Ladies and gentlemen, your newest Democrat: Arlen Specter!!!

[db44]

Congrats, GOP, on scaring off one of your mainstays!

Reports are just coming in...

[db44]

Specter has apparently said he will seek reelection as a Democrat.

[itsmeagain]

Holy crap...

Please, GOP, get your crap together soon!

[itsmeagain]

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/04/28/arlen-specter-switching-parties.aspx

Here's some linkage.

[Richard Tafoya]

And Franken makes 60 once he's seated.

[Richard Tafoya]

SF Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov05election/detail?entry_id=39231&tsp=1

Facing a conservative primary challenge, moderate Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching to the Democratic Party.

If Al Franken wins the Minnesota seat, that gives Democrats a 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate majority and President Obama an LBJ-style shot at history.

Obama told Specter he was "thrilled" with the decision.

Specter was among the last of the vanishing moderate Northeastern Republicans. He was key to passing Obama's $800 billion stimulus, one of three Republicans, with Maine's two other Republican moderates, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, to provide the necessary votes for passage. Specter said that vote produced a "schism" in the party that created "irreconcilable differences" between him and the GOP.

Specter also irked Democrats this year by quashing the push by liberals for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it much easier for workers to join unions. But with Franken putting Democrats so tantalizingly close to a stunning filibuster-proof majority, Democrats put a full-court press on Specter, promising to support him in his re-election bid and essentially allowing him to keep his seat. Few love the Senate more than Specter.

[Richard Tafoya]

Snowe and Collins have been attacked by the extreme right for the same thing - being a moderate Republican, which apparently is not a position welcome in the GOP any longer. I wonder if this opens the door for them to join Specter.

Someone should buy up a bunch of billboards thanking Rush and Hannity for this. At the rate they're going, they'll ensure that Republicans are nothing but an angry sideshow to adult political debate in this country. 21% of the electorate and falling.

[db44]

Would love to listen to Rush today. I don't say that often.

[db44]

Watching a tractor chase on FOX News. Shep's spinning the Specter situation as the Senator accusing the Right of hijacking the party... Of course, making Specter out as the bad guy.

[Richard Tafoya]

Michael Steele was on CNN earlier treating this as an ambush, almost as an act of treason on Specter's part. Over on Fox, there was discussion of whether Dems could have violated ethical or legal rules by inviting Specter aboard.

Not a good day for the GOP.

[db44]

It's amazing, isn't it? Even looking at all the stories here, all the reports in the media, the attacks on Megan McCain even, and the Republicans still see it as themselves against the world. They can do no wrong, but even people who have leanings towards their side are being swept away by the party itself.

Another thing Shep was spinning was that Specter jumped ship because he (the Senator) saw he couldn't win as a Republican. No mention about the stong-arm tactics the party tried to use... A tactic which backfired, obviously.

[itsmeagain]

It's amazing, isn't it? Even looking at all the stories here, all the reports in the media, the attacks on Megan McCain even, and the Republicans still see it as themselves against the world. They can do no wrong, but even people who have leanings towards their side are being swept away by the party itself.


The GOP could gain a lot by listening to Meghan. She seems to be one of the few voices of reason coming from there these days. The Dems are on their way, once Franken is finally seated, to a filibusterer-proof house.

[Sasha Reigne]

I remember I think it was back in 2004 when Sean Hannity especially were attaching the Dems for not supporting Joe Lieberman and making him run as an independent. He went all out about how a party needs to be a big tent and allow various opinions within it. Now 5years later the Repubs are doing the same thing that he accussed the Dems of doing. I dont blame Arlen for jumping ship, I wish he would have become an independent but hey Im still proud of him. I dont listen to Rush anymore but I heard he was also attacking McCain and his daughter and others who dare not agree with him and saying they need to leave the party as well. Maybe eventually the Reps will start doing some soul searching and stop these meaningless attacks.