Senator Specter's Cancer Cure Website

Adam Green at the dailykos is reporting:

Arlen Specter's campaign has quietly changed his "Specter for the Cure" website after initially denying it was a scandal.

And he's got the screen shots to prove it.

For those not following the story, Eric Heyl had a column in yesterday's Tribune-Review that began with:

So desperately does Arlen Specter crave your cash that he is willing to be deplorably disingenuous to obtain it.

He apparently is willing to risk offending anyone who has suffered from cancer, autism, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or diabetes.

Those are the illnesses and conditions specifically mentioned in a new Web site the Pennsylvania Demopublican has launched, ostensibly to help vanquish various diseases.

In reality, the site exists exclusively to bankroll Specter's continued mischief in Washington. All of the contributions will be directed to his re-election campaign.

But the site isn't called Shekels for Specter.

It's called Specter for the Cure.

This is a classic bait-and-switch scheme.

Don't believe me?

Visit the site (www.specterforthecure.com) and decide for yourself.

And it basically goes down hill from there.

While the right side of the local media was livid (And yes, Fred. I mean YOU!) but the story also got picked up at one of the leading lefty national blogs, talkingpointsmemo. Take a look:

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)--two time survivor of Hodgkins disease--is no stranger to cancer, cancer awareness, and cancer research funding. But he's using his hard earned credibility as a national spokesperson on the issue to fight the disease in a roundabout way.

He's touting--and raising money from--a website called specterforthecure.com, which he describes as "a bold new initiative to reform our government's medical research efforts, cut red tape and unstrangle the hope for accelerated cures."

But the money he's raising isn't funding research grants, or advocacy, or treatment for patients who can't afford it. It's funding the Senate re-election campaign of one Arlen Specter.

I took a look at the new version of Arlen's website (Specterforthecure 2.0?) and the first major change I see is the addition of this text top of the first page:

In 2010, Arlen Specter will seek re-election to the United States Senate. With his unsurpassed record of support for medical research, helping to return Senator Specter to the Senate is a powerful statement on behalf of those suffering with disease. The purpose of this web site is to encourage support for Senator Specter's mission to improve America's health by helping assure Senator Specter's re-election.

I my humble opinion, this whole thing has been a HUGE blunder from Arlen's staff. I can't yet attribute it to outright corruption (though I won't stand in the way of anyone who does - yet) and at this point I'll wait with Hanlon's Razor in hand:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

But I could be wrong.

My guess is that they had the "specterforthecure.com" project humming along waiting to be released and then the Toomey poll happened and Arlen jumped parties and needed something to spark the newer more DNC-friendly Arlen Specter internet buzz. So they plugged website A into campaign B without answering all of the the "But how will this look?" questions. But that's just a guess. I have no information either way.

But the site? At the very least a stupid blunder.