# Sen. Arlen Specter (PA) to become a Democrat **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 28, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627 "2009-04-28T16:09:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/21 "2009-04-28T16:57:41Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I just want to take a moment to commend the good taste of all you Dopers who have ignored the opportunity herein presented for tasteless, juvenile humor… Well, it _would_ be nine, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/22 "2009-04-28T16:59:05Z")
Uh huh. So Republicans and Pennsylvanians for years have had to contend with a surly, self-entitled, power hungry jerk with few principles save self preservation. He is widely seen as an asshole even by Senate standards, which sets the bar low. I knew someone who spent a year on his staff - she called him the Antichrist. Now, frankly I wanted him to remain a Republican. Our tent can accommodate all, even the likes of him. But all of you that are chortling like it’s Christmas will now have to feed the pony you just got. And take him for rides. And clean up his poop. And while I too am disappointed, like **Bricker** , I just hope all of you are happy with your smelly new pet. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/23 "2009-04-28T17:01:43Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > And while I too am disappointed, like **Bricker** , I just hope all of you are happy with your smelly new pet. I’m not personally happy at all. I don’t think this changes anything. Specter will be Specter, and Specter the Republican was Specter, period. Specter the Democrat won’t be much different. If he were to suddenly transform into Specter the Progressive Champion of the People, I’d be overjoyed. I’d wish for a pony, too, but I figure the end result will be the same. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/24 "2009-04-28T17:02:58Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > No, but he’ll almost certainly be more likely to vote to break filibusters as a Dem then he would’ve if he stayed in the GOP, especially given that he’ll now have to survive a Dem primary in a year. And beyond breaking filibusters, the Dems don’t actually need his vote for much. I agree. Otherwise he probably would have pulled a Lieberman and gone Independant. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/25 "2009-04-28T17:03:59Z")
On the other hand, come primary time, he may find a sudden and necessary urge to spend more time with his family, so who knows? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/26 "2009-04-28T17:06:00Z")
I expect this will increase the pressure on Coleman to sacrifice the last scrap of his dignity on the GOP alter, and fight all the way to the United Nations. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/27 "2009-04-28T17:07:21Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > This is only really marginally good for the Democrats. I really don’t think he’s going to vote any differently, for cloture or anything else, than he did when he was a Republican. He already changed his vote on EFCA once, presumably for political reasons. I suspect he could be convinced to do so again, at least to the point of voting for cloture and then voting against the act itself. And I suspect there are a lot of other things he would’ve voted to hold a filibuster on if he was looking down the barrel of a GOP primary that he won’t do so now. In any case, even if Spector votes exactly as he would’ve in the GOP, the politics of the US gov’t have changed. The filibuster was the last hold the GOP had on real power, without it, the dynamics are between moderate and liberal Dems. The GOP simply doesn’t matter anymore, and probably won’t again until at least 2012. As I said, they screwed themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/28 "2009-04-28T17:08:27Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I expect this will increase the pressure on Coleman to sacrifice the last scrap of his dignity on the GOP alter, and fight all the way to the United Nations. “We’ll carry this all the way to Trantor if we must!” ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/29 "2009-04-28T17:09:46Z")
I don’t know enough about the Senator to judge him based on his voting record. Frankly, I see this as a similar phenomenon as the 2008 elections here in Washington, where a huge number of politicians listed their party as “GOP” in the voters’ guide instead of as “Republican” because the Republican brand was in the shitter. This guy is being squeezed out of the party because he doesn’t demonstrate 100% toe-the-party-line loyalty. I don’t think anybody has any illusions he’ll suddenly develop loyalty to the Democrat party line. It might, possibly, maybe stop some of the “let’s filibuster everything” foolishness that’s going on now. Maybe. Some of the time. About like what we have now. ---
**Author:** ![haymarketmartyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/35a633/32.png) [@haymarketmartyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/haymarketmartyr)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/30 "2009-04-28T17:11:32Z")
If Specter votes against Employee Free Choice Act, then this switch makes little sense for anybody as he will be opposed in the DEM primary next year. I suspect he will be there to vote for it. This puts another nail in the coffin of the Republicans as pretty much being a national party. They have Collins and Snowe from Maine left, but then its pretty much a strictly Southern and Western party. That is not a good sign for them in three years. Still hoping for a Palin/Limbaugh ticket in 2012. It will be 1964 all over again. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/31 "2009-04-28T17:12:37Z")
