Arlen Specter has had a bad year, hasn’t he?  The Senate veteran got a Republican primary challenger in Pat Toomey, who immediately jumped out to a 20-point lead over the incumbent.  Specter tried getting the national GOP to push Toomey out of the race, and when that failed, he jumped ship to the Democrats.  Specter expected to get a cushy deal that would preserve his seniority, but his new colleagues rejected Harry Reid’s deal with Specter and made the Pennsylvanian a back-bencher.  Now, it looks as though Specter will have to fight in a primary anyway:

A congressman from the Philadelphia suburbs will challenge U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic Senate primary.

In an interview with The Wayne Independent Wednesday morning, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa.,confirmed his intention to run against Specter, a long-time Republican who switched to the Democratic party earlier this year.

“I am going to get into the race against Arlen Specter … for senator,” said Sestak[.]

In other words, Specter has cut himself off from all of his traditional sources of power in order to go back to Square One.  I know many here at Hot Air will feel his pain (snicker) and sympathize with his plight (guffaw) and deride Democrats for running a legitimate member of their party for the seat rather than a renegade Republican (gut-busting laughter).

Go ahead.  Luxuriate in the schadenfreude.  You know you want to.

I haven’t seen polling on the Specter-Sestak matchup, but I suspect it will be as unfriendly to Specter as the first primary polling against Toomey was.  How long before Specter just announces his retirement?