I dunno, but he could honestly claim a share of the blame/credit.
You see, if we can actually pass stuff the results will be so horrendous that the public will hate us, and the opposition takes over.
You gotta admit, it worked out that way when the Republicans were in charge.
Mr Moto I was happy voting for Specter before and I’ll happily vote for him now.
I believe it’s ‘Good riddance, and take John McCain and his daughter with you.’ Possibly with a ‘haw haw haw’. I’m seeing a lot of that. ‘He was a RINO, we’re better off without him’, as Steele said. I hope they keep up that thinking. The sooner they self destruct, the sooner we get a good party back.
You can’t accelerate something that doesn’t exist yet. If ‘self-destruction’ means winning lots more seats, I hope we thoroughly destroy ourselves.
Maeglin’s point, if I may be so bold, is simply that opposition keeps the party sharp. The more any side consolidates the power, the worse for a system predicated on competition among factions.
From the New York Times and Washington Post articles, it looks like Biden had a huge hand in this.
That’s why the selection of Biden by Obama was so brilliant. Biden has been out of the public eye, but he knows how to get things done on Capitol Hill.
Excerpt from NY Times article:
*According to White House officials, the vice president was at the center of the effort to convince Mr. Specter to change parties. They said that this has been the subject of years of bantering and discussion between the two men — who often sat together while riding the Amtrak train back home — but that the conversation turned earnest after Mr. Biden lobbied Mr. Specter to vote with the White House on the $787 billion stimulus bill.
*
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); but a one-party system does not necessarily portend the dominant party’s self-destruction, as the African National Congress can tell you.
I’m not saying it is logically or theoretically necessary. But I think it’s not unfair to say one of the causes of the 1994 political whirlwind was that Democrats in Congress had become lazy, complacent, and increasingly corrupt.
For those who are nostalgic here is a thread which speculated about this back almost two months ago.
Simplico nailed the prediction that he’d do it sooner rather than later. And I was very wrong in believing that his going against the EFCA signified that he was not going to jump.
Still he would have been better off deciding this before he sacrificed some union support trying to curry some hardline favor in the primary.
How much will he vote differently now? Will he be more willing to go along with legislation that he is personally marginally against? Did his R restrain his votes at all before? How much so? Will the vitriol being sent his way by his former teammates sour him more and make him more likely to vote against them?
I believe the phrase is “mega-dittos.”
Keep on weeding, Rush. Weed away.
Arrrgh! :eek:
My god, put that in spoiler quotes. I am now mentally scarred for life.
It would have to be a pretty good blowjob to get him to give up basically all his committee power in the Senate and still not swing the balance of power at all (since I doubt that he’d start supporting Republicans “look how MORE of an asinine way we can use filibusters than you did!” efforts no matter what party he was in).
Clearly, Meghan McCain has more class than Limbaugh has ass.
No, it doesn’t portend self-destruction, but like the ANC with Zuma, virtually guaranteed one-party rule in a two or multi-party system will lead to the diminishing quality of leaders. Sort of reminiscent of inbreeding depression.
You didn’t know that I am the Chief Justice of Trantor?
I’ll bet he has an agreement that the Dems will not run a serious primary against him, which is more the Republicans could promise. We’ll see.
His finest hour was the Bork rejection.
Now finally the moderate Republican caucus can take place in the ladies room of the Bangor airport.
And THAT’S saying something!
Having that bargain with the leadership isn’t the same as having it with actual Pennsylvania Democrats.
Yep, and I predicted he wouldn’t jump in that same thread. Shocked. :eek:
Clearly, this is good news for the McCain campaign.