Arlen Specter to become a Democrat

[Berkut]

Who is this "they"?

Did all the republicans get together and vote have Specter switch?

"They" are the majority of republicans that were apparently about to vote him off their ticket.

In favor of some other Republican though. It isn't like Specter The Republican was going to win the general election anyway, right?

Specter the Republican could have won the general election.  Specter had really good numbers among Independents and Democrats, so just consolidating the Republicans a bit would have put him over the top.

Toomey the Republican was not going to win the general election.

"Voters approve 52 - 33 percent of the job Specter is doing, with a 71 - 16 percent positive score from Democrats and a 41 - 37 percent boost from independent voters, off-setting a 52 - 36 percent disapproval from Republicans."
http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1327.xml?ReleaseID=1280

So Specter would have won the general, but could not have won the primary?

If that is the case, I withdraw my objection - mea culpa.

The republicans (at least some of them) are in fact dumbasses. And I applaud Specter for making them pay for their dumbassedness.

[Hansmeister]

Well, he voted with the democrats most of the time anyway, so it's no great loss.  How does having somebody represent your party who rejects every single principled position of that party help?  Specter is no Lieberman who only had a disagreement with his party on a single issue, Specter disagreed with the GOP on virtually every issue.

I doubt Specter will win in 2010, his vote for the porkulus will kill him.  We will have substantially higher unemployment next year than this year, with massive budget deficits and a poor economy, which will result in a blood bath at the polls.  A narcissistic 30-year Senator like Snarlin' Arlen is exactly what people will revolt against.

[saskganesh]

RINO? what's that stand for?

Republican In Name Only.

ok. there must be DINOS out there for balance.

[Vince]

RINO? what's that stand for?

Republican In Name Only.

It drives me nuts when I hear that term because it's usually referring to moderate northeast GOP members.  A lot of the conservative base in the Republican party can't seem to wrap they're heads around the fact that they can't win up here with their policy views.  The more conservative they get the more they're going to alienate non-base Republicans.

[saskganesh]

Vince you must be one of the "unamericans" I often read about.

[Admiral Yi]

It drives me nuts when I hear that term because it's usually referring to moderate northeast GOP members.  A lot of the conservative base in the Republican party can't seem to wrap they're heads around the fact that they can't win up here with their policy views.  The more conservative they get the more they're going to alienate non-base Republicans.

Is this term used by the Republican base?  I've only heard it here used by Democratic party cadres.

[DGuller]

ok. there must be DINOS out there for balance.

We call them Blue Dogs these days.

[fhdz]

Is this term used by the Republican base?  I've only heard it here used by Democratic party cadres.

A quick google search indicates that yes, at least the Republican blogosphere is rather fond of calling folks RINOs.

[Vince]

Vince you must be one of the "unamericans" I often read about.

[DGuller]

Is this term used by the Republican base?  I've only heard it here used by Democratic party cadres.

I think it's used much more often by Hans types than it is used by Democrats.  Democrats prefer to call them "moderate Republicans", for obvious reasons.

[fhdz]

We call them Blue Dogs these days.

Or Liebermans.

[saskganesh]

heh. innerresting.

[DontSayBanana]

heh. innerresting.

Guess the behavior that Vince was talking about does cross party lines, since the Blue Dogs' and Lieberman's disagreements with the Democrats were relatively minor.

@Hans: Interesting, and not something that I would have expected, but now that it's occurring, I'm not surprised. Specter was not unconditionally for the stimulus; he took the time to publicize his grievances with the legislation, but he voted for it as the lesser of two evils, and at that point, the Republicans really set this into motion, since they started issuing ultimatums that it was the responsibility of every Republican to block Obama's fiscal agenda.

[ulmont]

We call them Blue Dogs these days.

Or Liebermans.

Or Lieberdems, which Specter will likely be.

[Viking]

We call them Blue Dogs these days.

Or Liebermans.

Or Lieberdems, which Specter will likely be.

DINO?

shit, it really exists?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democrat_In_Name_Only