Specter Switches Parties

I wrote a diary about this months ago
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http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/26/702233/-Should-Harry-Reid-Try-To-Turn-Arlen-Specter
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I wonder if tht means he will back EFCA now.

Word is he had a tough primary coming up on the R side. But when your party doesn’t make sense to the guy who thinks the “magic bullet” makes sense, you’re way outta touch.
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I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy’s statement that sometimes Party asks too much
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He didn’t have to throw that in did he?

I was betting on him joining the Connecticut for Lieberman party.

Statement just out from Specter say she won’t change on card check but I am not buying that. He had to give up something for the Dems to allow him to switch. Hell if Toomey beats him in a primary we could have that seat anyway.

Hell if Toomey beats him in a primary we could have that seat anyway.
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Yep. Self preservation/doing the right thing. It’s great when they coincide.

SG: on ECFA: does not look like it: see Crowley at the Plank. I can’t do the connection stuff, sorry.

SG — besides sit doesn’t make sense because Specter was supporting EFCA until he was facing this threat by Toomey. He only switched sides now because he realized that the EFCA gesture was too little too late. I don’t imagine the unions would tolerate the Dems giving him this seat without a promise about EFCA.

bitterpill
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Either one of two things. Either he is lying so it won’t look like a pay to play, OR Harry Reid should be fired. Time will tell.

Looks like nothing more than self-preservation to me. However, if he spends the next 18 months sucking up to Obama like a Lieberman on a Bush, I might, to amuse myself, vote for him.

Somebody (I forget who), when asked about “bipartisanship,” said that we do have bipartisanship – it’s just that the debate now occurs between the two wings of the Democratic party.
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I thought it was trite at the time, but now I see the logic of it. Specter will be the epitome of a blue dog democrate. But maybe that’s OK. We do need an opposition party, after all.

RIP Republican Party

This is the last nail in the coffin, no?

hellslittleangel
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Self preservation for Specter, strategy on passing the agenda for Dems.
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Now I am going to give it an hour before I turn to FoxNews to watch the absolute bat sh*t insane freakout. I hope people are ready to post lots and lots of youtubes! lol

How is this going to affect the upcoming health care reform? I guess they won’t be needing to use reconciliation after all.

Credit Where Credit is Due:
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Bravo, SG; you called it.

SG: Please don’t “torture” me. That is what you do when you mention Harry Reid!!!

Remember this, if Specter still votes like a Repub then the Dems can still primary his ass and he will DEFINITELY get blown out in a Dem primary.

FoxNews will be HILARIOUS for the rest of the day. Maybe even the rest of the week. Either Beck or O’Reilly’s head will explode on camera soon.

I love the cynicism:
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“Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats,” Mr. Specter said in a statement. “I now find my political philosophy more in line
with Democrats than Republicans.”

I can’t remember how many times in the past year I have heard the phrase “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me”. This latest development really isn’t too surprising with the way Steele and other GOP leadership publically went after Specter for that last bailout vote. The GOP doesn’t seem to have any room for moderates or compromisers in their party any more.

Finally – a Republican who refused to be held hostage by Rush Limbaugh, Fox news, and other right wing radicals. …………..

http://thefiresidepost.com/2009/04/28/arlen-spector-switches-political-parties/

Yes, I would have thought the “I’m Independent as far as it goes” Party would have made more sense.
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I’m reminded of a scene from “Start the Revolution Without Me” when King Louis is trying to get away from the mob dressed as a peasant and ends up joining the flow storming the castle.
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So Specter is saying “I don’t want my political career ended by the looney Republicans I’ve represented since 1966 so rather than make the case as a moderate and fall on my sword I’ll hop to the other side so I have a better chance at surviving politically.” Noble. He should have see the writing on the wall when Gingrich hatched from Mordor.

afguy
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So do I BUT if Specter comes through on healthcare EFCA Education funding and cap and trade I might reconsider.

. . . OR Harry Reid should be fired. Time will tell.
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sgwhite,
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I vote for this option. For a variety of reasons that originated long lefore this . . .

Wow, I don’t know how that happened.

This whole internet thing certainly spreads breaking news quickly.

SG: I’ll vote for the wrinkly old turtle, but I reserve the right to disdain him. I wish PA had more wild-eyed commies in its Democratic party.

Hell if Toomey beats him in a primary we could have that seat anyway.
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You don’t think he’ll face a Dem primary? You don’t think he can be beaten there?

