The Specter of a fillibuster-proof majority

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel he should not be allowed to do this? He was voted in to serve the people. He needs to represent the party/people who elected him. I do not understand how a public servant can just up and leave the population who voted him in. It's a crime.

It's frustrating, but happens all the time. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Richard Shelby are two Democrats who switched to the Republican party and Jim Jeffords was a Republican who became "independent" but caucused with the Democrats. And then there is Joe Lieberman who lost the Democratic primary but claims to be an "independent Democrat". I don't think any of these guys have principles. They simply care about what gets them elected. I hope Spector gets primaried by a real Democrat.

I think a politician should be judged by the policies he supports. Yes, some people voted for their politicians because of party affiliation. But ultimately, they vote for the person based on what they think he/she will support. I think that Specter is going to vote the way he has before on the key issues. And so he is honoring his commitment to the people who elected him.

Really, he ran as a conservative each and every election just to suck up to voters, and he knows he cannot survive a GOP primary again after some of his recent stands and without GWB stumping for him _- will liberal Dems turn out for a law and order DA?

How do you figure he's a conservative? Look at his 2008 ACU rating: 42 That makes him the 4th most liberal Republican senator. The median Republican senator rated a 76. he is what he is, a moderate. Rating-wise, he's right in the middle between the parties, and the Republicans are making it very difficult to be anything other than a conservative. It's their fault.

I never "figured" he was a Conservative - honestly I pay more attention than that. But grab a Pa newspaper - try the Patriot in Harrisburg, and see what he said on the stump in 2004. He ran as right as he needed to in the primaries, and squeaked by Tomey by less than 2% at that - and then once re-elected acted like a moderate Democrat. Nothing against Moderate Democrats, but if PA wanted a Senator to caucus with the Dems in 2004 they would have voted for one IMO. This came down to his deciding vote on the stimulus - nothing socially conservative about that opposition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else feel he should not be allowed to do this? He was voted in to serve the people. He needs to represent the party/people who elected him. I do not understand how a public servant can just up and leave the population who voted him in. It's a crime.

It's frustrating, but happens all the time. Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Richard Shelby are two Democrats who switched to the Republican party and Jim Jeffords was a Republican who became "independent" but caucused with the Democrats. And then there is Joe Lieberman who lost the Democratic primary but claims to be an "independent Democrat". I don't think any of these guys have principles. They simply care about what gets them elected. I hope Spector gets primaried by a real Democrat.

I think a politician should be judged by the policies he supports. Yes, some people voted for their politicians because of party affiliation. But ultimately, they vote for the person based on what they think he/she will support. I think that Specter is going to vote the way he has before on the key issues. And so he is honoring his commitment to the people who elected him.

Really, he ran as a conservative each and every election just to suck up to voters, and he knows he cannot survive a GOP primary again after some of his recent stands and without GWB stumping for him _- will liberal Dems turn out for a law and order DA?

How do you figure he's a conservative? Look at his 2008 ACU rating: 42 That makes him the 4th most liberal Republican senator. The median Republican senator rated a 76. he is what he is, a moderate. Rating-wise, he's right in the middle between the parties, and the Republicans are making it very difficult to be anything other than a conservative. It's their fault.

I never "figured" he was a Conservative - honestly I pay more attention than that. But grab a Pa newspaper - try the Patriot in Harrisburg, and see what he said on the stump in 2004. He ran as right as he needed to in the primaries, and squeaked by Tomey by less than 2% at that - and then once re-elected acted like a moderate Democrat. Nothing against Moderate Democrats, but if PA wanted a Senator to caucus with the Dems in 2004 they would have voted for one IMO. This came down to his deciding vote on the stimulus - nothing socially conservative about that opposition.

He had been in office for twenty-four years, and his record is wide open to the public. At this point, they knew what they were getting. I don't think the people have been robbed, because the average person is not trying to elect their party but the person they believe best represents their interests. In any case, we'll see how offended PA is when they go to the polls in 2010. Wanna bet how it turns out?

