Updated: Specter To Switch Parties!

Update: Will the Netroots go to war against Specter? Sestak is their guy. Specter may not be a lock in the Democrat Primary. Sestak is now an Obama guy, but he did back Hillary. Hmm.

In the fundraising battle of the three Pennsylvania House Democrats considering running for the Senate, we have a clear fundraising winner: Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.)

Sestak, who has been seriously considering a Senate campaign, raised $550,000 in the first three months of the year – nearly as much as Joe Torsella, who already announced his Senate candidacy – and has an eye-popping $3.3 million in his campaign account.  That's a significant sum for a second-term member of Congress.

In addition, he raised over $147,000 from the liberal fundraising clearinghouse ActBlue, suggesting he’s gotten support from donors outside his suburban Philadelphia district. Sestak has also been hitting the national media circuit recently to talk about the defense budget and the maritime terrorism off the coast of Somalia.

Whoa! This should be interesting. I still think he can be beat by the right Republican.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to sources informed on the decision.

Comments

[IslamoLlama]

Bwhahahahaha! Smooth move, guys. This is like the Jeffords switch of '02 all over again. It's like the GOP is allergic to Senatorial power.

You know, I was really regretting Democrats passing on the nuclear option in '04 and '05, but with a sixty seat majority its looking less like a bad idea every day now.

[mark l.]

I'm sorry, when did specter's vote EVER help get a gop policy over the top?

"I was really regretting Democrats passing on the nuclear option in '04 and '05"
say what?

the majority party holds the potential for passing the nuclear option-how did dems pass on it in 04/05?

no chance you could explain the move to 'reconciliation' on health care...it is a nice form of 'newspeak' for waht was once called the nuclear option.

Personally?
So long as the dems lacked 60, they were going to explain everything bad as a result of gop obstructionism. Taking arlen spectre nets a weak vote, and a lot more responsiblity.

Unemployment is still going up, taxes are still going up, deficit is still going up, size of govt is still going up.

To borrow from colin powell:
you break it, you buy it.

spectre getting out of the gop is the final form of vaccination against the political fallout of a failed domestic and foreign policy.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- the majority party holds the potential for passing the nuclear option-how did dems pass on it in 04/05? --"

Democrats could have let it sail through without a fight. And, with a solid 60, it doesn't look like an October reconciliation on health care will even be an issue. We'll have all the votes we need.

"-- I'm sorry, when did specter's vote EVER help get a gop policy over the top? --"

He was a reliable pro-war vote, a reliable tax cut vote, and a great guy to run cover on torture and wiretapping when the GOP needed someone speaking that didn't look completely in the bag for the previous administration.

But hey, if northern Republicans aren't conservative enough for you, feel free to toss Snowe and Collins our way while you're at it. We will be happy to take in all your political refugees. See, the Democrats have a really big tent.

[southdakotaboy]

I would not shed a tear if somebody decided to shoot Specter, matter of fact I would jump for joy.

[nishna]

Sick F*** = Southdakotaboy.

Specter is / was one of the few high-profile moderates left in the Repub Party. His leaving simply emphasizes that it's largely an outpost of right-wing fanatics ala southdakotaboy??.

Advocating assassination of a politicians you don't like or agree, now THAT's frigging UNAMERICAN.

Welcome to your modern Republican Party. Watch it shrink.

[SacTownMan]

Wow a RINO leaves the party.

Only the first of many to see the handwriting on the wall.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/0409/Specters_statement.html

Then he whines about the Republicans;

"It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate."

To which I would reply, "No shit Sherlock"!

Goodbye and good riddance you douche bag! Now if he could just take Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and the rest of the RINO socialist's with him maybe we could elect some, you know, conservatives!

Sen. Sphincter is just the first of many to feel the effect of the "Tea parties"!

(Sorry trolls no reference to your favorite testicular cleansing ritual)

[LOL]

"I would not shed a tear if somebody decided to shoot Specter, matter of fact I would jump for joy."

You hate freedom

[SacTownMan]

I hate to agree with the trolls but advocating the "shooting" of any public official regardless of their views is simply over the top! This is more of a Daily Koz or Huffington Compost type of comment.

Let this Bozzo join the ranks with the rest of the Washington elite. The American people are starting to wake up and see that this country is being sold out to Soro's and his puppet president.

The people will take this country back one way or the other but advocating violence is simply wrong!

