# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/121 "2009-04-29T15:19:33Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > And Democrat-Socialism is just another word for nothing left to lose? > > I’m wondering if Snowe is gambling that by the time re-election time rolls around there will be enough of a backlash against the “Republican base” that she’ll be in a position to drive an expanded moderate wing of the party. After all, if they keep weeding out the “RINOs” pretty soon the base is going to consist entirely of Limbaugh, Palin, Bachman and a hound dog. Oh, that poor dog! ---
**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 29, 2009, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/122 "2009-04-29T15:24:39Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > Oh, that poor dog! The dog’s a balance. There are already two crazy bitches in that group. They just needed a sane one. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/123 "2009-04-29T15:34:50Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Generally speaking, a two-party system is better than a one-party system (just as [a multiparty system is better than a two-party system](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=269169)); but a one-party system does not necessarily portend the dominant party’s self-destruction, as the African National Congress can tell you. Generally speaking, a multi-party system is _not_ better than a two-party system. Repeating it (or starting threads about it) does not make it true. Think about this conceptually for a moment. The greater the dominance one party has in the legislature, the lesser it has to sell in anyone else on its agenda. It sells in its agenda by providing public goods. Very roughly speaking, Democrats in the Senate needs to provide enough public goods to 51% of the people in 60% of the states to maintain the Democratic majority. When you only have to please a few people, you obviously end up with inefficient and often wasteful policy. Suppose for a minute it fails to deliver these public goods due to incompetence, corruption, or lack of sufficient oversight by a viable minority party (imagine that). Small failures only have to move the needle by a little bit for the dominating majority to disappear. And the more inefficient, base-pleasing agendas the majority pushes, the greater likelihood is that this will happen. This kind of dominance and certainly a “permanent majority” is not stable. What is most stable intuitively is a legislature that has to provide the most public good to the broadest range of people. Consider under what conditions that will occur. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/124 "2009-04-29T16:09:17Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > The strange thing is the deeper the GOP gets into the wilderness the quicker their pace seemingly becomes. After all, the party’s response to the electorate’s increased concern over the GOP’s rightward trajectory is to lean further right. I’m afraid all that’s left in control are the extremists, unfortunately. The moderates seem to have, for the most part, left the party, or been silenced. > > I wonder by what logic the GOP believes it can remain relevent and actually win elections with the 21 percent they still have, many of whom are single issue, social conservatives first and party loyalists second. [Here’s one observer’s theory on that:](http://themoderatevoice.com/30329/knee-capping-why-the-club-for-growth-does-it-and-why-it-will-never-work/) > [@](#): > > The big question is: why does the Club for Growth do this? Surely they know that they have contributed to a shrunken Republican Party - especially in the Northeast and Midwest. They aren’t just a gang of purity trolls in the blogosphere either; the left produces all manner of CFG-wannabes on Daily Kos calling for the heads of moderate Democrats (with Joe Lieberman as the only scalp). Unlike the liberal purists, the CFG has real money that it can ram into these campaigns. They play for keeps, and the national GOP is decidedly ambivalent about their influence in the party (some, like Gingrich, see them as true conservatives keeping the party rooted and others, like Mike Huckabee, call them the “Club for Greed”). > > The reason they do this is simple: they believe that once the nation discovers the true horrors of Barack Obama’s left-wing socialist extremism and the destruction of the American way of life, voters will come back in droves to the Republican Party. And voters will only do that if the party has itself purged its wayward souls whose moderation is, of course, the only reason for Republican losses in 2006 and 2008. > > Yes, they really believe that. > > Even non-CFG conservatives like Newt Gingrich believe this. These Reagan Relics believe that that tea partiers represented a massive groundswell of opposition to Obama’s supposed radicalism. Once the public’s blinders are removed - hopefully with the help of the non-mainstream media that refuses to cover for Obama - the electorate will come to its senses and restore the great Era of Reagan again. The whole article is well worth a read. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/125 "2009-04-29T16:12:23Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > [This exchange is priceless](http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/04/28/qotd/index.html) (CNN’s Rick Sanchez and S.C. (R) Jim DeMint): There’s a video of this on [dailykos.com](http://dailykos.com). Sanchez just laughs in his face, its priceless! [Sanchez - DeMint exchange](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/28/725461/-Sanchez-baffled-by-GOP-spin:-What-the-hell) ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Carrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/126 "2009-04-29T16:16:20Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > [Here’s one observer’s theory on that:](http://themoderatevoice.com/30329/knee-capping-why-the-club-for-growth-does-it-and-why-it-will-never-work/) > > The whole article is well worth a read. Joe Lieberman is the sole victim? What about Al Wynn and Cynthia McKinney, both of whom faded into oblivion after being defeated? ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/127 "2009-04-29T16:23:45Z")
Al Wynn I’ll give you, but Cynthia McKinney? She’s hardly what I’d call a moderate. Quite the contrary! She’s off the cliff on the left. ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/128 "2009-04-29T16:47:56Z")
