Senator Arlen Specter, (U – Scotland) has made if official. He will caucus with the Democrats and seek re-electiion as a Democrat.
Chris Cillizza, Washington Post:
Specter To Switch Parties
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.)
For the record, we second Michelle:
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Now Senator Scottish Law is Dirty Harry Reid’s problem. Good luck Harry.
Update:(Eric)
Well, look, he was never far off being a Democrat in any event, as has been widely observed. In the end, this was the ultimate act of political self-preservation by means of a realtively small redefinition. Look, just a few days ago, Real Clear Politics reported that Specter was down by 21 points to Toomey in the primary. Clearly, he was going to lose that primary, and his only way to the general would be to jump the party. Trouble is, of course, that those numbers will not be changing more than a few points either side in the general, absent some huge swings, which I simply don’t see happening in that district. As a district it’s polled significantly to the right of Specter, to my memory of the thing, so he’s still got a hell of an uphill fight to beat Toomey.
Far as I’m concerned, this is the first volley in the kind of ‘boot their backsides out’ that was being called for in the Tea Parties.
Tags: Al Franken, arlen specter, Democrat, Democrats, Dirty Harry Reid, Harry Reid, michellemalkin, norm coleman, Pennsylvania, primary, real clear politics, Republican, state supreme court, tea parties
2 Responses to “Arlen Specter Bolts for the ‘rats”
Trackbacks/Pingbacks