A fortnight later and the issue is still resonating. What exactly is the significance of the defection of Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democrats?
To some Republicans, such as GOP Chairman Michael Steele, the upshot is “good riddance.” Such dismissiveness is typically accompanied by references to “socialism” and “redistribution.” Specter was never one of us, goes the rationale. Now he’s merely made it official.
Specter, 79, acknowledges his motivation was less than noble. Much less. He wants to be re-elected. His ideology is pragmatic self-interest. His only chance at winning a 6th term next year is as a Democrat.
He would not have survived a GOP primary against conservative, Club for Growth totem Pat Toomey. And he wouldn’t, as a Republican, win a general in a state that went for Barack Obama last year by more than 620,000 votes. He’s a former District Attorney of Philadelphia who knows the Philly suburbs are only growing bluer these days.
The real significance, however, even after Al Franken comes on board, is not the 60-vote filibuster-buster that the Democrats would ostensibly get. Specter won’t be a rubber stamp – any more than Nebraska’s unpredictable Ben Nelson is.
What’s most relevant is what Specter’s self-serving move says about the Republican Party, which seems to revel with a lost cause. The party of Lincoln continues to marginalize all those not in lockstep about fundamentalist values, no-tax mantras, cherry-picked abhorrence to deficit spending, an arrogant foreign policy, outsourced principles and priorities to Rush Limbaugh and the rationalized qualifications of Sarah Palin, presidential candidate. It’s officially a flawed brand.
Arlen Specter used to say he stayed a Republican all those years to protect the two-party system. Ironically, he still does. Only they’re now called the majority party and the minority party. It’s what happens when the moderate wing of the GOP is extinct outside the state of Maine.