Arlen Specter the Defector, leaves the GOP.
Just a quick update, but in case you have not heard, Arlen Specter left the GOP after decades of work in the Senate and joined the Democrats. Arlen Specter has been a source of so much pain to the right and so many questions have been raised regarding his true allegiance, that he finally realized that he can no longer continue this lie. Without beating around the bush too much, I truly believe that he has been living a lie all this time and either had the wrong conception of what the GOP stood for or after decades of being a public servant bent under the inevitable sway of connections, backroom deals and shady politics.
Either way, unlike what the news article suggests, Specter's switch does not threaten the filibuster majority because nothing changed. He will continue to vote the same way he always voted and his new label will simply keep the conservatives off his back.
No, this switch was more political. I personally suspected he was going to retire this upcoming election, but it turns out that the old man still got some fight in him. He is clearly intending to run again, but he KNOWS that he lost a good chunk of his GOP support back in PA. By switching parties he can pick up new voters who tend to vote down the D line anyway and retain some of the loyalists he relies on every 6 years. This way he can avoid the utter embarrassment of getting smashed in the primaries and can pose a formidable challenge to any Republican taking his place. Lastly, he can rely on the support from his new found friends and Obama with whom he probably already brokered a deal with.
I for one am extremely delighted that Specter will no longer be a source of disappointment and frustration for the GOP. Now if only Collins and Snowe grew a pair and realized that they need to switch out of the GOP, everybody can mind their own business and be on their merry way. We need to stop deluding ourselves into thinking that the GOP is still retaining some filibuster blocking minority, because they do not.
Either way, unlike what the news article suggests, Specter's switch does not threaten the filibuster majority because nothing changed. He will continue to vote the same way he always voted and his new label will simply keep the conservatives off his back.
No, this switch was more political. I personally suspected he was going to retire this upcoming election, but it turns out that the old man still got some fight in him. He is clearly intending to run again, but he KNOWS that he lost a good chunk of his GOP support back in PA. By switching parties he can pick up new voters who tend to vote down the D line anyway and retain some of the loyalists he relies on every 6 years. This way he can avoid the utter embarrassment of getting smashed in the primaries and can pose a formidable challenge to any Republican taking his place. Lastly, he can rely on the support from his new found friends and Obama with whom he probably already brokered a deal with.
I for one am extremely delighted that Specter will no longer be a source of disappointment and frustration for the GOP. Now if only Collins and Snowe grew a pair and realized that they need to switch out of the GOP, everybody can mind their own business and be on their merry way. We need to stop deluding ourselves into thinking that the GOP is still retaining some filibuster blocking minority, because they do not.
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