Donkey Takes Off Elephant Costume
A lot of people are in a tizzy over Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switching his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat. However, I'm not.
Specter has always been a self-serving politician who enjoys the perks and power of elected office. Prior to his becoming a Republican back in 1966, he was a Democrat. Back then, he switched parties in order to win an election. Even as a Republican, he has been more of a Fifth Column than a principled statesman, running with an "R" next to his name in order to stay in office, and after each election, taking a knife to fellow Rs - and plunging it deep into the backs of conservatives in hopes of doing the most damage possible.
When he voted with his previous party to push through a mountain of debt disguised as "stimulus", it was the last straw for conservatives, who rightfully found a challenger in Pat Toomey to run against him in the upcoming 2010 primary. Seeing that he would be defeated, and being unwilling to not seek another senate term, he took the traitor's route of switching parties for his own convenience.
Today, his fellow Democrats welcomed him back home. Soon they will have him drinking the Kool-Aid in no time.
Rather than see this as a defeat, the Republicans should see this as an opportunity to return to its conservative roots, which defined the GOP as the party of liberty in contrast to the Democrats becoming the party of tyranny. The clock is ticking, and time's too short to cry over the loss of a jackass in elephant's clothing. Voters will pick principles over phonies - and right now, conservative voters want the GOP to stand for something instead of falling for anything in a futile effort to be all things to all people.
May the door hit Arlen Specter in the ass on the way out.