The Observation Deck

Arlend Specter is announcing today that he is changing parties and is now a Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania.

When Franken gets confirmed it will provide enough Dems to overcome any phillibuster in the in senate.

I wish I could correct my mistakes, I hate this.

Sharon--------great name for a new sandwich!!!! Sold in, of course, Philly. Probably sort of like a hoagy!!!!
Stan

Okay, here's my question...

If this were about anything OTHER than getting re-elected and dipping your fingers in the party till, then why wouldn't he have just declared himself as an independent? He could still vote his conscience, but he doesn't lose nearly as much credibility.

The biger question might be. Since the Republican and Democratic parties raise millions (if not billions) of dollars that get handed out to their candidates, why wouldn't they get them to sign a "no-compete" clause contract? "If you're taking our money and our support, you promise not to register as a candidate for an opposing party for at least 10 years following the date of your last monetary allotment." That wouldn't violate any ability for them to vote any which way they wanted, and wouldn't technically limit their ability to run in future elections. So would it be Constitutional?

Just a thought.

Bret - Love your tagline.

If you're taking our money and our support, you promise not to register as a candidate for an opposing party for at least 10 years following the date of your last monetary allotment

I hope its unconstitutional. Why penalize somebody for changing their mind for lawful reasons? If you want to reduce the way money plays through the system, then why not figure out how to do that?

Or do you wish to sanction the reason itself? Unbridled ambition has come on such hard times these days!

The main thing is the Republican party are turning themselves into the rump party mostly situated in the non-cosmopolitan south and west. In parts, aging, badly educated, fundamentalist, mostly caucasian, and, apparently so incapable of articulating a coherent philosophy that the intellectual water is being carried by:

Rush Limbaugh
Sarah Palin
Bobby "Exocist" Jindal
Michelle Bachman
John Boehner
and, drum roll,
Joe the Plumber

This is the crew that has conflated liberal-socialism-fascism. Russell Kirk must be rolling in his grave.

***

Jim DeMint, R-SC, put it succinctly:

[b]“I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.â€

He is 79 years old and has been in the Senate for nearly 30 years.

He could do more for the Republican Party by continuing to be a member of it and simply voting against its bloc whenever he chooses. This would do more to redeem the party.

He is well past the age of developing retirement balls.

Thankfully the Republican response to this by Mr. Steele didn't disappoint. He had the requisite "he was never a true Republican" slam and "we won't miss him" gesture. I like this quote from TIME:

"On the national level of the Republican Party, we haven't certainly heard warm, encouraging words about how they view moderates: either you are with us or against us."
— Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of three Republicans, including Specter, to support Obama's economic-stimulus package, expressing sympathy and support for Specter's switch (New York Times, April 28, 2008)

Specter started his career as a democrat then switched to republican out of political convenience (basically to save his butt). His views on issues shift to whatever will be to his advantage (kind of like Obama between the presidential primary and election). He has now reverted to a democrat to save his political behind as Pat Toomey is leading him in the primary polls. Pennsylvania has what is known as a "sore loser" law that prohibits anyone switching parties after the primary. He knew he was going to lose so he switched.

Hopefully, there will be a democrat who will step up and run against him in the primaries. Specter should do us all a favor and simply let his term expire and retire. Let someone who wants to be a senator (for the right reasons) take over. We need people who are passionate about running our great country. Not someone who is passionate about furthering their career.

Charlie Page wrote:Specter started his career as a democrat then switched to republican out of political convenience (basically to save his butt). His views on issues shift to whatever will be to his advantage (kind of like Obama between the presidential primary and election). He has now reverted to a democrat to save his political behind as Pat Toomey is leading him in the primary polls. Pennsylvania has what is known as a "sore loser" law that prohibits anyone switching parties after the primary. He knew he was going to lose so he switched.

Hopefully, there will be a democrat who will step up and run against him in the primaries. Specter should do us all a favor and simply let his term expire and retire. Let someone who wants to be a senator (for the right reasons) take over. We need people who are passionate about running our great country. Not someone who is passionate about furthering their career.

Huh? He's been a Repub. since 1966. Apparently he was a dem in his 'youth'... but isnt the republican adage that you are a dem until you become a tax paying adult? Maybe this was the case with him (well, he was 36 when he switched). But a repub for 40 years is him being willy nilly and switching when it suits him?? Okay, sure. The GOP aint what it used to be and I think you will see a lot of moderate on the fence more or outright switching parties. It's really not surprising to me...

Ronald Reagan was a democrat until he was middle aged. Charlton Heston was another prominent democrat. Both were hit with much higher progressive income taxes during the prime of their commercial popularity and Democrat leanings.

Eventually they got old enough to be really annoyed by teenagers and adults who act like teenagers. So they became Republicans.