Specter to switch parties

[Sibboleth]

I wonder why he is so desperate to stay in the Senate, that he is willing to endure this kind of self humiliation.  Is it really worth it Arlen?

What's humiliating about being an amoral power-seeker?  He should be proud of that.

And, of course, that's what he is. A power politician, full stop.

[Badger]

The Republican party needs more like him, but I'm glad he's decided to leave the dark side.

[The Mikado]

Welcome to the Democratic Party, Mr. Specter.  You can check your cloak there on the left.  Things you need to know:

1.  The Democratic Party loves our friends across the Atlantic, but at present does not consider the USA as functioning under Scottish Common Law.

2.  To get the reputation of a "pro-labor Republican" all you need to do is not bash unions every time you mention them.  Pro-labor Democrat requires your voting with them occasionally.

3.  The Democratic Party admires the ingenuity of the firearms industry, but doubts that they are impressive enough to create a single bullet that will inflict three bullet wounds on two different people.

Thank you, and enjoy your stay.

[Keystone Phil]

Specter's own words: “I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”


Translation: I have slighted and flat out betrayed my loyal Republican constituents over 29 years one time too many and they won't put up with it any longer. I must therefore leave the party, retire from politics or end my career with a humiliating primary defeat. If the economy tanks more like I think it will this is going to be fun...

flat out betrayed? Seems more like the party betrayed him to me.

Yeah, we betrayed him all right. Notice how you refuse to acknowledge how Specter kept going on and on about he was a Republican a month ago and tried pandering to us, only to conveniently change his mind when he saw that he'd be crushed.

No acknowledgment that Specter, at the very least, lied about switching.

[Badger]

Rush Limbaugh is now advocating that McCain switch next.  Do you agree with that Phil?

I wonder what Olympia Snowe is thinking.

Probably: "No Democrat can beat me in the general election, and no Republican can beat me in the primary even when I generally support Obama. So I'll keep voting as I please."

[Keystone Phil]

Specter is not switching to the Democrat Party, he is returning to it.  Remember, after he lost won his 1965 race for District Attorney as a Democrat, he switched to Republican.

Wrong

He wasn't getting the backing of the local Dems so he had to leave. He won the GOP backing and "stuck with us" until today.

[Keystone Phil]

Democrats are like an ugly girl who needs a prom date: They'll take anyone.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how stupid should htmldon feel right now for backing Specter over Toomey in 2004?  I say... about a 47.  Kerry & Specter for working families!

Don has been a child and avoided the topic except for one time when he tried to justify it.

Anyone else looking forward to the Toomey general election ad that points out that four years ago, Arlen Specter begged George W. Bush to come save his bacon in the primary and now he's pretending to be a Democrat?

It will be great. This guy is the worst panderer in PA political history.

[I left.]

Specter's own words: “I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”


Translation: I have slighted and flat out betrayed my loyal Republican constituents over 29 years one time too many and they won't put up with it any longer. I must therefore leave the party, retire from politics or end my career with a humiliating primary defeat. If the economy tanks more like I think it will this is going to be fun...

flat out betrayed? Seems more like the party betrayed him to me.

Yeah, we betrayed him all right. Notice how you refuse to acknowledge how Specter kept going on and on about he was a Republican a month ago and tried pandering to us, only to conveniently change his mind when he saw that he'd be crushed.
No acknowledgment that Specter, at the very least, lied about switching.

you don't believe that Specter was well aware that he would lose a month ago?

[I left.]

Specter is not switching to the Democrat Party, he is returning to it.  Remember, after he lost won his 1965 race for District Attorney as a Democrat, he switched to Republican.

Wrong

He wasn't getting the backing of the local Dems so he had to leave. He won the GOP backing and "stuck with us" until today.

he still ran as a registered Democrat.

[Keystone Phil]

Specter's own words: “I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate.”


Translation: I have slighted and flat out betrayed my loyal Republican constituents over 29 years one time too many and they won't put up with it any longer. I must therefore leave the party, retire from politics or end my career with a humiliating primary defeat. If the economy tanks more like I think it will this is going to be fun...

flat out betrayed? Seems more like the party betrayed him to me.

Yeah, we betrayed him all right. Notice how you refuse to acknowledge how Specter kept going on and on about he was a Republican a month ago and tried pandering to us, only to conveniently change his mind when he saw that he'd be crushed.
No acknowledgment that Specter, at the very least, lied about switching.

you don't believe that Specter was well aware that he would lose a month ago?

Oh, I do. The point I'm making is that he lied when he made that statement about being a Republican and running as a Republican in 2010. You guys are conveniently ignoring that.

Specter is not switching to the Democrat Party, he is returning to it.  Remember, after he lost won his 1965 race for District Attorney as a Democrat, he switched to Republican.

Wrong

He wasn't getting the backing of the local Dems so he had to leave. He won the GOP backing and "stuck with us" until today.

he still ran as a registered Democrat.

Uh...I don't know about that. Whatever the case, he only had a chance at our nomination, won it and switched over.

