Arlen Specter switches

[Rightwinger]

Sen. Specter switches over to the dems side. They now have 60 votes in the senate! What a man of conviction!

Glad I'm not from Pennsylvania.

[Guest SomeGuy]

This is sort of like a woman waiting a decade after the marriage to change her name. He was a Democrat long ago.

[Guest mustangdave]

Sen. Specter switches over to the dems side. They now have 60 votes in the senate! What a man of conviction!

Glad I'm not from Pennsylvania.

Not yet...they at 59...still waiting on that moron Franken from Minnisota to get past all the legal/illegal hurdles.

[Guest crotalus01]

When/If he does we are FU&&ED.....We are done as a world superpower (or ANY power - see Somalia anyone?). All LOL the USA

Yeah say it cant happen here...................

[56FordGuy]

I don't see it as a huge thing. He's going to vote however he's going to vote, regardless of party. From what I understand, he's switching because he doesn't want to risk losing the Republican primary to a real conservative, like he almost did last election.

I just want to see if he turns out to be "Too conservative" for the Democratic primary, or if he wins the primary then loses the main election to a conservative.

[Guest Dean_JC78]

And in other news the sky looks Blue, grass is green, and dogs sniff butts.

When a guy votes with the DNC most of the time and then comes out and says he is a Democrat... are we to be shocked? Its like when Ellen or Rosie came out of the Closet... who was surprised? He has been voting with the Democrats for years on all the major issues. Heck, I am having a REALLY hard time thinking of a SINGLE GOP issue he supports.

Nothing changes here, we lost him a long long time ago. His vote have been going to the DNC which is how they got their pork bills and all the other bills rammed down on us so easily and fast. If anything this is good news as we can get a real Conservative in his seat... I only wish a couple more of the Liberals pretending to be Republicans would come out of the closet as well.

[Guest Matchguy]

Early in World War II, Winston Churchill was conferring with his Cabinet when an aide came in and announced that Italy had just entered the war on the side of the Nazis. Churchill, recalling that Italy had fought as a member of the Allies in World War I simply replied: "'That's only fair. We had them last time."

May Mister Specter be the same millstone around the neck of the Democrat party that he was to the Republicans.....We had him last time.

[Guest archerdr1]

And in other news the sky looks Blue, grass is green, and dogs sniff butts.

When a guy votes with the DNC most of the time and then comes out and says he is a Democrat... are we to be shocked? Its like when Ellen or Rosie came out of the Closet... who was surprised? He has been voting with the Democrats for years on all the major issues. Heck, I am having a REALLY hard time thinking of a SINGLE GOP issue he supports.

Nothing changes here, we lost him a long long time ago. His vote have been going to the DNC which is how they got their pork bills and all the other bills rammed down on us so easily and fast. If anything this is good news as we can get a real Conservative in his seat... I only wish a couple more of the Liberals pretending to be Republicans would come out of the closet as well.

...and Specter Kisses them, so not much of a difference!

[K191145]

I don't see it as a huge thing. He's going to vote however he's going to vote, regardless of party. From what I understand, he's switching because he doesn't want to risk losing the Republican primary to a real conservative, like he almost did last election.

I just want to see if he turns out to be "Too conservative" for the Democratic primary, or if he wins the primary then loses the main election to a conservative.

In the meantime, the Democrats have a year and a half to do alot of damage to what's left of the United States.

[ttocswob]

Worst part of this, now if 'bama tries the back door AWB, via the CIFTA treaty, he probably has the senate votes to ratify.

[greenego]

Just heard on Bortz's radio show that Specter was a Dem. and changed to Rep. back in the 60s. Something about could not win the Dem primary. Where did I here something like this before? Is this what you call "I will do what ever I have to to stay in power"?

[E4 No More]

Just heard on Bortz's radio show that Specter was a Dem. and changed to Rep. back in the 60s. Something about could not win the Dem primary. Where did I here something like this before? Is this what you call "I will do what ever I have to to stay in power"?

IMHO, of course it's about keeping power. Power is addictive. Why else does someone that age stay in those positions well past retirement age?

[Mike.357]

the guy is just trying to keep a job. Nothing like being a Senator. There are only 100 of them so it is a big deal to have that job.

All he is doing is trying to extend his political career. He was not going to win a republican primary, and it looks doubtful that he can beat the republican candidate in the general election.

Give Obama some more time, he will give himself a fatal shot to the foot before the next go round.

And don't be so sure all the Senators will back him in some kind of BS treaty with Mexico or the UN.

[war4peace]

By CHARLES BABINGTON – 19 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Sen. Arlen Specter's switch to the Democrats, the Republican Party is increasingly at risk of being viewed as a mostly Southern and solidly conservative party, an identity that might take years to overcome.

Specter's move, which rocked Congress and the political world Tuesday, is the latest blow to Republicans, especially in the Northeast, once a GOP stronghold. The region's Republicans now have been reduced to a scant presence in the House and a dwindling influence in the Senate.

But Specter's defection has symbolic and immediate ramifications for the GOP nationwide. It makes it easier for Democrats, fairly or not, to paint the party as ideologically rigid and alien to large swaths of the country.

Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the Senate's few remaining moderate Republicans, called Specter's decision another sign that her party must move toward the center.

"Ultimately, we're heading to having the smallest political tent in history," Snowe said. "If the Republican Party fully intends to become a majority party in the future, it must move from the far right back toward the middle."

But Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was defiant.

"I do not accept that we are going to be a regional party," he said. "We're working very hard to compete throughout the country."

