Specter changes party

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If I could do cartwheels-

I would do cartwheels!

I have always admired Arlen Specter, and now, even more so!

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
He was going to lose the primary. He did what losers usually do. He switched sides to save his own ass and said FU to the voters that put him in office. Bye bye Arlen.
 
Ruenamatic and Panthera

You are correct about turn coats--I mean party switchers.

Two years ago we had a very conservative Attorney General that was preaching from office. Our Governour, who by the way is about the become the Secretary of Health, talked a more liberal Repub. into switching parties and running against the Preacher. Well the party switcher wins by a landslide and two months into his term it turns out he was porking anything with a skirt. Then lied about his activities which then put anything he did into question as he has now shown he is capable of lying and laying in public. (One of his trist was on a Judges office desk).

He did resign, wiffy stood beside him for support and it just shows you can take a republican out of the party, but just can't take the party out of the republican. After all doesn't G.O.P stand for Gay Old Party?
 
I genuinely

don't think Specter left the Republican party as much as it left him.
Now, as a yellow-dog Democrat and proud union member, obviously I see things differently from many conservative gays around here.

I just can't help but be hopeful that his switch means we now have a chance to finally move away from he culture wars and to accomplish those things for which politicians are needed.

Among them, granting us human status. With Specter's shift, we might actually have a chance at getting DOMA struck down.

And, when, sadly, the time comes for at least two new Supremes, we now have the resources to prevent the Republicans from blocking things.

Not to mention the tremendous pleasure in seeing us one vote closer to telling Liebermann what he can do with himself.

Gosh, is Schadenfreude an English word?
If not, it should be.

The conservatives and the christianists just plain went too far over the last years. Now, the US is swinging back towards the US Constitution.

Yee-haw!
 
Todd,

Was he down 15 points to Toomey in the Republican primary or the general electorate?

I find it hard to imagine many independents supporting someone that far to the right.
 
Well,

considering the source, I am going to reserve comment until I can see what the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and the NRA think of him.

If they all freak (interestingly, on the net privacy topic, ultra-conservatives and liberals are pretty much in agreement!), then, yup, he's too weird for words.

But give me a day or two.

On an interesting side note, Moran in Virginia is campaigning on human rights for gays.

And, Steele was D-U-M enough to tell Snow she would be "punished" for not falling in line just last week.

O, my paws and whiskers.
 
And if Franken gets the nod..

He, plus Specter, will give the Senate the 60 Dems needed to break filibusters.

Panthera, I agree...handle with welders gloves until we see what he does.

John
 
Give Them The Hook

Quite honestly find the whole idea of career politicans repulsive and an offence to the United States consitution. It violates the principles of a country that was NOT to be governed by a ruling class. Congress realised this at least for the office of the president, and after a certain man occupied the office three times, it was felt enough was enough, and an ammendment was passed limiting holders to two terms. Pity Congress doesn't have the same thoughts when it comes to themselves.

Between the House and Senate, the United States Congress likes like at worst a home for the aged, at best a country club.

Specter, Bird, Kennedy and several others have (or have not) done great service for their country, but Congress was never meant to be a life time position, complete with pension, health benefits and the whole bag of tricks.
 
*nodding in agreement*

Very good points, Launderess....and that "ruling class" we have is a large part of our current problem, I think. Given that it takes millions and billions to be elected to public office, candidates come from a class that does not know the rest of us even exist, much less what our life experience is like.

Just my opinion, mind you....YMMV.

John
 
Not "Ruling Class"

As in those that have, but the tendency for those in power to gather up for themselves various reins of said power to keep themselves in office.

Perfect example is the current mayor of New York City, Mr. Bloomberg. A billionare who came to politics, like so many others promising NOT to be a politican, and that is exactly what he has become.

When term limits would have caused him to leave this year, what happened? Several wealthy and well connected persons, three of whom just happen to own the three major newspapers of the city, and the mayor got together and cooked up a back room deal to alter the term limits law. Even the original sponsor of the term limits bill, a Mr. Lauder (yes, that Lauder, heir to the cosmetic fortune), who spent millions of his own funds to get the thing twice passed, caved in.

Now Mr. Bloomberg is free to use his billions to get himself re-elected by billing himself as "independent", despite he was once a republican, became a democrate to win the office the first time, dropped that party to become an independent, and now is busy courting the NYC/NYS republican party so he can run on their ticket for mayor?

