This was hardly Arlen Specter’s kind of political dynamic. Party-hopping wasn’t an antidote to a stridently polarizing, anti-incumbent mood — simply a self-serving, cynical subplot. Especially when you’ve been in Washington forever — and a senator since 1980.
The five-term Pennsylvania senator who morphed from renegade Republican to maverick Democrat last year had to go and pull that perverse “last hurrah” move. He couldn’t just step down as an 80-year-old, cancer-surviving, aisle-hopping politico. He could have skated into retirement on that.
But no. His ego wouldn’t let him retire with a modicum of class. Perhaps he assumed Joe Sestak would find reason to drop out of the Democratic primary. Perhaps he was expecting more White House help. Regardless, his legacy is now that of party-switching careerist who gave political expedience a bad name. Plus, there’s his role in the Warren Commission whitewash that could become fair game all over again.