Arlen Specter, Long term Senator(R) from Pennsylvania Switches parties and leaves the Democrats one vote short of a filibuster proof senate. Whats behind this?
Arlen has been a very slight maverick on some of his votes but most of the ones that have angered his own party the most. Well, he would be no different than any other senator, when it benefits him directly or indirectly and or his state, he will claim to be doing a independent thing for the good as he sees it. Some may be true but there is always more to read into this if you do a little digging.
Well, Specters support for the stimulus package seems to be the last straw for the Republicans as they were about to throw alot of money to make him loose his own party’s nomination. Now it only makes sense when your own party seems to be pulling out all the stops to take your seat, it is time to sit at a new table.
Now in order to do such a thing, there has to be some kind of arrangement for support within the other party both verbally and with the good old green back. So, Obama has stated he will campaign for him if he wishes, but how much is the party willing to spend to keep his seat Democratic?
Probably not much unless they manage to get just one more seat to switch and then his seat becomes more valuable as a filibuster proof senate. And one must wonder what promises he has made for support in coming issues.
It will be interesting to see if Arlen is just two faced or the Democrats have done a double fake or both. One thing for sure is the Republicans have little moral authority in the eyes of the public and do not stand a great chance of shifting any power for some time unless they can scare everyone into it as has worked in the past. At this point, I see a bunch of mud being thrown but not to much is sticking except for the few talking radio heads that have a cult following that does not question the truth of what is being said. Lots of luck making a change with those guys and their followers. Their tactics must change, not just the message or the messenger if they are to have any credibility going forward.