Posted by
Katy Grimes on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 2:28:46 PM
There is a time to go for the win and a time to be steadfast in ideology. We tried to go for the win during the last Presidential election with a weak candidate, and lost. California went for the win post-Gray Davis recall, and got Arnold Schwarzenegger, who at first seemed to be conservtive enough, but has since gone to the left of Arlen Specter.
I fully expect Schwarzenegger to jump ship soon.
Specter has never been a Republican to count on ideologically. He votes with political expendiency in mind. "In finally abandoning the Republican Party, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter showed his true colors not just ideologically, but personally. It's all about the liberal Specter maximizing his own power." I(
Investors Business Daily http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=325810081394462)
"Let's be honest — Senator Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind," Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. "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. Republicans look forward to beating Senator Specter in 2010, assuming the Democrats don't do it first."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the prospect of the Democrats having a 60-vote majority was "a danger for the country. There won't automatically be the ability to restrain the excess that is typically associated with big majorities and single-party rule," he said.
According to Andrew Malcolm at the L.A. Times, "Now we know, by Biden's own account, that some of his time on the train has been spent trying to sway Specter, a moderate Republican who was once a Democrat, to leave his party.
"I have been working on that in earnest for the past four years and double-time for the past 100 days," Biden said at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser in Houston on Tuesday."
My favorite commentary is from the
National Review online editors: "Arlen Specter belongs to a type familiar to Congress: the time-serving hack devoid of any principle save arrogance. He has spent three decades in the Senate but is associated with no great cause, no prescient warning, no landmark legislation. Yet he imagines that the Senate needs his wisdom and judgment for a sixth term. He joined the Republican party out of expediency in the 1960s, and leaves it out of expediency this week." read it
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjFlNDlhM2JmYjkwMTE2YmQ3NTA3YzYxNzExYjEyMzM=
There will be other defections, picked off by Democratic party thugs offering promises of reelection guarantees. Specter may feel like a big man right now, but he will have the weight of Republican ideology on his back in no time - something he is vastly unfamiliar with and should fear.
Arnold should beware the same, regardless of our kooky lib California voters. Betrayel in America is never forgotten and never rewarded. Remember Jumpin' Jim Jeffers? Who, you ask...
Short term pleasure is just that - short term. It might feel good right now, but it won't last.