Once (if?) Franken gets seated, technically it’ll be 60–but the key bit to remember is that not every dem votes in lockstep. Of course, not every rep does either, so maybe that will be squishy enough to preserve the magic supermajority…but it’s not an automatic.

Title trumps party and party trumps country.

RIP Republican Party
This is the last nail in the coffin, no?
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That’ll be 2010 when they lose 4-6 more senate seats, with the caucus moving further to the loony right. Snowe and Collins are gonna get mighty lonely at that point….

jay–I think one of the ‘terms’ of Specter’s switch is that he doesn’t face a (serious) primary. At least, that’d be what I’d ask for if I was ejecting from the burning hulk of the GOP.

The Blue Dog Democrats are the new oppostition party.

sgwhite,
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The comment reversal? Weird!
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I’ll rethink too if he supports meaningful legislation. Let’s just say that his statements explaining the reasons/timing scream “opportunist” . . . and I have problems with Congresscritters who are elected under one platform converting to another. Too often it just stinks to high heaven when they do so.
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There are a couple of local politicians who have done so here in West Ky.

“–I think one of the ‘terms’ of Specter’s switch is that he doesn’t face a (serious) primary”
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I pray you are wrong.

If he wants to run a campaign as a “D” and get elected under it, I don’t have a problem with it.
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It’s the running as an “R” then converting (or vice versa) that smells to me. He should have seen the party direction a long time ago.

Thanks SZ

PNNTO
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I am almost positive they promised no primary for Specter if he crossed. But hopefully the caveat was that his votes had to cross with him. If he doesn’t vote for Obama’s agenda they had damn well better primary the hell out of him. And I think the prospect of him winning a Dem primary are worse than him winning a Republican primary. Thats why I think he will vote our way. But of course I have been wrong before. This is a lot different from the Lieberman deal, or at least it should be.

I have officially switched my Tee Vee to FoxNews for the rest of the day.

And the hysterical bed-wetting response is now underway…
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/28/source-specter-intends-switch-political-parties/

John Cole asks: Oh, and by the way, wingnuts- how is that Republican purity treating you? Is the GOP small enough to drown in a bathtub yet?

This is a lot different from the Lieberman deal, or at least it should be.
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sgwhite,
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If Reid lets another “Lieberman deal” happen, I’LL bring the tar and feathers personally. Words escape me to describe my contempt for that weasel (actually, both of them).

RE: Collins and Snowe…
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They will be even more lonely than they are today but my sense is that their seats are very safe so they have no incentive to switch, other than to get away from the wackos in today’s GOP. I’m not familiar with Maine politics. Does anybody know if a Club for Growth candidate could mount a serious primary challenge in Maine against either Snowe or Collins?

@queen: That is some powerfully strong stupid in the comments there. Wow.

SG I don’t know enough about Penn politics but I would hope he would have a primary challenge.
I trust Arlen not one bit.
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This anti-democratic Democratic politics drives me nuts.

sg, you are having entirely too much fun with this.
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Oh wait, no your not!

sg – “for the Dems to allow him to switch”??? There are some mutual benefits here, but the Dems could not “disallow” his switch. The question is how much support he’ll get to discourage a primary fight in the Dem party. My guess is he’ll get a lot, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be a primary, or that he’ll win. Liebermann didn’t win even with party support, did he.
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I’d be surprised though if he didn’t generally admit as how he was favorably disposed to vote for cloture in a variety of situations.
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And if the Dems wait until the next Congress to settle on giving him committee chairmanships then he has an incentive to play nice.
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As others have said here, if he wants to be a player he probably needs to be as a conservative Democrat. (Steele just out with a statement about Spectre leaving because of his “left wing voting record.” The Republicans are in trouble, aren’t they.

oglib said: RE: Collins and Snowe.. They will be even more lonely than they are today but my sense is that their seats are very safe so they have no incentive to switch, other than to get away from the wackos in today’s GOP.
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Interesting times, though. Watching Fox’s Shep’s head explode over torture tells me that the insane antics of the party are wearing hard on more than a few party stalwarts. Do Collins and Snowe really and truly want to be part of the torture party?

