Sen. Arlen Specter will switch parties
Find a Conversation
| Tue, 04-28-2009 - 2:00pm |
Specter To Switch Parties
Complete article at link........
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/specter-to-switch-parties.html?hpid=topnews
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.
Specter's decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator from Minnesota. (Former senator Norm Coleman is appealing Franken's victory in the state Supreme Court.)
"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary," said Specter in a statement. "I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."
He added: "Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."
President Obama was informed of Specter's decision at around 10:25 a.m., according to White House officials, and reached out to the senator minutes later to tell him "you have my full support," and we are "thrilled to have you."
Specter as a Democrat would also fundamentally alter the 2010 calculus in Pennsylvania as he was expected to face a difficult primary challenge next year from former Rep. Pat Toomey. The only announced Democrat in the race is former National Constitution Center head Joe Torsella although several other candidates are looking at the race.
The precariousness of Specter's political position -- a Republican in a Democratic-leaning state -- was on display earlier this year when he was one of three GOP senators to back President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan. That vote was strongly condemned by conservative Republicans and Toomey used that vote as the launching pad for his candidacy.
That left a Democratic candidacy as Specter's best option if he wanted to remain in the Senate beyond 2010.


Pages
That's excellent.
Yes, I agree.
>"he was one of three GOP senators to back President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan"
Specter appears to agree with the Pres. on many fronts. He isn't known as someone that just "goes along".
"Lieberman should run as a Republican."
I was thinking the same thing. Great minds....
Interesting perspectives/opinions from the party and talkradio:
Limbaugh To Specter: Take McCain And His Daughter With You
04/28/09
Sam Stein
Reaction from top GOP officials to the defection of Sen. Arlen Specter has been decidedly mixed. The less orthodox are interpreting the news as a validation of their biggest concerns, while the dyed-in-the-wool types wave 'good riddance.'
Acid-tongued conservatives have long viewed Specter as an Independent or even a Democrat in GOP clothing. And so when the Pennsylvania Republican announced that the R after his name would be changed to a D, the response was to celebrate the purge of moderation.
"A lot of people said, well Specter, take McCain with you, and his daughter. Take McCain and his daughter with you," talk show host Rush Limbaugh declared during the early hour of his Tuesday program.
"Let's be honest," read a statement from RNC Chairman Michael Steele. "Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record."
The 'screw Specter' mentality seems expected for a party that, already on its heels, now likely faces filibuster-proof minority status in the Senate. But the more open-minded within the GOP see the reactions of Steele and Limbaugh as reflective of why Specter left the party in the first place.
"This is a sad day for the GOP," Michael Smerconish, a longtime conservative radio host in Philadelphia, told the Huffington Post. "He is what the party needed to be. They need to cultivate more Specters instead of deriding him as a RINO .... The fact that Michael Steele is deriding him for his left wing record is just the same type of bullsh*t of playing to the base."
Pointing to a Washington Post poll that showed only 21 percent of voters identify themselves as Republicans, Smerconish concluded: "I think the number is down to 20 percent."
Meanwhile Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the few remaining moderate Republicans in the Senate, told the Huffington Post Tuesday that Specter's abandonment of the GOP is "devastating," both "personally and I think for the party."
Indeed, when I spoke with former Senate moderate Lincoln Chafee about Specter's tough political spot roughly a month ago (when the prospect of a primary challenge had only begun to materialize) he lamented the litmus test that GOP officials are forced to take.
"It's enormous pressure, especially with the threats of primary," said the former Rhode Island Republican. "It is a no win. You are trying to help move the country forward and you have this small universe of a Republican primary in Pennsylvania, you are in for a scrap in it."
As David Frum, the former Bush adviser and a forward-looking Republican strategist, opined, shortly after Specter announced his defection: This is "another triumph for the Club for Growth."
Pages