Good news. The GOP is officially irrelevant. The question is what to do first with our bulletproof majority. Personally, I’m in favor of pressing right ahead with War On God, but others might prefer to prioritize the Compulsory Gay Marriage Act. Of course, we’ll need to take the guns away quickly too, so they can’t make trouble when we start killing babies. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/32 "2009-04-28T17:13:54Z")
I’m still upset that Bush and Santorum endorsed him over Toomey in the 2004 primary with the bullshit explanation that Specter “would be there when we needed him”. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me on Rick Santorum, and it showed what a political whore that he was. PA and the U.S. Senate could have been rid of Specter five years ago were in not for these two… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/33 "2009-04-28T17:15:08Z")
> [@Fish](#): > > This guy is being squeezed out of the party because he doesn’t demonstrate 100% toe-the-party-line loyalty. By who, though? Certainly not by Senate Republicans - they’ll set him up in choice committees and give him any out he needs to stay “politically viable.” No, he was facing heat from primary voters in Pennsylvania, who are more conservative than in many other states because of closed primaries. Now, frankly I think a case can be made either way for caucuses, open primaries, and closed primaries, but beyond that a political party has the right to choose its candidates. Just as it did when Specter sought statewide elected office in 1976 and 1978, and Republican voters chose better men both times. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/34 "2009-04-28T17:18:24Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > And while I too am disappointed, like **Bricker** , I just hope all of you are happy with your smelly new pet. And I bet the grapes were sour, too. I’m not a big fan of his, but it will be easier to go this route than trying to find someone to beat him in the general election. He did seem to have to hold his nose a great deal and engage in some contortions to vote with the Republicans (in constrast to how he would describe his positions more extemporaneously; anyone remember his vote of “present” or “not proven” on Clinton’s impeachment), so it will be interesting to see what he does when he isn’t trying desperately to fend off primary challenges from the right. The Republicans are in trouble, and aren’t doing a damn thing right to stop their hemorrhaging. People who self identify as Republicans in polls are at decades low marks. Here’s what Specter said re: his switch: > [@](#): > > 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. All the GOP has to offer right now is a further rush to the right. More power to them - as they lose “centrists” like Specter, they will only cement themselves as the party of the deep south. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/35 "2009-04-28T17:18:56Z")
> [@TooSchoolforCool](#): > > I wonder if Michele Steele is regretting his refusal to endorse Specter against Toomey. This has to be the end for Steele, doesn’t it? He drew a line in the sand with NY-20 and lost that, and this with Specter has to fall at his feet. I don’t really think that he could have done much to avoid these outcomes, but he’s the guy in charge. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/36 "2009-04-28T17:19:37Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > I’m not personally happy at all. I don’t think this changes anything. Specter will be Specter, and Specter the Republican was Specter, period. Specter the Democrat won’t be much different. Didn’t he start out as a Dem? He converted the first time in order to run for DA – less competition in Philly that way. Same thing Sam Katz did. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/37 "2009-04-28T17:21:01Z")
> [@TooSchoolforCool](#): > > The way they are trying to pass EFCA is dumb anyhow. Card Check is in some ways the least important and most debatable of the changes involved: they should just dump that provision, call it something else, and pass the rest. Give this man a cookie. Most of labor doesn’t want EFCA as it stands, the AFL-CIO notwithstanding. As someone very involved with union organizing, I hope Specter continues to oppose EFCA ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/38 "2009-04-28T17:21:03Z")
> [@haymarketmartyr](#): > > Still hoping for a Palin/Limbaugh ticket in 2012. It will be 1964 all over again. 😃 Oh my… oh my oh my. That’s the brink of surreality. No, wait, that makes a surrealestate agent’s commission for the year. Anyone know Rush’s take on Specter’s switch? ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/39 "2009-04-28T17:22:05Z")
Well, it’s true: if the voters in Pennsylvania elected Specter in the expectation that he would toe the party line and vote 100% Republican on every issue, he’s not been the model of devotion. If the voters elected Specter on the expectation that he’d accomplish things for the state of Pennsylvania, then voting “let’s filibuster everything” doesn’t exactly fulfill his role either. What would you do? ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/40 "2009-04-28T17:22:55Z")
He didn’t leave the party, the party left him. The GOP is becoming extremely uncomfortable for moderates. The primary voters want their politicians to take some really extreme and illogical positions on most issues. This is just too incompatible with what moderate conservatives want and the GOP is not showing any signs of changing course. The question is how much longer will they stay in denial. My guess is that they won’t gain much in 2010 and in only in 2012 will we see someone changing the direction of the party. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627.md?page=3)