[Keystone Phil]

The Facebook and Conservative website comments are amazing.  Our own activists want to give away Snowe, Collins, McCain, Alexander, Gov. Schwarzenegger, to the Dems.

This is insanity.

Irrelevant. Stop trying to change the subject.

[Keystone Phil]

I'll be bumping this with Democrat-Republican-Democrat Specter/Specter campaign quotes...

"Without Senator Specter's seat in the Senate, which Mr. Toomey would certainly lose, there would no longer be 41 Republican Senators to filibuster and stop the Democrats from passing card check, raising taxes, and implementing President Obama's massive spending plans," said Nicholas [Specter's Campaign Manager].

[© Tweed the Younger]

the more I think about it, I don't understand why the PA Dems agreed to clear the field for Specter... I suppose they felt that in a three-way race with Specter (I), the Dem candidate would be at a disadvantage, but Toomey vs whomever would have been strong lean or so

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

The Facebook and Conservative website comments are amazing.  Our own activists want to give away Snowe, Collins, McCain, Alexander, Gov. Schwarzenegger, to the Dems.

This is insanity.

Irrelevant. Stop trying to change the subject.

How is the fact that our Party is going to be reduced to two redneck drunks sitting outside a trailer somewhere in Alabama irrelevant to this subject?  That is until one of the drunks accuses the other drunk of being a RINO, and Jimbo the drunk becomes America's last Republican.

[President Marokai]

Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the few remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate, said Tuesday that Arlen Specter's abandonment of the GOP is "devastating," both "personally and I think for the party."

"I've always been deeply concerned about the views of the Republican Party nationally in terms of their exclusionary policies and views towards moderate Republicans," said Snowe, who has been approached, she said, by Democrats in the past about switching parties.

Specter's switch to the Democratic Party "underscores the blunt reality" that the GOP is not a welcome place for moderates, she said.

So far, she said, she's staying put. "I believe in the traditional tenets of the Republican Party: strong national defense, fiscal responsibility, individual opportunity. I haven't abandoned those principles that have been the essence of the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party has abandoned those principles.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/snowe-gop-has-abandoned-p_n_192368.html

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

So far, she said, she's staying put. "I believe in the traditional tenets of the Republican Party: strong national defense, fiscal responsibility, individual opportunity. I haven't abandoned those principles that have been the essence of the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party has abandoned those principles.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Verily]

the more I think about it, I don't understand why the PA Dems agreed to clear the field for Specter... I suppose they felt that in a three-way race with Specter (I), the Dem candidate would be at a disadvantage, but Toomey vs whomever would have been strong lean or so

Rendell likes Specter, and the two are political allies. Also, having defected, Specter will move further towards the Democrats. (Party matters a lot more than you would expect on votes, even for "moderates".)

[Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The Facebook and Conservative website comments are amazing.  Our own activists want to give away Snowe, Collins, McCain, Alexander, Gov. Schwarzenegger, to the Dems.

This is insanity.

Irrelevant. Stop trying to change the subject.

Getting rid of McCain and Alexander would be ridiculus and going after Collins and Snowe would be counterproductive. Schwarzenegger is term-limited anyway. Sometimes the base goes a little too far and gets ahead of itself.

Specter is nothing but a self serving scumbag who once again acted in his electoral best interests and threw out any principles he had left. I hope he is happy back where he belongs.

[Sibboleth]

Specter is nothing but a self serving scumbag who once again acted in his electoral best interests

This may well be true.

and threw out any principles he had left.

But this clearly isn't.

I hope he is happy back where he belongs.

...as you yourself acknowledge.

[Jayhawker]

Question:
In a way, isn't this good for Republicans? I mean, I'm not sure of Specter's chances of winning the Democrat primary, but assuming he does, it's him (Moderate) against a Republican. It takes out the chances that a liberal Democrat would win, someone who would vote with the President 99% of the time.

[Former Moderate]

(Party matters a lot more than you would expect on votes, even especially for "moderates".)

[Wiz from Wis in Mass]

Obviously as a crazy liberal, I am not too pleased. This just destroyed the possibility of Senator Schwartz or Sestak. However, as a Democrat, I am quite happy. Nothing reinforces a story like 1/3 of the moderate Republican Senate Caucus bolting. Even if he doesn't vote with us one iota more than he did previously, its worth the embarassment of the Republicans.

Since Michael Steele became chair, they've lost a Senate seat and an opportunity at a House seat. Never leave Michael!

[Badger]

Specter was first elected to the senate in 1980. Whose ideology has changed considerably since then: Specter or the GOP itself? Can anyone seriously answer "Specter"? Especially in the last 10 years? The GOP left Specter (along with several hundred thousand other moderate ex-PA Republicans), not vice-versa.

[Lunar]

Obviously as a crazy liberal, I am not too pleased.

Crazy liberals prefer not to have health care reform get past a filibuster?

[Rowan]

Obviously as a crazy liberal, I am not too pleased.

Crazy liberals prefer not to have health care reform get past a filibuster?

They were going to pass it without putting it to vote on the floor. Republicans wouldn't have been able to filibuster anyway.