Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)...

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Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA)....







It's a done deal. It will be announced either later today or tomorrow. P.S. -- It's official. He made the announcement.

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60-40

No more stupid Goppie filibuster tricks, once we get Al Franken seated.

Now Specter doesn't have to worry about being reelected in 2010. Running as a Democrat, he won't be facing any competition in the primary. The Goppies were threatening to defeat him with a right-winger in the GOP primary.

P.S. -- The Minnesota Supreme Court has announced that they won't even begin to hear oral arguments on Norm Coleman's appeal until June. Coleman has no chance at all but he's dragging this out as long as possible on orders from the GOP in DC. That's just like the Goppies. Everything is about themselves and their own personal political fortunes. More than two-thirds of Minnesotans want Coleman to concede now that the appeals court ruled unanimously against him.

Al Franken's attorneys informed the court that they would have their response ready in five days and Coleman's attorneys informed the court that Coleman should be required to take ten days to submit his response on such an important matter. But that doesn't mean they're trying to delay things -- no, not at all. They just want to be fair to Franken and give him every chance to present his arguments why Coleman should not prevail. Coleman lost by 312 votes!

And that House seat in upstate New York (NY-20) just went to the Democrats. That's a district that is heavily Republican. There are 78,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. Both John Boehner and Michael Steele guaranteed victory. Both were wrong!!! Haha! The GOP's entire campaign in that race was based on trashing President Obama's stimulus plan and his proposed budget. That was their whole campaign, running against Obama in a heavily Republican district. It didn't work! That's because Democrats (except for racists in the Deep South) and Independents adore Obama and moderate Republicans like him.

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GOP: "A Shrinking Entity"

As John McCain's campaign manager put it, the GOP is "a shrinking entity" in danger of becoming "extinct."

I'm so happy to see that the Republicans have chosen Dick Cheney, Boss Limbaugh and Karl Rove as their chief spokespersons -- plus all the clowns at Fixed News.

Time to work on Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. Sixty-forty is sweet but 62-38 would be even sweeter.

P.S. -- Speaking of the clowns at Fixed News, one of them said today that Sen. John McCain's views on torture don't count because he was once tortured; therefore, he's biased. What?! Yep, because McCain was tortured, Rupert Murdoch's trained monkeys think that McCain should be "excused from commenting on torture."

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Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA):

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.

Senate Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV):

I have known Senator Specter for more than a quarter-century. He has always been a man of honor and integrity, and a fine public servant.

Senator Specter and I have had a long dialogue about his place in an evolving Republican Party. We have not always agreed on every issue, but Senator Specter has shown a willingness to work in a bipartisan manner, put people over party, and do what is right for Pennsylvanians and all Americans.

I welcome Senator Specter and his moderate voice to our diverse caucus, and to continuing our open and honest debate about the best way to make life better for the American people.

Big Loser RNC Chairman Michael Steele:

Let's be honest-Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.

P.S. -- Boss Limbaugh will go insane! I mean more insane! He will call Specter a socialist, left-wing liberal traitor who knew he would have been crushed in the Republican primary now that the Republican party has become an almost entirely hardcore, right-wing, fringe party controlled by lunatics who think torture is productive and in line with American values. What a bunch of creeps! No wonder people are ashamed to be known as Republicans.

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Retribution

I think it's time we reminded Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe that RNC Chairman Michael Steele threatened them with "retribution" for voting for the stimulus package. He even hinted at not only withholding funds from them but actually supporting primary challengers. You might remember that they were the other two Republican votes, along with Specter, for the stimulus package.

A couple of people have pointed at that Specter is no bargain. Well, all I have to say about that is that Little Joe Lieberman is no bargain either but Obama welcomed him back anyway.

BTW, speaking of Little Joe, maybe it's time for the Democrats to lean on him a little. He supported Susan Collins against her Democratic opponent last November; maybe he can talk her into jumping ship now than Specter has shown how easy it is. Both she and Olympia Snowe would have no problems with voters in Maine because Maine is a blue state.

