On Specter’s Defection
May 4th, 2009 | by Sqotty |It’s all over the news that Senator Arlen Specter (Confused - PA) has switched parties (again), joining the Democrats (this time). The piece I like the best is the last several paragraphs on Breitbart:
The five-term senator repeatedly cast his switch as a decision of principle. But he also said his own pollster had told him his chances of winning a Republican primary in Pennsylvania next year were bleak.
Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., said that in a private meeting with Republicans, Specter “gave a purely political explanation. … He said: ‘I’ve looked at the polls. I can’t win as a Republican, I can’t win as an independent. The only way I have a shot is to be a Democrat.’”
As recently as late winter, Specter was asked by a reporter why he had not taken Democrats up on past offers to switch parties.
“Because I am a Republican,” he said.
There it is, Specter is only concerned about staying in office, pure and simple. He doesn’t give a rat’s behind about principles, and I wonder, based on his voting record (he voted for Obama’s stimulus package that helped boost the 2009 budget deficit from $450 Billion to $1.6 Trillion). It’s about keeping his overpaid job (yes, all members of Congress, and the various appointees, are overpaid).
I have a question for Arlen Specter: Are you willing to repay all of the campaign contributions you have received during the last several years to anybody who contributed to it because you have switched parties? I mean, seriously, if a candidate I gave money to switched parties on me, I’d be demanding a refund. Now, not everyone who contributes to his campaign may give a hoot which party he belongs to, but there are also a number of people who provide campaign funding who do so based on party affiliation. So, fork it over, pal.
Olympia Snowe of Maine used this as an opportunity to assert that the GOP needs to move to the “center”. That is a formula for the GOP to lose elections. Why? Because people who want a someone that supports a socially liberal agenda will always vote for a liberal Democrat, if one is available, regardless of how far left a Republican drifts. Think about. A liberal voter is given a choice between a liberal Democrat who espouses a “soak the rich” socialist agenda and a Republican who claims to be a “social liberal and fiscal conservative (aka a cheap liberal), who is that voter going to vote for?
Snowe is also wrong in her argument in that what we really want is a real choice! I don’t want to have to choose between an expensive liberal (like al Franken) and a cheap liberal (like Norm Coleman). I want a choice that is a real conservative; someone who believes in the founding principles of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. I want someone who believes in fiscal responsibility, limited government, free markets, and understands that when the Second Amendment says “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” means exactly that, and not some power of the States.
As for Specter’s defection, maybe this time Pennsylvania will give him the walking papers he so richly deserves. As for his being a Republican, good riddance.
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