Geez, I go to make a sandwich for lunch and all hell breaks loose.
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I am not happy to have Arlen as a sleazy Democrat any more than I was happy with him as a sleazy Republican. His statement noting that he will still not support EFCA, doesn’t mean more to me than his impassioned statements about the importance of haebeus corpus then voting for the Bush bill that suspended it, nor his many statements on how important it was to keep warrantless wiretaps from continuing then voting to support the FISA renewal.
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I have said for years that he would sell his grandmother to advance his political career. This is just another example.
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It will be interesting to see if Joe Torcella continues his campaign development. The problem for him in a Dem primary will be Arlen’s name recognition in Western PA and the retail politics Arlen does very well.

kathy
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Actually yes they could. You don’t get to be a Dem just by saying you are one. He could have become an independent all on his own but he couldn’t caucus with Dems just because he doesn’t want to face a primary.

I’m from Delaware. Now that the truth in commenting has been taken care of, I would bet that Joe Biden had a hand in talking Arlen into this.

SG- I switched over to Fox for a few minutes just to see. Carl Cameron was giving a very good analysis, and even seemed to be rubbing it in that the Republicans have lost the Northeast. Sometimes Fox can surprise. They aren’t all totally looney toons over there, I guess.

Okay Steel says ‘ good bye, good riddance?
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Apparently, Steele says he’s not happy about this but let’s be honest Specter isn’t leaving out of any adherence to principals but because of personal survival. He’s leaving because he was going to lose to a Republican challenge in the primary, a result of all his left wing votes. Let’s hope that the GOP gets a chance to beat him before the Democrats do.
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Now that’s a paraphrase but really, if you are running a shrinking party are you really congratulating yourself for running one more peson out of your party?

I am not happy to have Arlen as a sleazy Democrat any more than I was happy with him as a sleazy Republican.
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Well said, Ivy_B. Like sgwhite, I’ll think better of him if he supports meaningful legislation. However, if he continues his history of being a hypocritical prick . . .

Wow. Comedy neutronium in the comments there.
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My favorite:
“He switched parties merely to continue his career. Most of his voters in PA switched parties. He needed to go where the votes are. He doesn’t really care about the people.”
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So by switching to the party (and ostensively, the platform) that his constituency switched to, he’s not caring about what his constituents think.
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I’ll have what he’s having.

On April 21st Phila Inq reported that Arlen Specter Dem opponent, Joe Torsella, raised $596,513 in six weeks for the election in 2010.

sg – well I suppose they could prevent him caucusing, but what would be the point of that? Switching parties is a Pennsylvania move, is it not? If he changes his registration in Pennsylvania then he’s a Democrat.

Kevin, the comments are the best part!

I wonder if we can give the GOP my fellow Tennessee alumni Heath Shuler in a straight up trade now in honor of the NFL draft from over the weekend.

“But hopefully the caveat was that his votes had to cross with him. If he doesn’t vote for Obama’s agenda they had damn well better primary the hell out of him. And I think the prospect of him winning a Dem primary are worse than him winning a Republican primary. Thats why I think he will vote our way.”
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The other reason he will vote with the Dems (I guess I should say, “his party”) more often than not is because, well, that’s what the folks in PA want. The Toomey crowd represents a shrinking (dying) minority in the Keystone State. He gains nothing by casting the majority of his votes with the GOP. He may act like a Blue Dog on some votes but his state is bluer than the states from which many of the real Blue Dogs hail.
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And this is different than Lieberman. Lieberman knew soon after his 2006 re-election that he was pretty much done as a senator from Connecticut. So he hitched his pony to McCain’s wagon in the slim hope that McCain would win and give him a job in his administration. That didn’t happen and now he’s kind of kissing up to Obama in the slim hope that he can win the next election or at least go out not looking like a total d**chebag. (that will be tough, though) A lot of Dems in PA already like Specter and it’s a blue state that’s getting bluer. Even if this next term is Specter’s last hurrah, he’ll want to go out as a popular long-term senator from PA. He’ll likely be a pretty reliable Dem vote and probably more reliable than some of the red state Blue Dogs.
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And my guess is that, yet again, he’ll switch his position on EFCA, despite what he said in his statement today.

I wonder if we can give the GOP my fellow Tennessee alumni Heath Shuler in a straight up trade now in honor of the NFL draft from over the weekend.
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sgwhite,
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Sad that his record is such that I have problems remembering that Schuler is actually a Democrat.
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How screwed-up is that?

ivyb – I have vivid memories of the Thomas hearings, and I’m not giving them up anytime soon. Spectre made my blood run cold then. Good thing I don’t live in PA.
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Do we think this is going to clear Sibelius?
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Harkin emphasized Spectre’s interest in the health care debate, which is going to happen inside the Democratic party.