Specter's departure follows recent Republican losses in once-reliable states. While Barack Obama was cruising to the White House last fall, Republicans were losing long-held Senate seats in Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia. A moderate Republican lost his seat in Oregon, and the same seems likely to happen when Minnesota's long recount is settled.

In the House, Republicans have suffered deep losses in the last two elections, especially in the Northeast. Last week, Democrat Scott Murphy won a special election in a heavily Republican congressional district in upstate New York. Murphy will be sworn in Wednesday, giving Democrats' 256 House seats to 178 for Republicans with one vacancy.

The congressional Republicans' base is shrinking, leaving them with strongholds only in the South and parts of the mountain West.

With the departure of each centrist, including Pennsylvania's Specter, the party also appears more firmly right-of-center. Polls show most Americans nearer the political center, and Democratic leaders were happy Tuesday to promote the GOP's image as narrow-minded.

"This is now officially a Republican Party where moderates need not apply," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

Specter made similar remarks. "The Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right," he said, adding to the trend with his switch.

Specter accused party leaders of abandoning moderate Republicans in tough races, saying, "there ought to be an uprising."

In the 1970s, '80s and early '90s, the nation's political realignment favored the GOP. Voters in many of the 11 former Confederate states ousted Democrats by the dozens, no longer accepting the old odd-bedfellows alliance of Southern conservatives and more dominant Northern liberals.

With the Northeast still home to many "Rockefeller Republicans" — centrists in the mold of former New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller — the realignment pinched Democrats hard.

In recent years, however, the tide has reversed. Moderate-to-liberal voters in the Northeast and Pacific West felt increasingly at odds with the national Republican Party, and they began electing more Democrats to local and federal posts. Obama won surprising victories in Virginia, North Carolina and Indiana, though it's far from clear that Democrats can hold those states.

The result is a shrinking and increasingly right-leaning GOP, throughout the nation and in Congress. There, moderate Republicans are almost an endangered species. While lonely, they may play pivotal roles in brokering legislative deals, especially in the Senate.

Snowe and her Republican colleague from Maine, Susan M. Collins, now are the Senate's most prominent GOP moderates.

Collins said she was "very, very disappointed and surprised" by Specter's defection. "It's something I would never do," she said, but she called on her party to be more inclusive.

"The Republican Party has been most successful when it has adopted the big tent approach that was favored by Ronald Reagan, by Gerald Ford" and others, Collins said.

Obama hailed Specter's switch, but its blessing may prove mixed. The president vowed a more bipartisan era in Washington, and the loss of another GOP centrist will make Congress more partisan than before.

Republican leaders, meanwhile, faced an uphill battle in next year's Pennsylvania Senate race even before Specter made the switch. In that sense, they probably have lost little. Besides, only 15 years ago some pundits predicted permanent minority status for Democrats, following their huge losses in the 1994 elections.

Political fortunes can change rapidly, and unexpectedly. But for now, Republicans hold distinct minority status in the House and Senate, where Democrats and independents hold 59 seats to 40 for the GOP. They confront a popular Democratic president, and they face numerous ill-timed retirements in next year's Senate races.

Tuesday was another bad day in a political season that some Republicans must feel cannot possibly get worse.

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Charles Babington covers the White House for The Associated Press.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hConZZO3ynHB23x0Ln6UmAXfLAKgD97RPRE01

Edited April 29, 2009 by war4peace

[leroy]

It is laughable to presume that Arlen Specter is a friend to Republicans. He simply is not one. Specter's "Defection" is simply a self-preservation move. He does not want to face Toomey in a Republican Primary this fall. The Republicans in Pennsylvania (there are some, about 50% in western PA) were outraged at Specter's vote for the Oboma stimulus bill, and decided it was time for Arlen to go. Don't be sad that Specter is gone; good riddance. He has done nothing but vote to further his own despicable adgenda (himself). Arlen Specter may well be voted out of office in his next election bid. I say it is high time Republicans get rid of some of these politicians who have made their career by voting and promoting themselves. Arlen Specter is a disgrace to the people of Pennsylvania and this country as a whole. He is now at home in the Democrat Party; which has changed from the party of FDR and your fathers who worked in the 50's to the party of socialists, communists, deviants, anti-capitalists; and anti-guners who would make us all slaves and wards of the state. It is my hope that more like him will target themselves by switching sides. At this juncture in American History; I simply do not believe you can align yourselves with the Democrat party and honestly believe you are for the principles that this country was founded on. Let the purge begin!!

LEROY

[greenego]

Specter left the Republicans because he was losing in the PA. primary. As far as the Republicans only being a party for good old white southerners I don't see it. Unless the Republican party returns to a platform of less spending and smaller government it is going to lose that group also. The tea parties showed that. What few true Reagan Republicans are left should take the party back.

[oldblue1981]

Does this really come as a shock to anyone? Specter has always been a democrat at heart.

[GLOCKMEISTER]

sorry for the mess, had to merge the threads...

[Guest SUNTZU]

Arlen Specter, nuff said.

[VERO1]

Bring on Term Limits!

[Falcon1]

Worst part of this, now if 'bama tries the back door AWB, via the CIFTA treaty, he probably has the senate votes to ratify.

I've got to check my Constitution to be sure, but I think it takes a two-thirds vote to ratify a treaty...might be a small glimmer of hope?

[Guest crotalus01]

What worries me is this is carte blanche for the Dems to pass anything and everything they want for the next two years (at least). GOP will lose the fillibuster if that scum Al Franken gets the expected win in MN...

[greenego]

Bring on Term Limits!

+1

[Guest VolMickey]

Good riddance.

[Volzfan]

Arlen Sphincter is a piece of crap that's only trying to save his job and his gravy train on the taxpayers dime. Voters should have booted him long ago!