Posted by
Bert Chapman on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 9:22:03 AM
The news of "Senator" Arlen Specter's defection to the Democrats has left the liberal media a flutter and I'm sure Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann are feeling tingles in their legs as well. Despite his admirable job interrogating and devastating Anita Hill during the 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Justice Thomas, Specter's departure from the GOP is highly desirable. I don't know what Specter's party support voting percentage has been in recent years but it's clear he had moved into the RINO (Republican in name only) category and it was just a matter of time before he defected to the donkeys. My modest proposal for party loyalty is that if a legislator doesn't support their party's positions at least 60% of the time (which is a D- in most academic grading), that their overall commitment and loyalty to party principles and policies is dubious and that they are prime candidates for defection to the opposition.
Particularly reflective of Specter's arrogance is his desire to avoid subjecting his political fate to Pennsylvania GOP primary voters in 2010. Here's a news flash for the "Senator." You are accountable to the people of your state and especially accountable to those of us who are members of the party you purport to represent! Specter's defection will provide, in most cases, the Democrats with a sycophantic supporter of Obama Administration policies and his lack of overall moral principles, other than his absolute desire to retain his Senate seat, should give pause to any Democrats inclined to support him. By moving to caucus with banditos Reid and Pelosi, Specter gives the Democrats a near hammerlock on Senate legislative activities and does not provide the counterbalance to Obama Administration fiscal recklessness, obsequious pandering to union militancy, foreign and national security policy weakness, and social policy degeneracy which this country urgently needs.
Hopefully, Specter's defection will allow Pennsylvania voters of moderate to conservative ideological convictions to see that former Rep Pat Toomey is the best representative of their ideological views and should be sent to the Senate during the 2010 elections. Specter clings to a delusional ideological belief that the Democratic appeasement oriented Modern Republicanism of Nelson Rockefeller and Dwight Eisenhower is relevant, instead of being totally discredited by party members, ideologically dead, and not appropriate to the challenges facing our country today. Specter's departure from the GOP gives the party a chance to expunge ideological and personally opportunistic offal from its intestines and to rebuild itself with principled conservatives willing to promote and pursue fiscally prudent, morally beneficial, and realistic national security policies to promote our country's economic, social, and foreign policies.