Breaking: Arlen Specter is switching to the Democrat Party

He waits until now?

This ensures that Glenn Beck will go full Howard Beale and that Hannity’s head will explode. Comedy gold, thy name is Fox News.

@FlyingChainSaw: I think he wanted to make sure he wasn’t going to win the Republican primary

How long before Lieberman switches to GOP?

@FlyingChainSaw: This way, 2 Democrats voted against the panflu funding.

But honestly I can’t figure his strategy out. This allows Toomey an almost certain victory in the primaries for the Rethugs, and although Specter is counting on the registered Ds outweighing the registered Rs (assuming no strong Dem competes in the primaries, and there are none in waiting that I know of), it just may not play that way.

I guess this is one of those inside the tent pissing out vs. outside the tent pissing in situations.

The few old dinosaurs and northeastern rational republicans have been so left behind by the party as it has descended to its present stance of theocratic millenarian fascism are doing nothing but providing a shabby veneer of respectability to what is truly a party of loons and criminals. Snow and McCain should quit too, and leave nothing but the raving loons. It will be so much harder for the DC press corp to continue to present the GOP as a real political party and not a violent death cult.

@Nabisco: It’s basically the same strategy Lieberman used last time around. As long as you can make it through the primary (where only the crazies come out to vote), you can shoot for the middle and count on your moderate stance and incumbency to carry you through. I see it working.

And sex scandal breaking in MN in 5… 4… 3…

“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.”

he he he he. chuckle chuckle.

It’s Democrat-Socialist Party. Kthnksbai

@Prommie: somewhere in the statement it says he’s not changing his position on card check.

@Marcel Parcells: Maybe. I continue to agree with Black Eagle that this place is full of the gunz and bitterz, but we did go overwhelmingly for Hope ™, and EGR took something like 65 percent in his re-election bid.

Look for a pas de deux between Santorum and Toomey as to whether the former should campaign for the latter. Expect many fly-bys from JoeDa, Jindal and maybe even SarPal.

Prommie / blogenfreude: This, along with the loss in NY-20, is the most objective, tangible evidence we have on the decline and fall of the Republican Empire.

NY-20 is bigger than most people would make it out to be. The last time it was truly open was in 1998, when John Sweeney (of Brooks Brothers Rioting, wife slapping, frat-party attending fame) won that district by 13 points. After three total walkovers (36 points in 2000, 49 points in 2002, and 32 points in 2004), Gillibrand took it by 6 in 2006 (but Sweeney was damaged beyond repair by his sheer humanity, and consumption of hard alcohol). She then won running away in 2008, by 24. Latest: generic GOPer running on “no you can’t” against generic Democrat is a dead heat. So, essentially, you have a 13 point swing, long term, against the GOP of Today in that district.

There are other signs too that are less obvious. But this ought to be a big warning sign. Note to GOP: Eric Cantor is on the path to FAIL. If you want to survive, do not follow him.

[BTW: wouldn't it suck to be Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe right now? Poor things -- they were running for the bus but it just left. Sad.]

@Nabisco: The more JoeDa and SarPal, the better. Put your stupidest cretins forward, GOP, please, yes, make JoeDa and SarPal your symbols. Oh yes, ohhh, yess yesss, ohe yesssssss, yes yes yes OH yes.

He’s not doing what Lieberman did. Lieberman the fucking slime mold piece of fucking shit won’t even take a stand on what he is, and insisted on a big wide straddle, he was able to tell us dems “fuck you, you suck and you are evil,” to campaign against the democratic nominee, and still have us give him a commitee chairmanship and treat him as if he was still a dem.

At least Spector is saying it plain. I am not a republican anymore, they are crazy wingnuts, I am now a democrat.

Is it too soon to make fun of him for being ugly? Because the Crypt Keeper wants his hairstyle back.

Prommie: There is, of course, a slight hint of “self-serving politician” about this. The spinning on this from Republicans isn’t total bullshit. This move isn’t as pure as, say, Saint Jim of Vermont jumping ship in 2001. Arlen knew that he was going to get torched in the Republican primary, and wanted to get into a primary that he could possibly win. (They’re closed primaries in Pa., in case you were wondering why that meant a damn thing.)

But the fact that he, as an incumbent in a system in which incumbents really don’t lose as often as they ought to, was threatened with a primary from within simply because he wasn’t a fire-breathing conservative, does say more about the GOP than it does about him. So, yes: he switched parties to save his own ass. The fact that his ass needed saving should not be forgotten, however.

Harry Reid negotiated the Big Switch.

Which means, in exchange for Specter flipping the R to a D, but voting the same as he always does, the Dems won’t back a primary opponent, and a presumably more liberal candidate won’t face Toomey in the fall.

Do the Dems even get a guaranteed cloture vote out of it? Not that I’ve heard so far.

Thanks, Harry!

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: Uh, there’s something you should know. From the archives:

Mr. Specter, who is undergoing chemotherapy for Hodgkin’s disease and has lost his hair as a result, cited himself as a powerful reason to take that position.

“It is scandalous, absolutely scandalous,” he said, “that there are so many people with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and heart disease and cancer — some of whom, myself, look in the mirror every day, can barely recognize myself. And not to have the ability of the best medical care is simply atrocious.”

Specter knew there’s no way he’d survive a primary challenge in a party now composed solely of psycopaths in the late stages of Mad Cow Disease (the part where your brain turns to Jello and you begin craving the taste of human flesh).