See what I mean? By and large persons say quite allot about being called to serve and will only do so for one or two terms, but once they have tasted all the position has to offer, they don't wish to go.

Cannot remember the source, but IIRC the average age of a United States senator is about 65, give or take. And said senators on average have been in office upwards of 10 or 15 years.

The senate in the United States is a much more dangerous place because of how senority works, also because there are only two per state.
 
Two per state in the Senate

is manifestly more fair than in the House, where seats are apportioned per census results.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Seats are not only apportioned by census results

But the Republicans have perverted their majorities consistently to achieve congressional districts which are completely unfair towards those citizens who traditionally vote for Democrats.

We need to use this 60 seat majority, the microsecond we have it to push back and to push back hard.

The Republicans have completely abandoned the concept of democracy: The right of the majority must never be asserted at the cost of the civil liberties of the minority.

But this is what the Republicans did. Now we can undo this.
 
What you speak of...

"The right of the majority must never be asserted at the cost of the civil liberties of the minority. "

...is termed "Tyranny of the Majority" and you are correct in your assessment.

The Republicans have used the filibuster and various other rules as tools to force their agenda. When the Democrats use the same, the GOP cries foul.

I am beyond caring about what the GOP thinks. Indeed, as you say, the microsecond, nay, nanosecond we have it, push back, push back hard.

I am so totally in agreement with you.

John
 
But this is what the Republicans did. Now we can undo this.

Of course, for the now Democrat majority doing the exact same thing to assure Democrat majority is perfectly OK to do just like the Republicans did.
/sarc

The problem is that the census now lies within the executive branch which happens to be extreme leftist and partisan now. It should be completely independent. If it was, we'd probably see a lot more stability in district sizes and fairness in voting.
 
Extreme Leftist?

Partisan redistricting is a bad thing, and it's been practiced by both parties. A good way to de-politicize this would be a boon to the country.

What always flabbergasts me is calling any Democrat an "extreme leftist." Because this nation is overwhelmingly centrist, such people rarely get elected in the first place and Obama's record so far is hardly extreme. He's spent billions and billions bailing out Wall Street bankers, and has then turned around and been very tough indeed on Chrylser and GM. I'm not suggesting this was wrong, but a true leftist/populist would have socked it to the bankers and then handled the car companies with kid gloves so as not to offend union members or cause a loss of blue-collar jobs.
 
Uh huh

Of course, for the now Democrat majority doing the exact same thing to assure Democrat majority is perfectly OK to do just like the Republicans did.
/sarc

Uh..yeah... :-) Hooray for my side and all that, yah know?

(tease mode off now)

Seriously, I see what you are saying, and it is, of course, right.

And it's probably not right for me to say this, but...I am angry. While Wall Street lined their pockets with bonuses and jets and such, while people lose their homes and jobs, while billions are spent on a war based on false premises, segments of society either didn't gain rights that should be available to all, or gained them, then lost them. Reproductive issues became the realm of legislation, and not of the parties involved...things like that.

This is just where I am at. I do honestly try to respect all opinions, but when something is legislated that concerns me, and I am not part of the conversation, or not heard, I have a very hard time. And that's what I see as the hallmark of the GOP.

I agree that the census should be completely independent. The gerrymandering of districts here in Missouri is a sight to behold in what lengths, literally, parties will go to hold seats. Some districts on a map look like a paintball splat in order to garner certain voting blocs.

Alas...I don't know the solution, that's for sure. Sometimes, I wonder if we're in such a quagmire that we can never really get out.

Just my thoughts, opinions, and feelings, mind you. Let me apologize in advance if anyone is offended, for that is not my intent. I like you folks here a lot, no matter your political stripe, orientation, what have you. And that is what matters the most.

John
 
LOL! John, you haven't even gotten close to offensive in any way like some people here get. Most times I bring it on myself by wondering into these leftist threads. I thought I learned my lesson last time, but apparently I haven't.

Bonuses are earned. If the stockholders didn't like it, they could have done something about it. My company tanked in the 4th quarter, but we were still paid handsome bonuses based on the previous 3 quarters. Bonuses and jet planes to do business is the perogative of the company. If stockholders and customers were asleep, they shouldn't have been stockholders and customers.

Still, I haven't heard a number above 5% of homeowerns loosing their homes. They shouldn't have been allowed to buy a home. The other 95% of good mortgage paying owners and those who outright own their home shouldn't see the 5% stupid people get bailed out.

