Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Specter: RINO no more

Good-bye and good riddance:
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. . . .
"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary," said Specter in a statement. "I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."
He added: "Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans."
Exit lying. One less member of the Senate Republican "Jellyfish Caucus." Specter reminds me of the high-school slut trying to sleep her way to popularity -- a weak reed, blown by the shifting winds. The fact that the national GOP apparatus lined up behind this venomous crapweasel in 2004 is all you need to know about what a worthless waste of time the national GOP apparatus was during the Bush/Mehlman era.

Even if Specter wins the Democratic primary (which is certainly not a given) and wins the general election (also not a given), no one will ever respect him because he is dishonorable and untrustworthy. A pox upon him and his ilk. (Via Memeorandum.)

UPDATE: Via Jules Crittenden and Gateway Pundit, a statement from RNC Chairman Michael Steele:
Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don’t do it first.
At least Steele won't have to spend more time pandering to the politically irrelevant "Specter wing" of the GOP.

UPDATE II: Philip Klein of The American Spectator:
If Specter had made this party switch right after his vote in favor of the stimulus package, and before he decided to oppose card check, he would have been in a far better position to claim the Democratic nomination.
Klein links Markos at Daily Kos:
Interestingly, he remains a foe of EFCA, which means that labor is free to fund and help a real Democrat in the Democratic primary. Bizarre choice. Had he decided to back EFCA, as he has always done so in the past, he'd have labor's full support. Now, he gives the opposition an opening to take him out in the Democratic primary.
When you see Kos using the phrase "real Democrat," it means that the Nutroots will back a Ned Lamont-style challenge to Specter in the Democratic primary, a challenge that every conservative should encourage. The more bitter the Democratic primary, the more obscure and extreme Specter's primary opposition, the better for conservatives.

BTW, I disagree with Klein when he says this:
This is a huge blow for Republicans hoping to stop Obama's agenda in the Senate.
Specter is a "huge blow," in one sense of that term, but he was never a reliable vote for anything. He is one of those vain, unprincipled creatures -- like Robert Byrd or John McCain -- who revel in their self-created image of being a "public servant," an image that is merely an excuse for selfishness and dishonesty.

UPDATE III: Notice how the treacherous crapweasel, after describing himself proudly as a member of the "Reagan Big Tent," then pisses all over the Reagan legacy:
When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.
If there is one thing that Reagan firmly stood for as firmly than his hatred of Communist tyrrany, it was his opposition to the Keynesian economic hokum that led to Carter-era "stagflation." If you don't understand why the bailout-and-stimulus idiocy of Obamanomics is bad policy -- It Won't Work -- you need to be reading Hayek and Mises.

UPDATE IV: Matt Welch of Reason:
By choosing to die on the hill of the stimulus package of all things, Specter reinforces whatever notion there is that stimuli and bailouts are Democratic, not Republican, pet toys. Since professional Republicans are currently scattered in the wind, trying desperately to latch onto the anti-stimulus/bailout Tea Party movement, cementing that divide may come back to haunt Democrats when those policies (inevitably, I think) become so derided that even Barack Obama's impressive popularity can't rescue them.
Hear! Hear! And the heroic Club For Growth:
Senator Specter has confirmed what we already knew – he's a liberal devoted to more spending, more bailouts, and less economic freedom.
The Club For Growth is "heroic," I say, because their support for Republican conservative Pat Toomey was what finally forced Specter to admit that he is a Democrat. As I said at The American Spectator:
Specter will be less useful to the Democrats now than he ever was when he had an "R" beside his name.
He was certainly never useful to Republicans. All things considered, swine flu has never been a greater threat to America than RINO fever.

UPDATE V: Michelle Malkin reminds us of Specter's habitual dishonesty, when he vowed just six weeks ago that he would not switch parties.

