State Rep. Babette Jospehs (D-Philadelphia) is trying to blame U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter for any coming collapse of the Big Three automakers.

In a statement Wednesday, Josephs said that "Senator Specter was ineffective when it was the U.S. Senate's turn to act on the House-passed bill that would have offered GM and Chrysler a $14 billion rescue plan."

She contrasted the state's senior Republican with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, whom she said "has been very vocal and out in front in support of helping our auto industry and its workers.

"Where is Senator Specter?" Josephs asked.

A Specter spokeswoman declined to respond directly to Josephs' criticism, instead pointing to a letter Specter wrote in the Post-Gazette.

"The key to a compromise was to condition financial aid on changes in management of the Big Three so they would have a realistic chance to survive and give the taxpayers a reasonable opportunity to get their money back," Specter wrote. "I tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to broker such a deal. It sometimes takes a little ‘equivocation' and usually a lot of ‘nuances' to get a bill passed in the highly partisan U.S. Senate."

The spokeswoman also noted that Specter has hosted roundtables on the bailout, a policy debate that has both consumed and paralyzed Congress.