[lu-ee]

the "big tent" of dems is filled with retread liberal republican gas.

...the "spectre" was a ghost. he had the name of a republican on his tombstone but, when no one was looking, he would pull the voting lever for the left & for liberalism.

...Specter was a hatchetman for the left. His actions during the 1980s supreme court nomination "hearings", along with the fat-mouthed blow-hard apparatchik, Joe "foot-in-mouth" Biden, were neo-communistic show-trials & travesties, trying to abort the civil rights & reputations of the supreme court nominees.

what has always been known in private has now come to light.

if the dems want all the lib repubs, they can have them. as i have always said: democrats have never had an original idea since leading the USA through WW2. Dems are simply re-treading the ideas of left-leaning zombie republicans & communists.

A pile of trash can also fill a big tent.

In fact, the supposed democrat "big tent" is more like a landfill of all the failed and wasteful political & ideological rubbish from the last 1000 yrs.

bigotry, racism, radical islam, high taxes, weak military, tyranny, socialism, communism, fascism, abortion, gay marriage, euthanasia, etc...all of these failed & failing ideas come from a liberal, immoral, and unethical left-leaning group of political movements.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- I would not shed a tear if somebody decided to shoot Specter, matter of fact I would jump for joy. --"

HAHAHA! *sob* Oh god, it's too much. Like watching red neck pig wrestling. You keep flailing around, trying to show what a tough guy you are, and you keep coming up with face-fulls of wet dirt.

That's it. Encourage the assassination of a moderate Senator in a blue-trending state. What could possibly be the upshot of this? Only good news for John McCain!

[john]

Southdakota,

That is sick, and you should be ashamed for making such a statement.

[Dan Riehl]

Let's watch the rhetoric a bit. This is just politics, not football, or something important like that.

Talking about violence, or racially motivated comments, etc - aren't helpful to anyone.

[templar knight]

Not to come to the defense of SDB, but you sick fucks on the Left advocated the murder of George Bush countless times.

So, STFU, YOU LEFTIST HYPOCRITES!!!!!

Did you get that, you asshats?

[Philip McDaniel]

“…the Republican Party has moved far to the right…” LOL! You tell them Arlen…of course; the fact that you could not get elected dogcatcher in Pennsylvania after your recent shenanigans in Washington might have more than a little to do with it. Best of luck to ya! Slither on over to the other side and enjoy your last couple of years in the Senate. Let’s see…that makes the Dems filibuster proof in the Senate for a while. That means they get all the credit…ALL the credit. This is going to be a fun couple of years. Oh, and Arlen, I never thought you were particularly bright anyway – and definitely not a moderate conservative. Opportunist comes to mind, actually.

[WBestPresidentEver]

SPECTOR IS A TRAITOR TO HIS PARTY, IT'S OBVIOUS THESE PEOPLE ONLY CARE ABOUT THEIR JOBS NOT THE PEOPLE ! HOPE HE STILL LOSES IN 2010 !!!!

[EvilRedScandi]

I think it's funny that anyone so much as yawns over this. As I said in my blog, it's like watching 5-year-olds analyze a chess match based on how many pieces each player has. The Democrats have gone from having an (effective) 62-seat majority to having an (effective) 62-seat majority.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- Not to come to the defense of SDB, but you sick fucks on the Left advocated the murder of George Bush countless times. --"

Sure we did, TK.
And we also threatened to take away all your guns and institute Sharia Law.
And now we've got 60 votes in the Senate, which means we can do all three.

Bugga-bugga!

[Dennis D]

Jeffords became an Independent but caucused with Dems. He then lost his seat as Arlen will.

[mark l.]

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_ballot/generic_congressional_ballot

generic support, gop +3.
an 11 pt shift from two years ago.

hope nancy didn't spend too much on her drapes. I also hope she has been scooping her cats litterboxes, boehner is going to get a whiff and pass out when he takes her office from her.

[JustOneMan]

Gee...I thought Arlen Spector died years ago around the same time Sen. Frank Lousenberg passed away...um....wait a minute....you mean both he and Lousenberg are still alive??

How can that be? They both look like they starred in "Weekend at Bernies"

Spector is a fool...he will go down quicker now that he has "cum out of the closet"

[lu-ee]

I sure hope Sharia Law gets passed and all the adulterous liberal presidential candidates get dealt with!

bugga-bugga!

