Specter is also against “card check”, the unions’ top legislative priority, a stance that will hurt him in the primary if the party establishment can’t muscle whatever challenger may appear. He’s for judicial restraint and likely his positions on judges won’t change much. In short, the Democrats got a mere symbolic victory and inherited a vulnerable Senator up for re-election next year.
Whatever support Specter may have had in the Republican Party among voters is likely to vanish. Voters simply do not respond well to party switching. He will also likely face a Democratic primary challenge because the left wing of the Democrats will not embrace him either (remember how they treated Joe Lieberman?).
More importantly, while Obama is moderately popular, his policies are not. Come mid-term elections, his unpopular policies will be a weight around the Congressional Democrats shoulders. While many areas of the country do not necessarily have strong Republican farm teams, Pat Toomey is no amateur. Combine that with a candidate who obviously lacks principles and Specter faces real trouble come November of 2010.
Or as Wheeler put it, Specter showed he will “hold on to political power above considering principles, party and even the people.” In 2006 and 2008, voters threw out Republicans across the country for appearing slimy and unprincipled. Specter just put himself in that category for 2010.
So can conservatives win in Pennsylvania and elsewhere? Much depends on how Obama’s Administration goes (and it is not going well so far). However, the voters are fed up with the financial shenanigans of Congress and of the States, a symptom of that frustration being the popular Tea Parties. If Republicans can convince voters they’ve learned their lesson on fiscal conservatism (and Pat Toomey is the exemplar of that idea), the voters may well welcome them back to power; certainly after the radical expansion of deficits proposed by Obama.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Odd, the fresh comments lists 3 comments on this article, but there are none here to read.
Dave
2 - pablo
The new blogcritics website and interface SUCKS.
Until such time as it is easy on my eyes, as well to use, I will spend my time elsewhere. Thanks for the memories folks. bye bye
3 - Doug Hunter
Ditto.
4 - Dr Dreadful
Specter won't be haunting the Senate much longer, I fear. He knew he had only the ghost of a chance of being re-nominated and his motives in switching parties are quite transparent. He seems to have forgotten the spirit of public service, and has been only a phantom Republican for years now. I do find the glee of the Pennsylvania GOP at his defection quite ghoulish, though, considering how spooked they are at the prospect of a filibuster-proof Democratic majority.
5 - Werner Patels
I agree that Specter will pay a hefty price for his defection. He did it only for his own personal gain (campaign cash, pork, saving his own skin), but not for the benefit of the American people.