And one more thing. If Mitch McConnell expects to replace Specter with a Republican on all of those committee seats, tell him to go jump in the lake until they tell Norm Coleman to quit the BS in Minnesota. They don't get to replace Specter's committee assignments with a Republican until after the Senate seats Al Franken. Period.

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Chunky Junkie to Specter: Please take McCain with you

Republican party leader Boss Limbaugh:

"A lot of people say, 'Well, Specter, take [Sen. John] McCain with you. And his daughter [Meghan]. Take McCain and his daughter with you if you're gonna…" he told listeners, dissolving in laughter.

"…..It's ultimately good. You're weeding out people who aren't really Republicans," he said.

Let's not forget that OxyContin Boy endorsed McCain for president and only turned on him after he was crushed by Obama in another blue landslide in November.

Keep up the good work, Rush. How about driving out Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, too? You're doing a great job of making the GOP a right-wing fringe party out of touch with mainstream America.

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GOP Becoming Irrelevant, Nearly Extinct in New England

It is true that being a Republican moderate sometimes feels like being a cast member of “Survivor” — you are presented with multiple challenges, and you often get the distinct feeling that you’re no longer welcome in the tribe. -- Sen. Olympia Snowe, April 29, 2009.

There are 15 Republican House members (out of a total of 83) and 3 Republican Senate members (out of a total of 18) in the New England states.

Before you know it, the GOP will be left with just Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and the Deep South. What I like to call hardcore Goppies -- the ones who think "W" did a good job.



P.S. -- Since November 2006, the GOP has lost 54 House seats and 15 Senate seats. Newton's third law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The Bush-Cheney gang pushed the pendulum so far to the right that it was only a matter of time before it swung back to the left.

The poor Goppies still don't realize what hit them. They have been hit by a freight train and they're still pretending it doesn't hurt.

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NRSC Running Robocalls Against Specter in Pennsylvania

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is already running robocalls against Specter in Pennsylvania. They hope to reach at least 100,000 Pennsylvania Democrats by tomorrow evening.

You can listen to the robocall here.

I love it when they admit that an endorsement from George W. Bush is a negative.

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GOP Leader Uses Specter's Cancer Pics to Ridicule Him

Some insensitive Republican party leader from Ohio has posted a picture of Sen. Specter when he was bald due to the chemo therapy he was undergoing in treatment of his cancer to ridicule him. What a bunch of creeps!

Later down, you will find his opinion on the current H1N1 flu "scare." He thinks it's a joke. Well, let's all hope he's right but we don't know that yet because we don't know the true numbers out of Mexico. Initial numbers out of Mexico were that 81 people had died out of 1,000 cases (8.1% mortality). Current figures are that more than 160 people have died out of 2,500 cases. That would be a still horrible 6.4% mortality. Mortality in the U.S. during the 1918-1919 "Spanish" flu pandemic was around 2-2.5%.

All of the media reports that emphasize the figure of 36,000 as the approximate number of deaths in the U.S. annually from regular seasonal flu are missing two very, very big points: 1) That's still only 0.1-0.2% of the total number of annual cases, and 2) those deaths are mostly among the very old, very young, and people who are already sick with other serious problems.

If it turns out that this new strain of H1N1 virus has a mortality rate of at least 2% and if it affects young, healthy people disproportionately and if it infects a third of the population like the 1918-1919 virus did, then that's extremely bad news! We still don't know that. All we do know is that a lot of young people in Mexico died from this disease and it's a brand new strain of H1N1 that has never been seen before.

I think it's a little too soon to dismiss the current flu situation as a hoax. Much too soon.

Getting back to that dumbass GOP county chairman. Scroll all the way down and you can read about how he really enjoyed his local teabagging party.