I don't know why you feel wronged or duped by a republican running to the right during the primary season. It is, if anything, a sad commentary on the state of the party that pretty much all Republicans are forced to pretend they are conservatives to get through the primary, only to recast themselves again in the general election. Look at McCain, pretending he is a true conservative, only to completely spin around and call himself a maverick and a reformer again as soon as he was nominated. For Chrissakes, his first choice for Veep was Joe Lieberman! And up against him we had Mitt Romney, a governor who was pro-choice and came as close as anyone in America to instituting universal health care. And he's pretending to be the true conservative! It's absurd. But do you blame all the candidates or do you blame the party? All you have to do is look at the party affiliation numbers to see that the party is the problem.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah, this was how Specter described his 2004 victory, as published in the Harrisburg Patriot. It hardly sounds like he tried very hard to look like a conservative:

Specter urges moderation to boost GOP gains at polls

Date: November 4, 2004
Page: A05
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., proclaimed that his re-election on Tuesday was a "victory for moderate Republicans." He said he hopes to recruit more statewide Republicans to that banner.
Specter led all statewide Republicans as he swept to his fifth Senate term, a record for Pennsylvania. He rolled up more votes than President Bush statewide and in Dauphin and Cumberland counties.

[Anonymous]

I was referring to the April 2004 primary - Spector vs Toomey, not the general election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was referring to the April 2004 primary - Spector vs Toomey, not the general election.

That's my point. The Republican party primary is so dysfunctional that politicians are all pretending to be conservatives to make it through the process. But he doesn't owe squat to the party. He owes his electorate the truth, and he campaigned in the general election as a moderate, his record is not hidden from anyone's view, and the people of Pennsylvania still voted for him, five times in a row. So if you feel like the RNC or the state party was duped, all I have to say is boo-hoo. The people got the same guy they voted for time and time again. And now he's a Democrat, and he's still going to vote the way he votes. Let them put up Pat Toomey in the general election. What a laugh.

[Anonymous]

Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Would that be Senator from Maryland (since that is where he has residency)?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Would that be Senator from Maryland (since that is where he has residency)?

The Constitution only says

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.

So he has plenty of time to fix the residency problem, unless Pennsylvania has a very stringent law. But that leaves the issue of voter reaction to the "carpetbagger" issue. Then there is the fact that he is a lobbyist for foreign governments. At the very least, he does not look like a slam-dunk.

By the way, the Clintons bought their NY home in September, 1999 (wikipedia, FWIW), 14 months before the election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Will his campaign posters be yellow, orange, or red? Nope. Taupe!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Will his campaign posters be yellow, orange, or red? Nope. Taupe!

Maybe I'm a dope, but I don't get taupe. ???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Ridge says No: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/breaking-ridge-will-not-run-for-senate-in-2010.php?ref=fp1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Will his campaign posters be yellow, orange, or red? Nope. Taupe!

Maybe I'm a dope, but I don't get taupe. ???

SNL Sketch where Darrell Hammond made fun of the alert status Tom Ridge put out: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01oridge.phtml

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tom Ridge for Senate 2010

Will his campaign posters be yellow, orange, or red? Nope. Taupe!

Maybe I'm a dope, but I don't get taupe. ???

SNL Sketch where Darrell Hammond made fun of the alert status Tom Ridge put out: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/01/01oridge.phtml

Thanks. I think I actually saw that, but it must have escaped my memory. I'll try not to mope over forgetting taupe.

I guess we can now concentrate on Joe the Admiral.

[Anonymous]

I'm thrilled Specter is calling himself a Democrat, and equally thrilled Obama will have a filibuster-proof majority just in time to enter the health care battle. He's going to need every vote he can get. Universal health care must pass within the next two years, else Obama's presidency is a failure, IMHO.

I do agree however that it's generally not a great thing for either party to control the executive and congress. Look what Bush did to the country with help from a Republican congress. Absolute power corrupts....