Arlen Specter Needs to "Come to Jesus"

Around my firm, litigators occasionally will use the phrase "come to Jesus," as in, I need to sit down with the client and have a "come to Jesus" talk about the likely outcome of his litigation, or, more frequently, to opposing counsel, you need to "come to Jesus" about the likelihood that the judge is going to let you get away with stiffing me on discovery I've duly requested. The meaning is... you have to get real about where the power in a particular situation is and what will happen to you if you continue down your current path.

So I don't want this to have a religious connotation, but.... President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Bill Frist, somebody, please, needs to have a "come to Jesus" talk with Arlen Specter. Somebody, please, needs to explain to him that (1) there is such a thing as the Republican Party; (2) the Republican Party has certain principles; (3) when there is a Republican President, those principles are defined by what the President wants; (4) the job of a Republican Senator under a Republican President is to get with the President's program; (5) if a Republican Senator cannot get with the program, he can be an Independent like Jim Jeffords, because at 55-44, we don't need to take that crap; and (6) anybody hear from Jim Jeffords lately?

Specter can be an iconclast from the back bench. He can't be one if he wants to be Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That's the bottom line. This President has shown he is willing to break taboos... the Senate's seniority rules should be the next one.