Specter is a liberal 44/42.
Russ Feingold, a doctrinaire leftist, gets a 12/24.
Snowe got a 12 last year to Feingold’s 24. Moderate? Moderate what, socialist?
Collins was barely better at 20% conservative in 2008 – to the left of Feingold (which I didn’t think was possible), and both Snowe and Collins are less than 50% conservative for their careers, which qualifies them as liberals.

You may get only half a loaf from them but half a loaf’s better than none, especially on judicial appointments.

No, what’s the “convenient fiction” is that these people are the ONLY people available to vote for in the first place. I don’t take your premise at all. It’s a fact that the very people they are advocating these pols are in agreement with or equal to their political philosophy, i.e. RINOs, Moderates, Libertarians, or Centrist. They’re the ones who’ll take conservatives money and trash a Toomey then turn around and say they can only spend conservatives money on a RINO like Arlen to win. SLAM THE DOOR. Your premise sucks.

Where has Spector shown himself to be all that much more liberal than Romney or McCain?

ernesto on May 4, 2009 at 9:23 AM

McCain is pro-life for one thing. He also voted against the Stimulus package, which “fiscally conservative” Spector just couldn’t bring himself to do. I highly doubt Romney would have voted for the Stimulus either.

I think McCain gets a bit of a bad rap from conservatives. I’m not crazy about him either, but he’s at least a bit better than they give him credit. And I think the persistent rumors that he was going to jump to the Democrats were disinformation put out by the Democratic Party to sow division. There’s never been a single shread of real evidence, and it would have been political suicide for him, unlike Spector.

So, he basically denied it being about his career then went on to admit it was, in fact, about his career? My popularity dropped with group A, so I defected to group B. Somehow, he thinks that is standing on his principles!

Furthermore, his sympathies lie with federal monetary solutions to social programs. Specter’s vote victories have come largely from urban areas in the state that rely on the federal trough.

Specter’s non-support of Bork was the first nail in Specter’s coffin. His vote on the porkulus bill finished the job off. He himself did not seem to be aware of its stealth provisions for rationed health care.

His cheap shot re Kemp’s death is a refusal to admit that, as members of the elite body of legislators, both men had/have access to treatments that would never be allowable to the general population under a federal health-care system.

I think that Specter fears the intimations of his own mortality in the wings. His motives are selfish.

Furthermore, Specter did not support Santorum’s rebid for the senate seat in any but a perfunctory way. Large doses of Dem money put Casey Jr. into that lost seat, just as it did to put Stesak in.

It’s time for Specter to retire to the Netherlands, where he would feel more at home at The Hague.

Metro

Well said but my imagination is vomiting.

GrayDog on May 4, 2009 at 5:44 AM

100% correct. Both sides are desperate for heroes and real leaders, and have been for a long time. Enough that we are perhaps too quick to seize on them when we think we’ve found them.

This enables the wrong people to do terrible damage before they’re found out. It will also — hopefully — enable the right person to accomplish something great, if only they will stand up and lead.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1212/abortion-gun-control-opinion-gender-gap

—>>>>

Currently, 43% of men say that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, while 46% say abortion should be illegal in most or all cases. In August 2008, a greater proportion of men said that abortion should be legal than illegal (by 53% to 42%).

The change among women has been more modest — 49% believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases, down from 54% last August.

From Memeorandum:

Spector: GOP priorities contributed to Kemp death
Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Democrat, said part of the reason he left the Republican Party last week was disillusionment with its healthcare priorities, and suggested that had the Republicans taken a more moderate track, Jack Kemp may have won his battle with cancer.

18-1 on May 3, 2009 at 10:05 PM

Dreadnought on May 3, 2009 at 11:00 PM

freeus on May 3, 2009 at 11:08 PM

You’ve nailed it well, IMO.

Rosie O’Donnell becomes Playmate of the Year.

EUUUUUWWWWWWWWWWW! I need to clean coffee off my monitor now…

Reagan was all of those and then some. He knew who he was and wasn’t afraid to say it and more importantly do it.

Bush 41 didn’t stand when he should have on taxes and was judged weak.

Clinton’s weakness was that he really only stood for himself.

Bush 43 was somewhat strong but couldn’t articulate it.

Obama can articulate it when he has TOTUS but his policies require he be in campaign mode all the time because his strength is lacking. This works in the short run but will quickly grow old.

Obama has to move fast if he wants to implement his far left agenda and he knows it. Once the luster of his newness wears off, he will need to use fear and intmidation to get what he wants. We, who follow this closely, are already seeing this with GM, Chrysler, the banks, etc. but the vast majority of the public are not watching…yet.

The rise of most of history’s famous dicatators came in this same way. Oh, and they too had the press on their side…

“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.” -Lincoln

i.e. they’ve already left the party in principle. That’s a convenient fiction: You may get only half a loaf from them but half a loaf’s better than none, especially on judicial appointments.

It means you have voted for someone who does not represent you. That is not a convenient fiction

It is not a fiction that Specter, while still in office, has turned his judicial appointment vote over to the Democrats. That is not half a loaf.

The nature of half a loaf politicans is to ignore your needs for theirs. At the point a politican knows you will vote for him despite the fact you disagree with his positions. he no longer has to consider your wishes.

Specter jumped parties precisely because his primary electorate had had enough half loaves and was going to bolt. Like all blackmailers, if not paid their demands, they will carry out their threats.

It would have been better if the half a loaf folk had taken their losses sooner

A single termite can do a lot of structural damage

freeus on May 3, 2009 at 11:08 PM

Very well said.

Did Arlen have any advice on what kind of rope Republicans should use to hang ourselves en masse? It sounds to me like he did, just not in as many words.

I think the United States is about to enter a merging period.

The issues that divide us are simply not that big. This is nothing like our past, when slavery divided us, for example.

By comparison, we’re petty.

Specter left the Republican Party for his own selfish purposes, he wasnt “purged.”

EscapeVelocity

Spector left the Democratic Party in 1968 for the same reason … fear of losing a primary nomination.

The Dems refered to him as Specter the Defector back then.