Perhaps I missed it in this thread, but am I the only one on the left who is not happy about this(or at Obama and really Biden ftm) and is kind of anxious about talk of Snowe and Collins jumping parties? Why don’t they actually stand up within their own party and fight? I want to see them make over their own party rather than try to jump into and change the course of the other. Rather I see this as the rightwing(albeit the ‘moderate’ portion) elbowing their way into the Democratic party at the cost of crowding and pushing out those to the left that are already in the party to begin with. I prefer multiple tents not one big one where key differences become blurred and no one really knows where anyone stands. Rove’s stated intentions may have been to create a permanent Republican majority, but it looks as though it really was a slow-kill of one of the two major parties. I could not care less that it is to the benefit of the (now stronger to the right) Democratic party; having only one major party is not good news for the nation in general. I forget who it was on the Rachel Maddow show last night, but they said something in regards to Obama, unrelated to this, but it still fits how I feel about this move- “right direction, wrong track”. What really pisses me off though is to learn that it was likely going to be Rep. [Joe Sestak](http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=58333), a [solid progressive](http://www.ontheissues.org/PA/Joe_Sestak.htm)with strong[military credentials](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Sestak), who would be the likely Democratic candidate. However, that is likely not the case now as Rendell is saying he will do what he can to keep the field open and Obama of all people is saying he will support Specter even in the \*Democratic \*primaries. Just how well did making amends work with good ol’ Joe “Please don’t take my laser-plane” Lieberman, who was on CNN this weekend with Feinstein supporting the Cheney side of the torture debate? Biden seems to be the White House’s main point man on this. It reeks of nothing more than self-serving career politicians looking out for each other rather than their own constituents; hell, Specter even said as much in his press conference that the only reason he is doing this is to get re-elected and has no interest in changing his voting pattern. Change I can’t even take to the vending machine. As a Kucinich caucusing, Darcy Burner supporting, Jim McDermott voting lefty, personally I think this sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/129 "2009-04-29T17:28:02Z")
> [@tds1273](#): > > I prefer multiple tents not one big one where key differences become blurred and no one really knows where anyone stands. Sure, but if the GOP crash is hard enough, the Dem bluedogs and such can split off and form a new party without having to deal with all the religious and Reaganesque baggage of the old Republicans. I’m not wringing my hands over the situation because IMHO, they’ll end up going somewhere for sure; eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/130 "2009-04-29T18:07:26Z")
> [@tds1273](#): > > Perhaps I missed it in this thread, but am I the only one on the left who is not happy about this(or at Obama and really Biden ftm) and is kind of anxious about talk of Snowe and Collins jumping parties? Why don’t they actually stand up within their own party and fight? I want to see them make over their own party rather than try to jump into and change the course of the other. Fight who? Michael Steele? John Boehner? Rush Limbaugh? With what? Common sense? I don’t see it. > [@](#): > > Rather I see this as the rightwing(albeit the ‘moderate’ portion) elbowing their way into the Democratic party at the cost of crowding and pushing out those to the left that are already in the party to begin with. I don’t believe this necessarily follows, and see no evidence of it whatsoever. > [@](#): > > I prefer multiple tents not one big one where key differences become blurred and no one really knows where anyone stands. > > Rove’s stated intentions may have been to create a permanent Republican majority, but it looks as though it really was a slow-kill of one of the two major parties. I could not care less that it is to the benefit of the (now stronger to the right) Democratic party; having only one major party is not good news for the nation in general. i agree with you here. > [@](#): > > I forget who it was on the Rachel Maddow show last night, but they said something in regards to Obama, unrelated to this, but it still fits how I feel about this move- “right direction, wrong track”. Too early to tell. > [@](#): > > What really pisses me off though is to learn that it was likely going to be Rep. [Joe Sestak](http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=58333), a [solid progressive](http://www.ontheissues.org/PA/Joe_Sestak.htm)with strong[military credentials](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Sestak), who would be the likely Democratic candidate. > > However, that is likely not the case now as Rendell is saying he will do what he can to keep the field open and Obama of all people is saying he will support Specter even in the \*Democratic \*primaries. Just how well did making amends work with good ol’ Joe “Please don’t take my laser-plane” Lieberman, who was on CNN this weekend with Feinstein supporting the Cheney side of the torture debate? Feinstein wasn’t supporting Cheney, was she?? 