The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait isn’t exactly welcoming Arlen Specter on board:
I think it’s pretty clear that Specter is an unprincipled hack. If his best odds of keeping his Senate seat lay in joining the Communist party, he’d probably do that.
To be sure, Specter is a real moderate on some issues, but his contortions are so comical that no principled read on his actions is very plausible. Specter favored the Employee Free Choice Act favored by labor, turned against it when he faced a primary challenge, and then abandoned his party altogether when it became clear he couldn’t win his primary. In the meantime, he came out in favor of a Hooverite spending freeze after backing the stimulus bill.
Advertisement
I wonder if the Democrats will be able to wrangle him any better than the Republicans could. Doubtful, for the same reason no one from either party can nail Jell-O shots to the wall.
Meanwhile, Andrew Sullivan calls Specter “my kind of Republican in many ways.”
So true.
Does this mean Specter takes it in the ass bareback?
Pat Toomey could beat a RINO, but can he beat a DINO?
Makes me wonder if we’ll see Republicans switching their voter registrations to Dem in order to vote against Specter in the Dem primary. Operation Chaos redux?
If his best odds of keeping his Senate seat lay in joining the Communist party, he’d probably do that.
I think he just did.
Operation Chaos redux?
I’ve been wondering why there hasn’t been more mention of Operation Chaos, since Specter mentioned 200,000 R’s who registered as D in the past year in his state as part of his justification for officially switching parties.
There hasn’t been much mention of Operation Chaos because it was just a name attached to an event after it was already happening. And maybe, just maybe, Rush Limbaugh himself just doesn’t want to tout his amazing skill at getting more voters for Hillary Clinton*. It kind of goes against some of his values, which I’m told do actually exist.
*especially since the entire Operation Chaos thing didn’t really work anyhow. There will be much huffing and puffing about it, but my guess is that a vast majority of those 200,000 voters switched parties for reasons outside of Rush Limbaugh’s Machiavellian machinations. Though it’s certainly entertaining to have Republicans counting them as “theirs”. They may as well count Specter as theirs as well, since that’s what he was elected as.
There will be much huffing and puffing about it, but my guess is
At the risk of encouraging more worthless drivel, I’ll ask why anyone should care what your guess is.
Jon,
Actually, as one who lives in PA, it probably had more to do with the fact that PA has closed primaries and the Republican candidate was decided well before they ever got here while the Democrat had yet to be picked and the race was being talked about non-stop by the media.
If you wanted in on the action you had to switch. I’m not saying this was the sole reason, but likely a major factor.
Granted the only way to tell is to wait until the next presidential election where the only real primary action will be the Republican race (granted this assumes Obama doesn’t become another Carter).
I think we’re way past the Carter stage with this presidency. One big difference, though, is that less of the electorate is politically tuned in now, and those who are seem to be less upset by what Obama is doing than people were in the 70′s with Carter. IMHO.
This may be a dumb question, but why is it okay to switch parties AFTER you’ve been elected? Regardless of how inept the GOP has become, I do NOT think it’s okay to just bail. What if a SEAL just up and decided to join the pirates? THIS IS NOT OKAY. Is it?
Jeff
http://www.cerebellumblues.com
Jayne, that leads me to wonder: now that Arlen has switched to the Dems, will all those hundreds of thousands of newly minted Dem voters come back to the GOP where the primary is now an open question again?
‘Cause that would be funny as hell: Hundreds of thousands of PA voters flee whatever party Arlen Sphincter belongs to. Film at 11.
Andrew Who?
Glad to see him go. Now, if only New Jersey would take him as well…