RIP Mr Magic Bullet
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations, died Sunday. He was 82. Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said his son Shanin. Over the years, Arlen Specter had fought two previous bouts with Hodgkin lymphoma, overcome a brain tumor and survived cardiac arrest following bypass surgery.
Specter rose to prominence in the 1960s as an aggressive Philadelphia prosecutor and as an assistant counsel to the Warren Commission, developing the single-bullet theory that posited just one bullet struck both President Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally — an assumption critical to the argument that presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The theory remains controversial and was the focus of Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "JFK."He sold his soul for the magic bullet, and I can't feel sad about his passing.
posted by spooked at 1:54 PM
3 Comments:
The theory remains controversial LOL
Specter had a lot going for him, including a sense of humor along with having been blessed with a good mind, and door-opening Ivy League education credentials, but he ignored that little man sitting on his shoulder,
whispering in his ear "stay wedded to the truth always and your chance will come". He was too ambitious and too anxious to wait, and then it was too late. The foul deed was done.
Perhaps the most detailed broadcast obit on "Senator Magic Bullet" was provided by National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg, who chronologically and insightfully referenced many different aspects of the slippery eel's long and serpentine political career.
Yet when she came to his most memorable/influential/controversial moment in the spotlight, she only noted that he provided legal counsel to the Warren Commission -- and NOTHING MORE!!!
Now why, you might ask, is this so shocking, since there were plenty of other major-media obits that also obliviously glossed over "Snarlin' Arlen's" fantastic-forensic-fib too?
Because there is probably no other mainstream, nationally prominent journalist, still working in 2012, who is likely to remember more details of the JFK case than Ms. T. herself!
Thirty-four years ago it was she who anchored the only live, session-by-session network coverage of the complete House Assassinations Committee Hearings in 1978.
You know, the Congressional committee that (reluctantly) concluded there WAS a conspiracy that killed the president, that subsequently asked the FBI to reopen the case... and that was simply ignored.
No wonder ol' Webster Tarpley loves to call NPR "National Pentagon Radio".
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