Good Riddance: Specter's Switch is Good News for the GOP
ByThe message from the mainstream media is that Senator Arlen Specter’s announcement that he will change party affiliation from Republican to Democrat is a crushing blow for the Republican party and a huge political victory for President Obama. We dissent.
We don’t spend much time covering horse-race issues here, but in our analysis, the departure of Arlen Specter from the Republican Party is good news rarely-heard for the GOP.
It’s true that the switch gives Democrats a filibuster-proof effective majority in the Senate and a fillibuster-proof numerical majority if Al Franken is seated. However, Specter has been a reliable vote for Democrats on many key votes for some time — even while he wore an “R” after his name. in the past the Republican Nation Committee has spent considerable time and effort to reelect a man whose loyalties seemed to lie with the Democratic party. Nothing has changed except the Republican party looks like it has a slightly better chance of being unified in principle and Republican party resources will now be spent making sure that conservative voters in Pennsylvania will have a chance to be represented by a real Republican.
Admittedly, Specter’s change in party position may help revive card-check legislation and other close debates, but we are encouraged tha Republicans finally see that the answer is not to woo Specter, but to invest heavily in making sure that Pat Toomey or another principled candidate is the next senator sitting in the seat formerly occupied by Specter.
P.S. Pat Toomey’s campaign web page is here — just in case you wanted to contribute… Also, Specter has said that he will return campaign contributions from Republicans made before his announcement if requested by contributors. We recommend that, if you are a Republican and you contributed to Specter, you request your contribution returned in writing.
I agree, his switch is just formalizing what we all knew he was anyway. Now we can stop wasting time on him and move forward. Hopefully, he gets retired in the upcoming election. I know a few others that can follow him too.
Agreed, Mickey. I just wish the timing would have been better. Pennsylvania looked like somewhat promising territory for a conservative senator for a considerable period of time during which the Republican establishment was wasting money making sure that Specter was reelected. Now that it the state is trending Democratic, the incumbent is gone. I wouldn’t be surprised if Specter doesn’t lose in the Democratic primary… and I’d be suprised, but pleased if Toomey took the seat. If the President’s popularity plummets and a large part of Philly stays home, a genuine Republican could still take that seat.