Specter on Reid: ‘I wonder if he is up to the job’

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), one of his party’s leading centrists, blasted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) Wednesday for his comment that GOP senators were “puppets” of the Bush administration.

{mosads}“I wonder if he is up to the job when he resorts to that kind of a statement, which only furthers the level of rancor and insults and animosity with that kind of an insulting comment,” Specter said on the Senate floor.

The Pennsylvania Republican says that such rhetoric does not help Reid when he extends his hand across the aisle to attract GOP support for Democratic measures.

Specter said that, ahead of his speech, he asked his staff to alert Reid’s staff that he would be making the remarks.

The GOP senator argued that the majority leader’s “puppet” comment is a violation of Rule XIX of the Senate, which basically prohibits name-calling between senators.

Specter also provided a list of cases in which Republicans have bucked the White House, including the recent veto override of the Water Resources and Development Act, stem cell legislation, an expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Labor-HHS appropriations bill.

“I can understand why Republicans would be sensitive to being associated with the President and his policies,” said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. “But the results speak for themselves when Republicans stall the process and then complain it’s not moving fast enough. If Senate Republicans are serious about being independent of the White House, then why do they keep doing the bidding of the President instead of the work of the American people?”