Arlen Specter (R or D)
What, what, what? Arlen Specter , the 30 year US Senator from Pennsylvania was a middle-republican his entire life, but this morning he dropped the GOP and wants to be a Democrat. I despise political parties and believe they have a tremendous negative effect on progress and democracy. I believe that once elected everyone should be forced to be an independent and not have any political affiliation. And I don’t care if he changes his party, but what is important is whether he changes his politics. It would have been more appropriate if he just become an independent. However, Specter has no interest in fairness, democracy, his constituency, or anything else except for his own ability to get re-elected. He stated, with all honesty, that the only reason he is doing this is because he feared losing the next republican primary. I don’t know why he didn’t learn from Lieberman than he could have run as a Republican and if he lost than run again as an independent.
I believe Specter would vote for anything to preserve his seat in the Senate and that is the very worst that a democracy can become. The democrats could say “Senator Specter was elected to represent the interests of Pennsylvania and of the United States. We hope that he does that regardless of any political party. However, let us be clear that the Democratic Party stands for the people it represents and all elected Democrat officials are public servants and will always put the best interest of the people above themselves. Senator Specter does not seem to value these beliefs and although we welcome his support, there are no seats for people who only care about re-election in our party.” Of course, I give the Democrats too much credit; most of them would do the same thing to save themselves.
How could a US Senator say that this was only about re-elected? It would be so easy to just say “The Republicans are too far to the right and like the new Democrats. They rock and I want to be part of this great, new winning team. “
The more important thing is that this gives the Democrats a potential filibuster proof majority in the Senate. They only need one more seat, which should (eventually) go to Al Franken, the actor/democrat from Minnesota. That race is being contested and will be going to court in June. Now the Republicans may live and die by that race and they have all the incentives in the world to delay the outcome for as long as possible. And unlike Al Gore (who gave up the Presidency because he thought it was best for the country), the Republicans won’t go down so easy. And just thinking about Al Gore conceding make me throw up in my mouth.
This could change the entire landscape of Congress. The democrats could pass healthcare reform and anything else they wanted. This could be two years are tremendously risky and potentially helpful legislation. And the New York Times online put the story on the cover all morning and now the entire story somehow disappeared. The Jets trading up for Mark Sanchez was a bigger story, but alas, that is another story for another time.
I believe Specter would vote for anything to preserve his seat in the Senate and that is the very worst that a democracy can become. The democrats could say “Senator Specter was elected to represent the interests of Pennsylvania and of the United States. We hope that he does that regardless of any political party. However, let us be clear that the Democratic Party stands for the people it represents and all elected Democrat officials are public servants and will always put the best interest of the people above themselves. Senator Specter does not seem to value these beliefs and although we welcome his support, there are no seats for people who only care about re-election in our party.” Of course, I give the Democrats too much credit; most of them would do the same thing to save themselves.
How could a US Senator say that this was only about re-elected? It would be so easy to just say “The Republicans are too far to the right and like the new Democrats. They rock and I want to be part of this great, new winning team. “
The more important thing is that this gives the Democrats a potential filibuster proof majority in the Senate. They only need one more seat, which should (eventually) go to Al Franken, the actor/democrat from Minnesota. That race is being contested and will be going to court in June. Now the Republicans may live and die by that race and they have all the incentives in the world to delay the outcome for as long as possible. And unlike Al Gore (who gave up the Presidency because he thought it was best for the country), the Republicans won’t go down so easy. And just thinking about Al Gore conceding make me throw up in my mouth.
This could change the entire landscape of Congress. The democrats could pass healthcare reform and anything else they wanted. This could be two years are tremendously risky and potentially helpful legislation. And the New York Times online put the story on the cover all morning and now the entire story somehow disappeared. The Jets trading up for Mark Sanchez was a bigger story, but alas, that is another story for another time.
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