OTOH, if there’s a Republican in the Senate who’s most closely aligned with the Democrats it’s probably Specter, so… welcome aboard, Senator!

@mellbell:

Ooh, my bad. Sorry Arlen!

Amongst the sea of dittoheads at my hometown paper’s site typing comments trying to convince themselves that this is a good thing for the GOP, I found this little gem:

“Does this mean the GOP is small enough now to drown in a bathtub?”

@Jamie Sommers:

Win… 100%, un-adulterated win. Suck on that, Grover Norquist.

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: And it’s actually growing back – that picture is oldish. A colleague just reminded me that Arlen started out as a Dem, but ran a Republican because he couldn’t beat the D machine in Philly. That’s where that “big tent Reagan Republican” meme comes from.

@Jamie Sommers: hee hee

Tears of AWESOME.

By the way: if you’ve got access to a TV right now, Fox News is the place to be. I just looooooove watching the wingnuts seethe. (Right now it’s Ari Fleisher calling Specter a dishonorable traitor who’s “more interested in power than he is in principle.”)

BREAKING: Mexico and Israel at war over the other white meat.

Oh. Wow. They’ve been working on bringing Specter into the fold for a looong time. And Arlen and his people always denied sending up trial balloons to the Dems. Wow.

I am going to have a hard time voting for this guy. I’m so accustomed to voting against him, I might actually revert to old habits. Plus I just can’t stand this guy. I still carry a grudge about the whole Anita Hill testimony.

@Serolf Divad: Much as I aspire to Mark Twain-quality cynicism in my dotage (and fear Mencken-quality dementia), I’ll never really understand how folks like Ari can do that.

In the end, I’m Marge Gunderson at the wheel, with a brutal murderer in the back seat: “There’s more to life than a little money, you know. Don’tcha know that? And here ya are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well, I just don’t understand it.”

It’s almost hard to believe now that obituaries for the Demoncrats were being written just five short years ago.

@nojo: Well there is a difference between cynicism and blithe lying through your teeth; I mean, ya know, its not cynical to lie, thats dishonest, when you’re cynical that just means that you tend to believe that everyone else is lying.

And they usually are.

@Original Andrew: And look what ultimately emerged: a candidate who didn’t carry the baggage of the party leadership.

The Repugs wrote off 2010 on January 21, and they’re well on their way to writing off 2012. I don’t think we’ve seen their new standard-bearer yet — certainly not Jindal, and most certainly not Talibunny. Might be a few years before their panchen lama is revealed.

@Prommie: In other news, I suck at poker.

@Original Andrew:

Remember the “poermanent Republican majority”?

Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha!!!! “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

@Serolf Divad:

It is tempting to rejoice–and we should savor these victories–but let’s not discount the Dems’ talent for self-destruction.

Also, not to be a Debbie Downer, it seems people are mostly voting against the Retardicans, because they’ve gone totes psycho, rather than for the Demoncrats, whose legislative accomplishments are thin at best, and let’s face it, their spineless pussitude and general corruption and incompetence are legendary even by today’s standards.

Hey, look, it’s the dancing guy from the Six Flags commercials!

@Ewalda: And just as creepy.

@Ewalda: @rptrcub: I didn’t know who you meant and had to look it up, and holy smokes, you’re right!

@Ewalda:

I was planning to go there, but mellbell made me ashamed.

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: Is ok, you didn’t know. And anyway, the Crypt Keeper references are best left to Stephen Colbert when describing Sumner Redstone.

@JNOV: Anita Hill? I’m still pissed over the magic bullet theory.

@Tommmcatt the Wet Sprocket: Lance Armstrong returns to the road in the Tour of the Gila in SW New Mexico (Geronimo’s stomping grounds).

@Prommie: The soundtrack for the final days of the GOP will be by My Life With the Thrill Kill Cult.

@redmanlaw: What everyone should still be pissed about, when it comes to Anita Hill, is that the democrats had a half dozen Anita Hill’s ready to testify about Thomas’s pattern of sexual harrassment, but they made a deal with the republicans and agreed to put only Anita on the stand, and then the republicans put on that parade of shitbags who trashed Hill.

@Promnight: Did you see that thing on Demratz and the battered spouse syndrome?

” In recent years, the Washington political dynamic has often resembled an abusive marriage, in which the bullying husband (the Republicans) slaps the wife and kids around, and the battered wife (the Democrats) makes excuses and hides the ugly bruises from outsiders to keep the family together.”

http://www.truthout.org/042809M

@redmanlaw: I think the press is the battered spouse in that dynamic. The Bush admin went after anyone in the press who wasn’t kissing their ass, they would deny access, call the network and have them fired, they actually got Rather fired, a network anchor, the Bush family revenge for Rather skewering GHW Bush 20 years before.

The democrats are not pussies, the press coverage of them portrayed them as pussies. The press was so beaten and stockholm-syndromed by the bullying republicans that they would not give the democrats a podium, would not air the vigorous dem responses and positions, during the Bush nazi era.

@redmanlaw:

How cool is that! He just got a pass on the “showergate” thing too.

@Promnight: I’m with you – the Dems were the kids in the family caught in the crossfire between abuser GOP and battered spouse media. The seven year old who is occasionally knocked in the head when he’s trying to keep mom and dad apart, ignored/mocked at best.