I figure the repugs will fail to see the humor in this. Just as they fail to understand that Colbert is satire.

kathy
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The problem for Specter is he will get creamed in Pennsylvania in a Democratic primary if he is just a DINO. Especially if the Dem establishment backs and campaigns for his challenger. Therefore he kinda has to toe the line or else. Most people would like a real Democrat rather than just a DINO in a primary, especially when just about any Dem could beat Toomey. If Specter screws the Dems after this move I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rendell run against him in a primary even though Rendell says right now he doesn’t want to run for Senate.

Specter interview on CNN, question: Your constituates are here what do you have to say to them? Specter: “I don’t have to say anything to them, they have said it to me.” Constituates: Applause, Applause.

Isn’t it time for rusty or hula or spob to interrupt this interesting and oh so uncomfortable conversation with endless cut and paste posts?

kathy
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wrt FoxNews you have to give them some time to get their talking points from the GOP. Id say in another hour or so they will be going full bore. BTW I just saw Carl Cameron and he said Specter was a liberal Republican. Seriously.

Ivy, I understand we are a long way out but what would you guess are Joe Torsella’s realistic chances?

afguy
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I actually knew Heath back in school and I don’t recognize the guy now that he is in office.

Sort of a send-up of our “two-party” system. Specter will hardly change no matter what flag he marches under, yet the Democrats will gladly take someone like him aboard for their own purposes. Where’s that George Washington quote when I need it.
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Also, LMAO at Specter’s “far to the right” whine. He obviously did not have a problem with that until it was clear the ship was sinking and the opposition will likely now have full control beyond into his retirement.

I was actually talking to somebody just yesterday who was trying to make the argument that Specter’s lack of conviction about anything is what made him a good senator. Bwah-ha-ha! Still I’m glad his sense of self preservation has led him into the Dem caucus.
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It’s all about cloture now. I can easily imagine Dems telling Specter they don’t really care how he finally votes on any of the agenda so long as he helps them end debate. That’s pretty much what I’d tell him. And if he won’t cast his vote for cloture, then their would be a serious Dem primary challenger.

Karl Rove on the phone on FoxNews.

Ha! That darm Ramesh!
From The Corner
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“The Club for Shrinkage [Ramesh Ponnuru]

My initial reaction on hearing the news was that after generating a bunch of Democratic House seats, the Club for Growth has now produced its first Democratic senator. I assume that Specter’s votes will now move leftward.”

I actually knew Heath back in school and I don’t recognize the guy now that he is in office.
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You think the fat NFL contract changed him? Proximity to pols while in DC?

Catch word is picking up steam on FoxNews. “Arlen Specter is a liberal Republican”

I particularly liked this bit in Specter’s statement:
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I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.
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Apply the transitive property and there’s a deeper truth to that than I suspect Specter realizes.

afguy
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I don’t know that it was the money because he pretty much came from money. But maybe its just being back in wingnut North Carolina. I don’t know but I don’t like it.

There’s a big billboard on I-70 identifying Russell, KS as the hometown of both Bob Dole and Arlen Specter. I’d bet if you were near it right now you’d already be able to hear the chainsaws firing up.

At The Corner, Ramesh Ponnuru avoids the “good riddance” talking point and highlights the reality:
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The Club for Shrinkage [Ramesh Ponnuru]
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My initial reaction on hearing the news was that after generating a bunch of Democratic House seats, the Club for Growth has now produced its first Democratic senator. I assume that Specter’s votes will now move leftward.

PNNTO, Alas, don’t think Torsella’s chances are good against Arlen at this point. He has a following in the critical Southeastern part of the state, but suspect he is pretty much unknown west of that five county area. Lots of people don’t know him even in the Southeast, but that could more easily be overcome. I think before the Arlen switch he planned to spend the next year getting known statewide. Here is his wiki bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_M._Torsella
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Kathy, after the Anita Hill hearings, I swore I would never vote for Arlen again, then they ran someone even worse and I had to break my pledge. That continued over the years every now and then, but I have a scoreboard for every wiggle he has made and every say one thing and vote another move. Will not be happy if I have to vote for him again.
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sgw, if Rendell runs for Senate, I will buy you an actual rather than virtual beverage of your choice! For the same reasons he insisted he didn’t want to be VP, he would be really unhappy in the Senate. Ed isn’t a discusser, he is a guy in charge.

