Senator Specter Defects

So the ugly side of politics shows itself once again today as the political opportunist Arlen Specter announces that he will become a Democrat.  After voting against his party one too many times, he knew that he would not survive a Republican primary election next year.  So the 79 year old man said, "Oh wait, I guess I'm really a Democrat now."  What a crock.  A guy who was first elected when Reagan became president says that the party is too conservative now.  Wow!  What did he think Reagan was?  We only wish that today we had a party leader as conservative as Reagan was.

Why did he finally change parties?  How about this April 24, 2009 Rasmussen Poll of Pennsylvania Republicans?  It shows Specter losing to Pat Toomey by a margin of 51% to 30%. The handwriting was on the wall and there was nothing Specter could do in the Senate in the next year to undo the Republicans' disgust with him. 

I've disliked Arlen Specter since he became a prominent opponent of Robert Bork in 1987.  He attempted to redeem himself with Republicans in 1991 when he defended Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court.  Not coincidentally, that was just one year before he had to face Republican voters for re-nomination to this Senate seat.  He angered a lot of feminists, but he satisfied Republicans so he kept his seat.  And remember how he voted during the 1999 Trial Of President Bill Clinton?  He invoked Scottish law to say that Clinton was neither guilty nor innocent.  Huh?  Always thinking he's the smartest guy in the room and the world revolves around him!  But face it -- this guy will do whatever it takes to keep his position of power and is there anything worse in political life than that?  Republicans bent over backwards for this guy in the last five years.  The Republican leaders ignored party principles and supported Specter over a conservative Republican congressman in the 2004 primary and they allowed him to take over as chairman of the Judiciary Committee in 2005 despite virulent opposition from mainstream Republicans.  And this is how he repays them.  Thanks a lot, Arlen.

There have been other defections in the past decade.  But at least Vermont's Jim Jeffords jumped to Independent and not Democrat and Connecticut's Joe Lieberman had his nomination taken away by far left Democratic ideologues in 2006.  He then won fair and square as an Independent.  Neither of these guys looked at the next year's election and said, "I better jump to the other party because I have so angered my own party that they will not support me."

Does this really change the balance of power in the Senate, as many have written today?  Only if you believe that Specter would vote with Republicans in the future.  He hasn't so far, so what will really change?