Specter switches parties; D’s filibuster-proof
This happened on John Cornyn’s watch as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. While Cornyn did his best to help Specter by urging Pennsylvania congressional Republicans to support him, as I noted in a previous post, his plea fell on deaf ears. The conservatives effectively drove him out of the party. Cornyn tried to play both sides of the street here, pushing his own conservative agenda vigorously while trying to keep Specter viable as a general election candidate, but the party appears to be determined to … well, I was going to say, “eat its own young,” but that hardly applies to the case of the octogenarian Specter. Four other Republican senators have announced that they will not seek reelection. Cornyn does not appear to be headed for a happy tour as NRSC chair.
Tagged: arlen specter, john cornyn, nrsc
007 says:
Specter was highly predictable, but I suspect the following will also come out of the closet soon with newfound courage:
Tommy Merritt
Charlie Geren
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Party switching will be a semi-popular trend until short-term economic upticks cease (or never come to fuition)
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Prince Royal says:
KBH?
Doubtful. Extremely doubtful.
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Spiro Eagleton says:
KBH, unlike Specter, Snowe, and Collins is not a liberal when you look at her voting record.
What Specter did today was realize that Toomey would beat him in the 2010 GOP primary. In 2004 Specter eked past Toomey with a 51% to 49% win despite having a 5-1 financial advantage and the support of Bush, Rove, Santorum, etc. Toomey has already raised a lot of money for this rematch and was running 20+ points ahead in the polls.
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paulburka says:
You guys are quick! You already had Hutchison switching parties while I was trying to write about it.
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Lee Nichols says:
D’s are “filibuster-proof”? I don’t understand. This only brings them to 59.
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Spiro Eagleton says:
Also, Specter is probably more liberal on many issues than are Democrats like Bayh, Lincoln, and Nelson. This really doesn’t change that much in reality. The big question is whether or not Specter now comes out in favor of the card check bill.
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Anonymous says:
The Dems get to 60 when Franken is seated.
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A Random Passerby says:
Moderate or centrist or “maverick” (whatever) Senators have a vested interest in treating caucus numbers like they’re set in stone as voting patterns (it makes their caucus jumping votes all the more Courageous and Principled), so I can’t see this as being all that big a deal.
Essentially, we have a small but influential group of politically heterodox Senators that pisses off both sides of the aisle – and now that group has the same membership, but one less Republican, and one more Democrat. Sure, even becoming the most conservative Democrat would require Specter to move to the left, and now Specter’s fudge-votes will have to prove his loyalty as a moderate Democrat rather than a moderate Republican, but in terms of the political calculus on the big issues, how much has really changed??
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Rog says:
Ronald Reagan would be appalled.
I mean Phil Gramm.
Or, John Connally.
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