As Alexander Bolton points out in The Hill, assuming Specter wants a career in the Senate after 2010, his best option might be to switch back to being a Democrat. He started as one way back when. Opportunism can't be dismissed where Specter's concerned. And a desperately seeking sixty Democrat majority might cut him a very good deal without MN being resolved.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) does not have the fall-back option of running as an independent should he lose his 2010 primary election, giving the senior lawmaker strong incentive to abandon his party this year.
it is the only politically viable move he has left.
he has to game the system to determine the possiblity that even if he changes party, the dems will still field another democrat against him in a primary. Probably so...
he has no chance in a gop primary.
his career is over. ( a longshot? barack's approval numbers fall with the job, stock, and economy decline, spectre gets a whiff of which way the widn is blowing, and turns his ship starboard. In theory, he could wait for shift and present himself as moderate conservative who has reached his limits of tolerance for ineptitude. He could spend the whole of 2009 as a lap dog, turn and bite the master in in 2010, and all would be forgiven.)
Posted by: mark l. | Saturday, March 07, 2009 at 03:13 PM
Worked for Jeffords didn't it?
Posted by: anne | Saturday, March 07, 2009 at 03:24 PM
Right now I would predict Specter loses the primary to Toomey and Toomey loses to a Democrat.
Posted by: Pug | Saturday, March 07, 2009 at 07:18 PM
Why doesn't the dude just retire already?! He's 80, is he not?
Srsly.
Posted by: Jana | Sunday, March 08, 2009 at 12:29 AM