’s Supreme Court picks through Senate hearings.

There is just one small problem with Santorum’s claim.  Arlen Specter has repeatedly denied making any such deal with Rick Santorum.

Santorum said during Wednesday night’s debate that he backed Specter only after the former Republican promised he would not block pro-life Supreme Court justices as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. The resulting confirmations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito vindicated him, Santorum said.

But Specter disputes that such a deal ever existed.

“When I listened to Senator Santorum, he is not correct,” Specter told Smerconish. “I made no commitment to him about supporting judges. That would have been the wrong thing to do. As chairman of the committee, I supported Roberts and Alito because I thought they were qualified for the jobs, but I made no deal.”

You have to ask yourself what was Rick Santorum thinking?  The Republican presidential contender has made this claims before and every time he has Arlen Specter has come out and said there was never any deal.  Now, rather than having his Specter endorsement a one night attack line from Mitt Romney, the story is given another day of life.

My advice to Mr. Santorum, other than to stop endorsing liberal Republicans, don’t lie about the facts when the people who know the truth are still alive and willing to talk about it.

|| Rick Santorum and George W. Bush campaigning for Arlen Specter in 2004. ||