Thanks, sgwhite,
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BTW, what part of Tenn? I lived in Columbia for 8 years before moving here.

SG – agree thoroughly with your comment at #63.
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This all reminds me of KT’s comment when Voinovich retired: Voinovich’s retirement clears the way for him to vote his conscience over the next two years without much regard for the exigencies of party discipline.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/01/12/george-voinovich-to-retire/
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The Republicans bought their own propaganda the last 8 years and honestly thinks that “Americans” agree with them. Most of them quite simply haven’t noticed things have changed.

Following comments here without benefit of tv. I think this must have been in the works for a while. Slithery Harry appears to have contained and managed this very well. I am cautious about going overboard on 60: remember Ben Nelson and Kent Conrad: and one other who escapes me at the moment. They sometimes have to be given a well placed kick to get them to toe the line.

If Arlen is the sole Dem candidate then there will be some pressure on him to play down his “independent” schtick from time to time and toe the line.

afguy
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Memphis TN. I knew a guy from Columbia by the name of Ronnie Pillow. Ever heard of him?

Digby: “…If you want to enjoy this watch Fox news. They all look like they’ve just sucked on a bag of lemons.”

sgwhite,
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Actually, yes, I do. Just can’t remember the context.
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As for Memphis, my aunt lived there for half a century or so.

Thanks Ivy. With a state that is growing more and more Democratic I was hoping that would help level the field.
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Exactly how personally popular is Specter, I wonder? Is it enough to make up for what he says will be his EFCA vote. In a Democratic primary?

What a sleazy, slimey POLITICIAN. Actually that’s an insult to politicians. He is a selfserving, backstabbing, fraud. I wonder what deal he made with the dems to do this. It will be interesting to see what committee he ends up on after this. I will personally travel to PA to campaign against him. I’d rather see a lunatic like Al Franken get the job, at least we know what he is. This guy is corrupt and will obviously stoop as low as necessary to hold onto his job. He is the lowest of the low. Maybe I should pull my son out of his PA college. I certainly won’t consider sending my other child to PA.

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Those comments at FoxNews.com are TEH AWESOME

sgw,
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In the words of MST3K’s Tom Servo: “This . . . is . . . rich.”

This all reminds me of Ben Nighthorse Campbell.

Known to Coloradans as Ben “Nightmare” Campbell.

Wow. I just went to Fred Meyer to buy some new pillows.
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I come back to find that Arlan Specter is a Democrat!
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I am going to sleep good toniight!

Ha FT. I thought he was beloved.

You’d think that “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” would have the decency to “interrupt this program for a late breaking bulletin…”, but nooooooo!.
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Gotta come back from lunch and find that everyone and my mother has already commented about this…

PNNTO,
This is from an article from the Phila Inq in 2007 describing the way Arlen has maintained his seat. Sorry no block quote – all rest from that article.
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***When Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) takes the stage at one of his famous town-hall meetings, you never know what you’re going to get: a joke, a story, or a blunt declaration.
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This was a declaration.
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“I have to disagree with you – there’s a hell of a difference between being wounded and not,” Specter told a man who thought uninjured combat veterans deserved the same Veterans Affairs health benefits as the wounded. The man started to argue. “I already answered your question,” Specter said. “I don’t know what more I can tell you.”
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Such jousting is a summer ritual for Specter, who uses congressional recesses to visit all 67 counties in Pennsylvania – his version of a permanent campaign. Most politicians try to mingle with voters, but few are as methodical and intense about it.
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The tradition dates to mid-1980, when Specter trailed the Democratic candidate for Senate, former Pittsburgh Mayor Pete Flaherty, by 19 percentage points. Specter promised to go to every county, and the press loved the gimmick. He succeeded by the end of August.
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“That’s the way I caught him,” Specter said.
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The forums, a mixture of relentlessness and intimacy, have helped the moderate Republican sink deep political roots in all corners of the state, one reason he has withstood challenges from both the left (1992) and the right (2004).
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***

Thanks Ivy. I can see how that work ethic paid off in a general and a republican primary (where he had established infrastructure).
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Penn is a closed primary state-I think-which I would hope hurt his chances.
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Anyway this is all a parlor game at this point, thanks very much for the local info.