😕 > [@](#): > > Biden seems to be the White House’s main point man on this. It reeks of nothing more than self-serving career politicians looking out for each other rather than their own constituents; hell, Specter even said as much in his press conference that the only reason he is doing this is to get re-elected and has no interest in changing his voting pattern. Well, he didn’t say that was the ONLY reason. > [@](#): > > Change I can’t even take to the vending machine. > > As a Kucinich caucusing, Darcy Burner supporting, Jim McDermott voting lefty, personally I think this sucks. Don’t fret. It’s always darkest before the messia…I mean the Obam…I mean the dawn 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tds1273](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@tds1273](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tds1273)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/131 "2009-04-29T18:49:07Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > Feinstein wasn’t supporting Cheney, was she?? 😕 Well to be fair, she didn’t out right support him, upon rereading the transcript she seems to be more Peggy Noonan-ish about it. What I took from her comments was that from what she has seen of the classified material that torture might have worked, but on the whole, having any of this in public is bad and we need to just move on. Not that I’ve ever seen any other reasons to trust her half as far as I can throw her, but the fact that she didn’t come out and flat out smack down Cheney was a disgrace. Here is the [transcript](http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003103364)and here is the relevant portion(bolding mine)… > [@](#): > > KING: Chairwoman, I want to start with you. On the vice president’s point, you heard the vice president say there he thinks the new administration is making the American people less safe. He also says that there are other memos not released into the public that prove his point that these controversial interrogation tactics used in limited circumstances actually produced intelligence that saved U.S. lives, including preventing an attack in your home State of California, the City of Los Angeles. Is he right? > > FEINSTEIN: Well, I’ve received those memos. I asked him for them and he sent them to me. They are classified memos so I won’t go into them. That’s the reason why I believe the Intelligence Committee is the oversight agency for 16 intelligence agencies, including the CIA. It is our responsibility to do oversight. We have access to the classified information. And we have set upon a course, a bipartisan course with a program scope, approved by the committee, to review the conditions of detention and the techniques of interrogation of each of the high value detainees. We estimate that will take six to eight months. **My hope is that the public debate quells,** that we have an opportunity to do our work. The committee will consider it and then we **will release, most likely, findings and recommendations.** > > KING: Findings and recommendations. I want to get to the other senators but to the vice president’s point he believes the documents would show that the tactics worked, saved lives. > > FEINSTEIN: **It’s very hard to tell on the face, because you have to go into who learned what at the time. Now I can go into one, at least one specific case, and it’s very uncertain.** So we need to find these things out and we need to do it in a way that’s calm and deliberative and professional, because **I think all of this, on the front burner, before the public, does harm our intelligence gathering, it does harm America’s position in the world.** And President Obama has worked so hard now to open a new page, to go to so many countries, to say that America is now on a different course. Let us do our work and let us do it the way it should be done. No. The answer should be “No, torture never works” there is no room for parsing. I know this is a hijack, but since I’m on it I just want to point out that should we ever be attacked again, because of our torture program, the blame lies at the feet not of those who exposed and opposed the program, but upon those that approved and committed the torture, as well as those, such as Feinstein evidently, who knew of and were complicit in its enacting. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/132 "2009-04-29T19:18:08Z")
What happens to Specters committee seats? Does he have the same seniority ? Franken is the only Dem he outranks. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/133 "2009-04-29T19:27:43Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Does he have the same seniority ? [Reid’s Specter deal stirs senior Dems’ anger](http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/democrats-push-back-on-specter-deal-2009-04-29.html) > [@](#): > > Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) deal to allow Sen. Arlen Specter to retain his seniority after he switches to the Democratic Conference has not been received well by senior senators in the party. > > Several Democrats are furious with Reid for agreeing to let Specter (Pa.) keep the seniority accrued over more than 28 years as a Republican senator. That could allow him to leap past senior Democrats on powerful panels — including the Appropriations and Judiciary committees. > > “I won’t be happy if I don’t get to chair something because of Arlen Specter,” said Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who sits on the Appropriations Committee with Specter… However, it’s not forever: > [@](#): > > One senior Democratic lawmaker told The Hill that the Democratic Conference will vote against giving the longtime Pennsylvania Republican seniority over lawmakers like Harkin, Mikulski and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) when they hold their organizational meeting after the 2010 election. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/134 "2009-04-29T19:35:51Z")
