Hopefully Senator Arlen Specter (PA) will enjoy his 15 minutes, because he’s already being overshadowed by the swine flu.
A seasoned political opportunist, Specter saw the writing on the wall that he was likely on his way to a Republican primary loss in next year’s election.
So, is he in Washington to fight for Pennsylvanians? A political party? Or, himself?
Of course, this gives Democrats the “magic number” (after the eventual likely seating of MN’s Al Franken), but they’ll still have the same votes on some issues and not on others.
Senator Jim DeMint sums up exactly how I feel about the Specter switch.
“I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.”
The HotAir Specter timeline is here.
Michelle Malkin has more on the flip-flop here.
I know they can do a helluva lotta damage in two years, but there is something refreshing about letting them have the whole show. Their policies cannot succeed and they’ll own every single thing they do. Of course that assumes the GOP will self-promote instead of self-emasculate. Big assumption.