UPDATE VI: Some commenter just suggested that, in celebrating the RINO's departure, conservatives like myself were "purging" Sphincter. Nonsense. He purged himself. After years of zealously advancing the Democratic agenda with an "R" beside his name, he's now joined Jumpin' Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee in the Formerly Useful Idiot Coalition.

23 comments:

  1. Pox indeed Stacy, I hope the door does hit him on his way out. I have been irritated with his presence in the party for years, adios and glad you finally did it.

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  2. Thank you for punching the point that so few seem to get - that Specter as bad as he is, is a symptom of RNC incompetence and short-sightedness. This is "fool me once - fool me twice" territory. Supporting a back-stabber like Specter is proof only of weakness or idiocy.

    Do we need to explain again why Republicans have been losing elections? Sure. Because they haven't been running actual Republicans for office and those shmucks have disgraced the brand.

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  3. I second that pox. A pox on all their houses!

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  4. He reminds me of Hyman Roth, from Godfather II fame. He thinks he's going to live forever, but we all remember what happened to him in the end. (Figuratively speaking).

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  5. Specter reminds me of Hyman Roth, of Godfather II fame. He thinks he will live forever. We all remember how it ended for him, don't we? (Figuratively speaking).

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  6. Do the Senate republicans who donated for his campaign get their money back now?

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  7. .. even Barack Obama's impressive popularity Why do so many people buy into this fantasy that Obama has "impressive popularity"? His poll numbers are mediocre.

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  8. Specter will support EFCA when the time comes. He's just advertising his vote for sale.

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  9. give my blog a look see for a photo shop of our boy Arlen

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  10. How small does your rotten little party have to get before it is ideologically pure enough for you?

    You're a Whig, Stacy. 21%, 40 Senators (probably less next year), and out-voted by 150 in the House? Jesus, Howard Phillips will soon pass you in influence.

    Oh, and the idea you could win Pa with Pat Toomey is a joke. Your moderate presidential candidate lost by 11 points; your wingnut senate candidate will be lucky to match that.

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  11. You might not realize it but this is a disaster for the Democrats.

    Specter as the 60th vote means no more coverWhen you have all the majorities you have all the responsibility.

    Now instead of Republicans being blamed for "obstructing" the president, now our friends on the left own everything.

    If they fail to do something it is their fault, if they do something it's their fault and if this develop as we think they will and this is a huge failure it will be a failure that will be totally owned by the democratic party.

    And now they can't duck the Nutroots since they "have the votes".

    The short terms pain we have now will pay off big later, now instead of worrying about what the RINO will do the other side can worry and we can rebuild

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  12. My senior Senator (almost three years in south central PA for my lovely bride and me) has seen the handwriting on the wall, and jumped ship. Toomey was gonna blow him away in the primary next year, and he knows it.

    As for what this means to my party, here’s my take: initially, quite damaging. Once that buffoon Franken gets seated (what is wrong with those people in Minnesota, anyway?), there’ll be hell to pay keeping that 60-vote majority from ruining us all. Here’s hoping Cantor and the rest of the grownups in the House can get the bluedogs to think before they act. As for Arlen himself, I’m going to repeat what I said to Rush in an e-mail I sent in 2001, re: Jim Jeffords: “good riddance! He’s finally decided to call himself what he really is. Anyone who switches parties for political expediency, and not principles, regrets it in the long run. Say good-bye to your chairmanship in January 2003, Sen. Jeffords!”

    I used the example of Phil Gramm to buttress my case. Senator Gramm became a Republican because of his belief in Ronald Reagan’s ideas and ideals, and even ran in a special election for his seat to prove it. In 1994, he was vindicated when the Republican Revolution swept the Democrats out of Congressional power for the first time in 40 years. They still held the majority in both houses when he retired from the Senate.

    Jim Jeffords? In 2002, in the very next election after he switched parties, the Republicans regained control of the Senate. I’m not saying that’ll happen in 2010, the hill this time is probably too big to climb, but with what’s happening in the economy and around the world right now, the next two cycles in 2010 and 2012 could be very interesting.