> [@tds1273](#): > > Perhaps I missed it in this thread, but am I the only one on the left who is not happy about this(or at Obama and really Biden ftm) and is kind of anxious about talk of Snowe and Collins jumping parties? Why don’t they actually stand up within their own party and fight? I want to see them make over their own party rather than try to jump into and change the course of the other. Not going to happen, until the GOP really melts down, since the Republicans in general seem to have the same opinion as you about who should be let into a party. > [@](#): > > Rather I see this as the rightwing(albeit the ‘moderate’ portion) elbowing their way into the Democratic party at the cost of crowding and pushing out those to the left that are already in the party to begin with. Crowding out? I don’t see that being happy to let Spector in implies the desire to push Kucinich out. I’m a former (liberal) Republican also, and I left for the same reason as Spector - the party of Rockefeller no longer existed. Plus I saw Dubya as a putz from day one. > [@](#): > > I prefer multiple tents not one big one where key differences become blurred and no one really knows where anyone stands. You know where people stand. What you don’t have is a simple list of must-believes for membership, which is pretty much what the Republicans have today. Abortion rights? Not allowed. Tax increases for the rich? No way. Reasonable regulations? Uh-uh. Do you want the Dems to have such narrow criteria for membership? > [@](#): > > Rove’s stated intentions may have been to create a permanent Republican majority, but it looks as though it really was a slow-kill of one of the two major parties. I could not care less that it is to the benefit of the (now stronger to the right) Democratic party; having only one major party is not good news for the nation in general. A single party in power does have its dangers, but I feel a lot more comfortable when that single party has a very wide range of opinions in it, so that there are arguments on both sides to be heard and resolved before a position is arrived at. That used to be the way Congress worked as a whole, but with most Republicans adopting a “just say no” platform, we’ve lost the compromise. Notice they’re pushing out anyone who wants to negotiate. This is not unprecedented. The old Democratic Majority had the Southerners. It was good that they left to increase diversity and to make the party more open to the new demographic situation, but they did exert a moderating force on it. The good thing, once Franken gets seated, is that for important stuff the bills hammered out after negotiations with rational players with lots of opinions can get passed without any crap from the Republicans. There are two possibilities for the future. Either the Republicans are going to move left and back into the mainstream, or they will become irrelevant and the Democratic party will split into left and right parts, the right part being more like the old moderate Republicanism. ---
**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 29, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/135 "2009-04-29T19:40:59Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Reid’s Specter deal stirs senior Dems’ anger. Keep your new pony happy now. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/136 "2009-04-29T19:43:38Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > Keep your new pony happy now. What’s he gonna do, run off to a better stable? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/137 "2009-04-29T19:53:12Z")
It’s been said and alluded to a few times, but that last paragraph by \*\*Voyager \*\*seems to be blaringly obvious if the Republican party becomes a fringe. Again, I must say that it wasn’t too long ago that people were ready to heap dirt on the carcass of the Democratic party. The Dems have an interesting spot. They have to demonstrate that their way of doing things is better, and the Republicans, instead of compromising and talking, are letting the Democrats show the differences because the Republicans are just saying no. When everything becomes a deal-breaker, nothing becomes a deal-breaker. Eventually, nobody will want to talk to you. ---
**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 29, 2009, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/138 "2009-04-29T20:00:33Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > What’s he gonna do, run off to a better stable? 😃 Frankly, at this point I wouldn’t mind if he just ran off. Another person in the seat, even if it is a Democrat, is preferable to this man of little conviction, who mere months ago was saying how he couldn’t become a Democrat because it wouldn’t be good for “balance”. He is 79 years old, and was a jerk even when he was younger. The backflips the political establishment of both parties make to save him his seat is disgusting. I was revolted when Republicans did it, frankly, and now we see how Democrats really feel now that their own are kissing his ass. And it isn’t sour grapes - I grew up in Pennsylvania and worked in Republican Party politics for a few years before joining the Navy. I met a lot of interesting and wonderful people, plus my share of total jerks. He’s a jerk. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/139 "2009-04-29T20:11:33Z")
> [@](#): > > Compare and contrast: > > > [@](#): > > > > We’re seeing across the country right now that the biggest tent of all is the tent of freedom. And what we need to do as Republicans is convince Americans that freedom can work in all areas of their life for every American, whether it’s education or health care or creating jobs. > > > [@](#): > > > > My fellow Americans. As a young boy, I dreamed of being a baseball, but tonight I say, we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom. It’s a bad sign when a politician’s political metaphors actually make less sense than those made by a cartoon character as a parody. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627/140 "2009-04-29T20:14:16Z")
> [@Mr.Moto](#): > > And it isn’t sour grapes - He’s a jerk. Yeah, I can see that, and I expect a lot of Dems see that too. I’m not so much happy at having him as a Democrat, as I am happy that his defection moves the GOP one step closer to total discombobulation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sen-arlen-specter-pa-to-become-a-democrat/494627.md?page=8)