Senator Arlen Specter Switches Parties

WOW!!! Seeing his looming loss in the next election as a repub, moderate Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has made a smart move to become a democrat. This must pain him dearly but at the end of the day, it's about survival.

"I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary. I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election."

With Franken being seated in June after Coleman's futile appeal, the dems will have 60 seats. This is huge. Health Care, Employee Free Choice Act, Supreme Court Appointees, everything is at the dems fingertips. 

Don't fuck it up dems. 

Update:

From Politicalwire:

"The Hill reports Senate Republican leaders "received no heads up" from Specter about his decision.

Meanwhile, Ben Smith reports Vice President Joe Biden "deeply involved" in the talks with Specter to make the switch.

NBC News says Democrats promised Specter would face no Democratic challenger but that he was promised no committee chairmanship in return for switching parties."

Update II:

Why did he change parties? See here about a previous post. 

Good Scenarios For Sen Arlen Specter to Become Dem

Kos has a good rundown on possible scenarios for Arlen Specter. His biggest problem is that he's likely to lose a GOP primary. However, he could do very well as a dem in the blue state of Penn. Markos says:

Specter votes for EFCA, and becomes a Democrat

Following his vote for EFCA, still as a Republican (giving Obama his desperately needed "bipartisanship"), the reaction from the Limbaugh crowd would be fierce. Heck, we know that they'd be screaming for his head. So Specter could look sad and forlorn, bemoan the lack of tolerance in the GOP, say that "I didn't leave the GOP, the GOP left me", and ride that wave of hate and invective straight to the other side of the aisle. Presto! 60 seats.

With the unions behind him and Rendel putting the machine to work in his favor, it's hard to see an opening for a real Democrat in a primary. Then again, like every other party switcher before him, Specter would quickly move left to establish his bona fides in his new party. We saw that with Sen. Jim Jeffords earlier this decade, and he was supposedly just an independent, and we certainly saw it with the likes of Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Dixiecrats like Sen. Richard Shelby who switched the other direction. Running for reelection as a Democrat, Specter would easily dispatch Toomey in the general election. But as a possible bonus, conservatives could drop some serious coin into this hopeless race in their effort to exact revenge.