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  13. Even the resident zampolit at the New Republic, Jonathan Chait, calls this specimen of snatch/grab opportunism an "unprincipled hack."

    If the Democrats have any brains, they'll toss him out in the primary election just as the Republicans would have---the real reason this devout coward bolted.

    Hilariously, the creep started out as a Dem, was rejected on smell-test rules, and then somehow wormed his way into the Repub universe. Churchill was right, it talks chutzpah to rat, but considerable treason to re-rat.

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  14. Wait! With 60 seats in the Senate (assuming clown Franken gets seated), that means Democrats will actually have TO GET SOMETHING DONE!

    No more excuses libs. You own the government now. Shut your dirty pieholes and get crackin...

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  15. Maybe Senator Sphincter thinks a filibuster proof Senate can ram through legislation that will prevent Democrats from ever loosing another election. Even so, it’s hard to believe that ambitious Pennsylvania Democrats are just going to stand aside and hand him their nomination. These are the same people who stood aside for a power-hungry harpy whose only apparent talent was slandering the woman her husband molested though, so you never know.

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  16. "Wait! With 60 seats in the Senate (assuming clown Franken gets seated), that means Democrats will actually have TO GET SOMETHING DONE!"

    Excellent point. They have lost their last remaining excuse for not getting things done. And of course, since everything they DO get done will make things worse, they will have to take 100% of the blame when things (increasingly) turn to shit.

    As for those decrying "ideological purity" can they answer exactly what made Specter a Republican? Consider:

    - anti-fiscal restraint, as his stimulus vote indicated
    - pro-abortion
    - pro-liberal judge (gang of 14, voted against Bork)
    - anti-tax cutting (worked to reduce the magnitude of Bush's tax cuts)

    Specter was against Republicans on pretty much everything, with the possible exception of national defense (which isn't SUPPOSED to be a partisan issue). Since when is it practicing ideological purity to not include in your party someone who shares NONE of your views?

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  17. If it wouldn't help fund their reelection campaigns I would suggest that we send 30 pieces of silver to Snowe, Collins and Specter as a sign of how we feel they have behaved all these years.

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  18. Stacy,

    You have mentioned on a number of occasions the necessity to get to 50% + 1 of the electorate, and the inadvisability of indulging in a purging mentality. In that light, I urge you to reconsider your joy at seeing Specter depart the Republican party.

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  19. I wonder why people think either party could be getting smaller. Libertarian-minded folks know that the swing between the Dems and Reps is more a matter of changing the tent canvas while encompassing the same crowd.

    If we are to accept the "tent" concept, ask yourselves why people complain about "purges" and shrinking-the-tent over at the RNC, while no one thinks about enlarging the tent of the Dem party. Making room for diversity is not something Dems are engaged in at any level.

    I could be wrong. They just enlarged their tent by accepting a classless opportunist.

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  20. This is a huge blow for Republicans hoping to stop Obama's agenda in the Senate.

    Oh bull, on every vote that really mattered he voted with the Dems, tell me what is the difference between 60 Dems and 57 Dems and 3 RINO's voting together? Nothing! For all intents and purposes the Dems have had a filibuster proof majority since January thanks to Snow, Collins and Specter. Good riddance to bad rubbish! Now if the we could only get some strong contenders to Collins and Snow.

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  21. April was a good month. We finally got rid of that dirtbag Phil Spector, and we finally got rid of that hypocritical Arlen Specter.

    Good Riddance to the Spectres. Keep weeding out the riff-raff.

    rbs

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  22. You were right about Specter. A clarifying moment. What a low creature.

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  23. He won't be missed, not any more than an abscessed tooth, or an impacted bowel movement. I can’t understand these chicken-hearts who think that catering to dishonest, unreliable, self-interested, terminally craven, so-called members of the party redounds in any way to our credit. Better to be rid of them than associated with them in any way.
    I feel 98 pounds lighter. Now if we could just be rid of a couple more of the parasites, we might be making progress.

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