As you probably have heard by now, yesterday, long-time Pennsylvania GOP Senator Arlen Specter officially jumped ship and announced that he would run for re-election as a Democrat. Specter had a long history of flirting with the left, infuriating those on the right.
GOP Chairman Michael Steele opined that Specter's defection had much more to do with a desperate bid for increasing his chances for re-election than philosophical or policy differences with the GOP; after all, based on recent polling, it appears that Specter was down about 20 points from his conservative primary challenger, Pat Toomey.
"Let's be honest - Sen. 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." said Steele. "Republicans look forward to beating Sen. Specter in 2010,'' Steele said, "assuming the Democrats don't do it first."
Interestingly, not all Democrats are ready to welcome Specter with open arms, even if he helps provide a critical vote that enables Senate Dems to end threatened filibusters by Republicans.
All politics is local, as Tip O'Neill's famous book told us. Well, no matter how hot a politician you think you are on the national scene, if you don't take care of business at home, you can't get re-elected. I often wonder about politicians in leadership positions that neglect their districts to the point of, seemingly suddenly, being in danger of losing an election back home because they have spent too much time trying to play D.C. (or Springfield) politics, and not paid attention to folks back home.
Will Specter's defection have any effect on IL-10 Congressman Mark Kirk's decision to potentially run for Senate? Not sure. Some have already said that Specter's defection is a sign of increasing hostility for moderate Republicans in the GOP. That might be true locally for Specter in Pennsylvania (is that a warning for us here in Illinois, perhaps?) But, with Specter's defection, if anything, the national GOP will renew its attempts to open up the big tent and embrace moderates to refute the notion that Specter's defection had anything to do with policy schisms within the party. Not to mention the fact that the GOP needs to win back some Senate seats in 2010, and Kirk is widely regarded as one of the GOP's strongest candidates anywhere.
Supporting a moderate like Mark Kirk for an important U.S. Senate race might just come at exactly the right time for the GOP.
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6 comments:
Specter did the right thing for Specter. He wanted to remain in the U.S. Senate. He knew he had to slay either a dragon in the primary or a dragon in general to do so.
The dragon in the primary would be Republican. Well financed, perhaps. Well organized, getting there. Strong grassroots organization, probably not bad.
But, the dragon in the general would be a Democrat. Well financed, absolutely and with the grassroots organization of all unions, Moveon.org, and non profit organizations that receive "tax payer funded" federal grants and engage in politics, like ACORN and Lake County YWCA (for example).
Which dragon is easier to slay? Look at Illinois.
Barack was trained in Chicago politics and loaded his suitcase and briefcase with some of the best politicos from Chicago including David "I have absolutely no soul" Axelrod to Rahm "Ballerina Boy" Emmanuel. And brought them to Washington.
Now the Chicago Machine has gone national and "stimulus money" and federal dollars (All funded by US - the taxpayers) will flow to organizations such as ACORN, YWCA, and other "non profits" that "cooperate" with this administration.
Illinois (Madigan and Emil Jones) did the same thing in the 2006 budget. They would not allow ONE republican a seat at the table and passed a budget with a $650 million "unallocated" initiatives for their members. I call it re-election money. Despite FOIA attempts, they refused to show the public or leaders in the GOP where the money went. We still don't know....
Senator Specter, congratulations (in advance) for your re-election to the US Senate as a Democrat and as an individual who lost his soul.
if anything, the national GOP will renew its attempts to open up the big tent and embrace moderates to refute the notion that Specter's defection had anything to do with policy schisms within the party.Why do you assume the GOP will behave rationally?
One can always hope, Anon.
I think Specter just wanted to champion "Scottish Law" some more and cut a deal with Reid. Judicial nominees, time to bone-up! For once I'm in agreement with TA -- bluster aside, I think the national GOP would be idiots not to see the value of the image of a moderate republican winning Obama's senate seat in allegedly deep blue Illinois, not to mention having a "big tent" talking point that doesn't come from Maine.
What Republicans in the 10th district don't get is that we are on the far left-wing of the party these days. Look to your left and there's no one standing there in the party aside from maybe some log cabin people-not to discriminate, but just saying.
Your average Republican (non tenth GOP) these days is working class, i.e. doesn't send his boy to france in the summer of high school and then multiple ivy league graduate schools, has an nra membership, is solidly pro-life, attends church, doesn't believe in foreign aid, and hates Obama with a passion.
In a sense that's everything Mark and the state of illinois is not.
The questions he needs to answer are how he gets the base that is passionately opposed to him on abortion, guns, and some fiscal issues to support him as if he wasn't. Then he needs to get them to give him leeway to craft a center-left message in the 7th most democrat state.
Also the pounding he is going to take from the day he announces from the national democrats is going to be the worst of anyone in the country. This senate seat is going to be white house priority number one, and the 8 years of votes in a bush washington are going to be unleashed at him EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Aside from that, should be an easy race.
This guy did what he thought was best for him. Not the people he represents. Hopefully pennsylvania residents see through the crap and don't vote hime back in.
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