There’s good reasons for both parties not to like him, albeit for different issues.
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Prediction: he gets wiped out in the Democrat primary. There’s no way that there won’t be at least one Democrat who is more liberal than him step up to the plate in 2010 (provided the Democratic party in Pennsylvania allows this).
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Another note, you don’t run as a Republican and then after 200,000 voters in your state switch away change party affiliation. This is little more than opportunism. I’d be much more convinced if he either:
(a) Ran as a Democrat in 2004 ; or (b) waited until later and ran as a Democrat in 2010. This is not good for Republicans or Democrats.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/04/28/flashback_specter_says_hes_staying_republican.html

P-NNTO -

Campbell was beloved (I’m going with my memory here, not teh Google, so watch out for truthiness) by many, including me. He was emphatically Native-American, rode a motorcycle because he enjoyed it and not because it was cool, and represented “high desert” Colorado – neither ski-resorts nor the Eastern plains. He had some positions that were a little weird for a Democrat, but hey.
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Then he joined the Republican party and got all dark and scary, thus the “Nighthorse” to “Nightmare” thing.

apollyon07: Obama will be campaigning for him. Suspect that will clear the field.

KT- Thanks, didn’t see that. So much for my prediction then.

If what KT said up above about this being about BHO’s plans for this year then how much gets passed will help decide if BHO will campaign for him and whether there will be a challenge.
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Party bigwigs annointing a guy to be your party’s senate candidate who has been a member of your party less than 24 months is pretty anti-democratic. And insulting.

P-NNTO: Sounds as though Obama has already offered to campaign for him. And Jared Bernstein is on TV now talking about how he was the crucial vote on the stimulus. Also, Rendell offered to raise money for him. I’d be very surprised if he has any real Democratic primary opposition.

KT, I would guess that Torsella will run just to get some name recognition for the next time. As of today, he says he will still run, but an up and coming state representative (Shapiro) says he won’t. Doubt that Sestak will either.

Unless Specter screws up on the big issues, I don’t see the Dems supporting another party candidate. It’s not as if Dems haven’t promised not to run significant opposition against him in the past when they needed his vote on something important.
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It’s clear why the Dems are jumping on this opportunity. While the popular frame is Specter needs help because he’s toast in a GOP primary, Specter is pretty popular statewide and depending on the popularity of the Democratic candidate, in a three-way race a Democratic victory is not a given.
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In addition, the Dems want to project themselves as the big tent party, making it an increasingly welcoming place for all of the moderate Republicans who jumped ship for Obama in 2008 and now may begin to feel skittish that one party is amassing too much power. The goal is to keep them through 2010 and beyond and the signal being sent here is that the Democrats are reasonable, willing to listen to different points of view and are nothing like the extremist left wing socialist fascist party out to destroy the America we all know and love like the wingnuts claim. The more reasonable we look the crazier they get.

Thanks for the info KT. But it really does disgust me.
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I’m trying to imagine a scenerio in which I as a Democratic voter would so quickly roll over for a republican because BHO told me to.

sgwhiteinfla Says:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I wonder if we can give the GOP my fellow Tennessee alumni Heath Shuler in a straight up trade now in honor of the NFL draft from over the weekend
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You must be the first person who thought Heath Shuler had any trade value – inside or outside the NFL!

April 22 this appeared in Pennsylvania’s capitol city newspaper The Patriot-News:

Take the year off and chill.

That’s the message to Pennsylvania Democrats from state Democratic Party Chairman T.J. Rooney, who on Monday said that, if things seem quiet, it’s intentional.

“Our goal in 2010 is not to have a primary,” Rooney said. “Our goal is to come together as a party and, in the meantime, let the other side beat the tar out of one another.”

So you have to wonder if Rooney knew a week ago of Specter’s intended switch. Regardless, the state Democratic Party has a stated goal of getting behind its candidates, avoiding fractiousness and using its electoral advantage to bring its candidates into office.

The past two elections saw Pennsylvania going purple. Arlen Specter saw in 2008 that we’ve finally gone blue and, as a person with an incredible will to survive, he has at least gone bluish-purple.

“Arlen Specter saw in 2008 that we’ve finally gone blue and, as a person with an incredible will to survive, he has at least gone bluish-purple.”
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That’s the color of a bruise…