Yeah, uh, speaking as a guy who’s actually been voting for Spector for a long time, he’s a smart guy who doesn’t toe the party line all the time but votes his conscience. Voting for Spector can always been done with a clear conscience.
How does that translate to “spineless?”
It’s not clear to me how you extrapolated that from what I said.
As I analogized upthread – both 2 and 10 are greater than 1, but that doesn’t make 2 and 10 equal.
Liberals are, apparently by definition, spineless.
Apparently it takes courage to do what everyone around you is doing. Specter was just a coward who refused to toe the party line.
Than Specter should have from the start have been an Independent or Democrat.
You are aware, of course, of his views on gun control (against), national security (pro-PATRIOT Act, pro-FISA), crime (get tougher on it), etc.
Are you of the belief that being a Republican (or, for that matter, a member of any political party), naturally implies lockstep adherence to the party’s platform?
Personally, I think a few points of honest disagreement with a party’s planks while sticking close to the meat of the platform is a sign of a better-than-average politician, someone who can be trusted to think for themselves.
The entire span of human political thought is encompassed by the Republican platform, silly. 
The views on gun control and crime at least are held by most reasonable Americans whether liberal or conservative-including most Blue Dog and Rust Belt Democrats.
That doesn’t make them non-conservative positions, and his positions on PATRIOT and FISA are straight up right wing.
I would still like to know why you called him “spineless.” Was he spineless when he served in the Air Force during the Korean war?
He’s switched parties TWICE in his life first from Democrat to Republican and than Republican to Democrat.
You know who else switched parties? Ronald Reagan.
How does that translate to “spineless?” I ask again, was Arlen Specter spineless when he joined the Air Force during the Korean War? What couragous acts have you performed for your country that makes you feel entitled to call veterans “spineless?”
He did it as a private person not as a politician.
I’m not saying he has a spineless personality-he’s spineless in politics.
Reagan switched in order to run for Governor because it was more politically expedient to run as a Republican than as a Democrat.
You’re going to have to do better than that Specter switched parties to call him spineless.You clearly know nothing of the guy’s personality. He’s actually been pretty tough. He’s a spitter.
I think that if you want to be taken seriously in political discussions, taht you should make an effort to inform yourself with something better than what you read in Sean Hannity books and hear on Glenn Beck. You often sound like you’re regurgitating talk radio memes, not really thinking for yourself. Politics, and the world as a whole, are not as simplistically black and white as you currently think. Learn some nuance.
I’m not big fans of Beck or Hannity or Limbaugh or Palin or Levin.
OK, how about Winston Churchill, who switched from the Conservatives to the Liberals in 1904, and back to the Conservatives in 1924?
That’s fine–but you want to address the substantial portion of my post, or those of Diogenes? How does any of this make him spineless?
Are you asserting that the political parties in this country have not changed and he’s spineless because a new party obviously means he’s a waffler?
Are you asserting that not following in lockstep with your chosen party, once chosen, makes you weak?
Are you asserting that you are the arbiter of what’s a ‘real’ Republican and he’s spineless for running as one all these years when he wasn’t one?
My main problem with Specter was not that he was a Republican but that he became a Democrat briefly giving them a sixty seat majority in the Senate.
He’s not dead! He’s just pinin’ for the fjords!