The government should have let those companies that were failing fail. Period. If there is a demand for their services, another company would have stepped up to the plate.

Maybe the war was misguided. We do not know all the details. If it was so misguided, Obama would have an easier time pulling out. We don't know. As far as I am concerned, Obama didn't know either and campaigned on ignorance.

DOMA and DADT are still on the books, brought to us by Clinton. Obama and Congress is not making it a priority to repeal it. All front runner presidential candidates said they were against gay marriage. The Democrats have been the majority in Congress for several years. Bush passed everything they sent him. And yet we still whine about Republicans.

"What always flabbergasts me is calling any Democrat an "extreme leftist."
Just like all Republicans are christianists and reopening gas chambers. I know. Centrist Democrats liked Lieberman, yet he was demonized (and still won!). With Spector, Snow and that other woman senator, maybe they were centrists, but you gotta wonder when every single other member of their party votes one way and they go a different way, they are asking for it. Spector, however is just a politician looking to retain power. He's a whimp, no one is whining about him in the blogs I read.
 
Peter,

I think, of all the people here who have been unjustly attacked for their political beliefs, you are probably the one who has taken the brunt of the nastiness from the left.

I regret that and hope our disagreements, at least, have been civil.

One of the very worst things to happen to American politics in the recent past was the decision of the Republicans to impeach and prosecute Clinton for lying about that blow job or whatever it was (define: 'whatever' define: 'was').

It drove a wedge between Republicans and Democrats which has just grown and grown and grown. We went from politics as usual (we have the graveyard vote in Chicago, you have the Cuban vote in Florida. Whoops, you had the Cuban vote). You buy your politicians and expect them to stay bought. We buy our voters and expect them to stay bought.

Same old, same old. But that was shattered by the impeachment followed by the Gore versus Bush decision. Before we could even begin to recover (and we would have, the fact that we did as well as we did in 2004 speaks volumes),9/11 hit and everything changed.

Truly, a Democrat would have made most of the mistakes Bush did in the beginning. A Democrat might have done even worse i the beginning.
Just, a Democrat was not in power these last eight years. So now, we have a chance to not make the same mistakes.

I hope, truly I hope, the Republican party can clean up their act. Someday, they will be back in power again and when they are, I want to see politicians like Eisenhower and Nixon, not Jindal and Palin.
 
Jesse,

I hope you are sitting down, 'cause we are in agreement, here.

Of course he only cares about himself. He is, after all, a politician.

But I don't care.

We need every warm body we can get if we are going to repeal DOMA anytime soon.

In a rather horrible way, this article points out two reasons why Republicans are no longer quite the darlings of most Americans.

One, they opposed rather loudly the funding increase for flu epidemics (remember that one? I do.) I hope to h-e-double hockey-sticks that this doesn't turn into the epidemic we fear, but if it does and we are short of those resources you need time and money to build up, well - you can bet it will be mentioned in the 2010 elections. Loudly.

Two, over half the Republicans in Texas want to secede. Most are too ignorant to understand that their agreement with the Union way back then does not grant them this right, only to split into five separate states.

As five separate states, they would retake the Senate forever.

I know some folks who personally agree with the Republicans in Texas and I could well see some New Yorkers sneaking into the Library of Congress with some White-Out and a stylus...

http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/the-off-brand-presidency/
 
I don't really think the Texas issue is all about secceding. The 10th amendment movements you are seeing all around the country is about state's rights. People (states) are sick & tired of the FEDERAL gov't threatening to withhold funding if the states do not comply with it's wishes. For example, here in PA we had a .10 bac for DUI. The Feds said lower it. The state said no. Well then you do not get your normal highway allocation monies. So the state caved and changed it's laws to suit the feds & is now .08. That's just one example. Seatbelt laws are another. Now they are pushing PA to make it a primary offense instead of a secondary. That means that the police can pull you over for not having a seatbelt on. Right now, you have to be pulled over for something else to get a seatbelt fine. I would hate to see this as a primary offense. Once again, highway funds are held overhead to force the state to give up it's right to govern and give in to the feds wishes. This started before BO, he just happens to be in there now. It started before GW. It's been getting worse & worse. People are just getting fed up with the Govt exerting more & more control over everything and every aspect of one's life. State's rights is one of the main reasons for the Civil War. The states were sick & tired of an over-reaching federal gov't. Sounds way too familiar.
 

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