Oh and the dems dont have 60 yet folks.

...boy these SOBs sure are impatient to drag this country into the sewer of debt with all their socialism.

[mark l.]

"When a politician switches parties, it’s customary for the party he’s abandoned to denounce him as an unprincipled hack, and the party he’s joined to praise him as a brave convert who’s genuinely seen the light. But I think it’s pretty clear that Specter is an unprincipled hack. If his best odds of keeping his Senate seat lay in joining the Communist party, he’d probably do that."

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/04/28/quick-specter-thoughts.aspx

wow, tnr loves specter.

[Procrustes]

Obama Hopefund money went to Sestak, as did Jim Clyburn's BRIDGE PAC money. Two strong indicators.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hopefund

[southdakotaboy]

Did I say someone should go out and shoot him? No, all I said and very truthfully to was that I'm not going to shed one tear if this guy gets shot, dies of a heart attack or gets run over by a bus.

So for all you jerks on the left who said the same things about Bush and Cheny go jump in a lake.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- Did I say someone should go out and shoot him? No, all I said and very truthfully to was that I'm not going to shed one tear if this guy gets shot, dies of a heart attack or gets run over by a bus. --"

At which point, if his seat goes anything like Santorum's did in '06, you'll get an even more liberal Democratic to replace him for your troubles.

I'm not laughing at your wingnut blood-tinged fantasies nearly so much as I'm laughing at your inability to perform any political forecasting. Toomey isn't winning any Senate seats north of the Mason Dixion line.

[southdakotaboy]

You know what IslamoLama I don't really care if your laughing with me or at me. As far as I'm concerned you and I aren't even fellow Americans. It will be your fault when the next terrorist attack hits this country. The blood of the people who die will be on your hands. The lost jobs and our children's destroyed future will be your fault.

Once people finally realize that all you and your kind are just plain bad people we will be back in power. When we do get back in power we will pay you back for every treasonous thing that you will have done to this country.

To throw Wardchurchill back in your face "your chickens will come home to roost" you miserable cur.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- You know what IslamoLama I don't really care if your laughing with me or at me. As far as I'm concerned you and I aren't even fellow Americans. It will be your fault when the next terrorist attack hits this country. The blood of the people who die will be on your hands. The lost jobs and our children's destroyed future will be your fault. --"

Not even a fellow American? Did you just reverse-Hannity me? I guess this means I'm banned from the next 4th of July fireworks show, right?

Tell you what, I've taken your words to heart. Baseball, mom, and apple pie mean too much to me to risk losing them in your eyes. In 2010, I'm voting straight ticket Republican because - by god, you're right - there's a reconning coming for all those newly elected progressive liberals up in Washington. And should another "Osama determined to strike America" folder fall off the side of the President's desk or one of the major automakers or financial giants file for bankruptcy, I don't want a piece of that blame. Voting Republican totally washes my hands of that, right?

So let me stand with you, South Dakota Boy. I want to reach my foot under the bathroom stale of the Grandest Old Party and know you're right next to me. Don't be angry. Know that I value your love and respect as much as any of my star spangled neighbors.

I love you man. Get over here and give me a hug.

[LOL]

So, by that logic, it was Bush's fault when 9/11 happened?

[SacTownMan]

"I love you man. Get over here and give me a hug."

Hey Lame-O,

Do you plan to follow that hug up with another of those "teabagging" rituals you write so eloquently about?

Spread the love baby!

[southdakotaboy]

LoL the fact that we now know THAT A 9/11 style attack is possible and that there are people actively working to make another one or something much worse happen makes Obama directly responsible for what happens.

If there are future attacks that happen because CIA agents don't use waterbording on captured terrorists it will a direct result of Obama's and the Democratic leadership to stop the practice.

If we shift to his health care plan and more people end up dead due to lack of medical care or lack of treatment due to long waits than are dieing now. It will be his fault.

If Obama and the left take away guns and the crime rate goes up. Than every new rape, death, beating, and robbery will be his fault.

That last part will hit the big cities harder than the rest of us. I hope all of you lefties in the big cities feel nice and safe right now. Take a good long look at Detroit because that is what you will soon be living in under Obama and the Dems.

[LOL]

You're an idiot.

So it was Bush's fault that the economy collapsed?

[lu-ee]

...maybe PA will get two pro-life senators now....

just a thought...

:)