Sen. Arlen Specter, D-PA
Tue, 04/28/2009 - 10:35am
You read that correctly. After some polling out of Pennsylvania showing that the senator may not fare so well in a contested Republican primary, Senator Arlen Specter is to announce today that he is switching to the Democratic Party.
I was tempted to title this post "Senator Lieberman Can Now Kiss It," but that didn't seem very polite. What I mean to say by that, of course, is that the more seats held by Democrats, the more resistant the caucus is to a lone senator going his own way on a vote.
Yeah. That sounds *much* better.
For those of you who need a little background, Senator Specter was one of the few remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate who had resisted the call to exodus as the Nutcase Zealot Right took over the Republican Party and hyper-politicized it over the last few years. Specter has supported the death penalty and gun control legislation, but he has stated he's pro-choice numerous times, has a labor record better than some Democrats, and is against a federal ban on same-sex marriage and in favor of civil unions.
Specter last won reelection in 2004, 53%-42%, after nearly losing his party's primary, getting 51% against Pat Toomey's 49%. Recent polling showed that Toomey currently held a double-digit lead against Specter if the Republican primary were to be held today.
So as Pennsylvania has gone more Democratic over the years -- with the election of Senator Bob Casey in '06, and going for Obama in '08 -- it would seem that the diminishing number of Republicans have understandably become more polarized. Specter serves his state better by switching to the party that best represents the majority of its constituents.
EDIT: Turns out Patrick beat me to this one by two minutes. Sorry about that one, Patrick! His post has a few interesting quotes, including the takeaway from Senator Specter's announcement this morning -- it's a good summary of why the senator felt compelled to do what he did.
EDIT 2: Fixed some Senate numbers up there.
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I have been a Republican for
By Minuteman
Sat, 06/13/2009 - 11:43pm
I have been a Republican for years and always felt that I was choosing the lesser of two evils. I am now a party of one (The Minutemen Party). I am sick and tired of incumbent politicians that refuse to take the responsibility for their empowered discretion. Let’s face the facts fellow Americans, our elected officials have botched everything that we granted them charge over. If you and I print money in our basements we would go to jail for a long time but if our officials print unearned trillions it is legal. One military strategy in war time is to infiltrate the adversary’s economic system with counterfeit or unearned money. The idea behind this tactic is to promote complacency by unrestricting purchase power and in so doing incentive is destroyed. We must demand that our elected officials hear our collective dissatisfied voices. We must completely revamp our Government by getting involved in local government. I am seriously considering running for district office and the reason why is because I seek to re-empower the American people. I have no political ties and my loyalties lie with the American people. My idea of Government is echoing the constituents’ voice and implementing their desires in a constitutionally correct way. Consider my views; I am opposed to abortion and homosexual behavior, however, as a district represented my opinion does not matter. On all major issues I would spend tax dollars to allow my constituents to come and vote on the issue at hand. Regardless of my opinion on the issue my stance would be dictated to me by the people I speak for. If the majority voted for abortion and homosexual behavior then I would vote for them as well. When the people speak majority must be herd.