Big news today in Washington, D.C. has been journey home for Arlen Specter. A man that started his long career as a Democrat, then switched to the GOP went back to the D’s today after flirting with the idea for quite sometime. I liken it to Michael Jordan coming out of retirement two times…by the second one it didn’t matter much. This is the second time Specter has switched parties and it really doesn’t mean that much.
He has been voting with the Democrats pretty consistently so on paper - when and if Al Franken is seated - the Democrats will have 60 votes. They essentially already had this because of Specter’s voting record. So nothing changes.
Most are saying - and I agree - that Specter is doing this not to get a plum committee chairmanship or to win favor with anyone on the Hill…he’s doing it to win favor with voters and save his career. Recent polls indicated a potential slaughter at the polls for Specter in the 2010 GOP primary against Pat Toomey. In a move of pure political self-preservation, Specter decided to bolt before getting beat. Now the Democrats are essentially stuck with supporting the guy.
One thing is for certain: Arlen can’t say he doesn’t look at polls.
UPDATE: Sen. Olympia Snowe has come out and said - the inevitable response to all this - that the GOP is lost and is to blame for Specter leaving. This is the easy reply in a situation like this. It’s the Republican Party’s fault. Just like it was when Jeffords left, right? As I wrote above, Specter was and is looking out for #1. The GOP is not lost in the wilderness.
While you are right about Specter - technically speaking his defection to the Democrats’ side of the aisle changes nothing - I believe that you are mistaken about the state of the Republican Party. We ARE indeed lost in the wilderness. Sadly, I fear that the GOP is going to fare poorly again in 2010, because so far, Republicans have been unwilling or unable to do what voters wanted them to do in 2008: clean up their acts.