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Specter May Lose His Bid For Reelection

Sen. Arlen Specter switched to the Democratic party because he was trailing right-wing Goppie Pat Toomey by 31 points in the polls. It Toomey were to be the GOP nominee in Pennsylvania, he would be beaten by any Democrat. If Specter were to be the GOP's nominee, he might have won reelection or he might have been defeated by the likes of Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat who is completing his first term in the House but who is a retired Navy admiral.

Specter's chances were probably 50-50 at best, assuming he managed to win the Republican nomination.

Now that Specter has announced his plans to run for reelection as a Democrat, other Republicans, including moderates, are considering running against Toomey for the nomination. Tom Ridge, George Bush's former secretary of Homeland Security and a popular former Pennsylvania governor, is considering running. Unlike Pennsylvania's other Democratic senator, Bob Casey, Ridge is pro-choice, which is why the Republican power brokers told John McCain that Ridge was totally unacceptable as a running mate for McCain. Ridge was McCain's first choice.

Apparently President Obama has promised to endorse Specter as part of the deal worked out to get him to switch parties right now in time to get his support for the upcoming health care vote. However, if Ridge or some other moderate Republican should start campaigning against Pat Toomey for the nomination, then I think Specter might get some serious Democratic challengers, including Rep. Joe Sestak and Rep. Patrick Murphy. Both Sestak and Murphy are former military men. Sestak is a retired admiral and Murphy is an Iraq war veteran who was a paratrooper captain in the JAG Corps in the 82nd Airborne.

Specter jumped from the Republican party to the Democratic party because he realized he couldn't win the Republican primary. Now he may not be able to win the Democratic primary either.

That threat is going to force Specter to move more to the left in his politics. He has already announced that he will oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as presently written. If he votes against that bill the unions will not endorse him in the Democratic primary. His only way out there is to support a bill that is slightly amended but still satisfies the unions. I don't think that's going to happen because I don't think the unions will accept anything less than what's on the table now.

Specter is betewen a rock and a hard place. Now that he's a Democrat, he will have to act like a moderate Democrat, which is to the left of a moderate Republican. Specter was never really a moderate Republican. He was just an unpredictable Republican.

The best outcome for the Democrats would be for Specter to go along with much of President Obama's proposed legislation in hopes of retaining Obama's endorsement but that he would be defeated by someone like Pat Murphy or Joe Sestak in the Democratic primary regardless of Obama's endorsement. The only possible problem for the Democrats would be if Toomey were to lose the GOP nomination to someone more electable like Tom Ridge.

Specter now has to become a lot more moderate in his ways for him to have any chance in the Democratic primary.

[wgscott]

Seems like only yesterday when he was swiftboating Anita Hill.

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From the Washington Post:

Party Switch Costs Specter His Seniority on Senate Committees

The Senate last night stripped Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) of his seniority on committees, a week after the 29-year veteran of the chamber quit the Republican Party to join the Democrats.

In announcing his move across the aisle last week, Specter asserted that Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) had assured him he would retain his seniority in the Senate and on the five committees on which he serves. Specter's tenure ranked him ahead of all but seven Democrats.

Instead, though, on a voice vote last night, the Senate approved a resolution that made Specter the most junior Democrat on four committees for the remainder of this Congress. (He will rank second from last on the fifth, the Special Committee on Aging.) Reid himself read the resolution on the Senate floor, underscoring the reversal.

Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after next year's midterm elections.

I don't think Specter helped his cause any when he told a reporter that he hoped the Senate would eventually seat Norm Coleman. The following day he backtracked and said that he "misspoke." His explanation was that he had forgotten that he had "switched teams" and had "new teammates now."

Another thing that's not going over well with Democrats is Specter's insistance to the press that he never told President Obama that he "would be a loyal Democrat." And he seems to be going out of his way to bring up issues where he now says he will not support the Democrats, such as EFCA and a public option in any health care bill.

I wonder who's going to eat lunch with him on Wednesdays?