There goes America's sober second thought.

Well, so much for representative democracy. Hello, Socialism!

I can understand his motivation. Within the Republican Party, he has a death grip on the "biggest asshole" status. With the Dems, he will always have Al Franken looking up to him.

lance, there has not been a sober member in the senate since they repealed the 17th amendment.

America is going through what an alcoholic must go through. It must bottom right out. It must be flat on it's back before it can begin to rehabilitate. Obongo and his gang are taking it to right to the bottom of the barrel. We must now hope for a good sponsor to come along soon. Someone like Ronald Reagan or Maggie Thatcher would be good, if there are any such people left in this wimped our world.

The Republican party like our conservative party in Canada don't seem to stand for much anymore.

It shows that otherwise smart people with no goal or purpose are no match for even idiots who do have purpose and a goal. Even really bad ones.

Too bad Ron Paul didn't look more like Brad Pitt. He is the best choice.

All we can do is wear puke proof clothing and wait it out.

"I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans," Specter said.

And what might that "philosophy" be? Reelection at any cost, and if that means pandering to an increasingly dumbed-down electorate, so be it.

Momar, you are right on. Sarah Palin and Ron Paul would be a nice ticket. She did support Paul prior to being told she was on McCain's short list for VP. If anyone has guts, it is her.

The old fool finally makes it official.

Long term, this is excellent news for everyone except the Democrats. Any mistake they make, is all theirs. Hopefully they cause enough pain that people snap to their senses. Until then:

Here's to Democracy; a system that ensures people get the government that they deserve.

Specter is merely showing he is a political opportunist. What else would you expect from the political class?

Thus the US will have a Dem sweep of all levels of power and the Obama-Nation will be complete!

Resistance is futile, join the Borg...etc, etc.

This should get the Republicans knickers in a knot.

I'm sure we'll have a few more Air Farce 1 incidents to make the power sweep absolutely crystalline.

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group "True North"

Horrible news.

This is analogous to a Lib/NDP coalition majority in Canada.

The free world is in deep kaka.

Reading the postings on the American sites is really depressing, the level of hate on both sides is astounding, maybe this factor alone is much to account for the state America is in.

If this is not a reason for term limits, I don't know what is. American is broken. The one thing the left should remember in it's current glee at poor Republican fortunes is that Obama has spent so much money and created so much debt that the future government will have no choice to be massively downsize or be bankrupt. Big government is doomed the only question is how long it takes to get there and it appears it will not be too long. Now that will be the real schadenefreude.

grim news short term. Potentially great news long term. Gather all of the political opportunist fleas on one hopey changey spot and drown them when the reckoning happens ( and it will).

Ron Paul: I must respectfully disagree. While I'm 100% with him on the economics front (he's a solid Austrian in the von Mises-Hayek-Rothbard mold) he has zero leadership ability, is a whiner, an isolationist, and a Jew-hater, or anti-Israel zealot if you prefer it put more daintily. Or as CJ at LGF put it, the crazy uncle in the attic. Ron Paul is a nutbar and gives libertarianism a bad name.

Sarah Palin: While I like and admire the woman she's a poor choice I've regretfully come to feel. Just too polarizing and lacking gravitas and background. We need someone who doesn't generate a derangement syndrome. Note to self: be careful you don't yourself fall into ODS.

Term limits? Will Americans ever move toward term limits for Congress? Or are they too happy with the pork gettable from long-established multi-term political dynasties?

I myself, would like to see a single term limit with high pay. Perhaps this would help resotre some semblance of public service. And as to the predictable rejoinder "heh, you can't get much done in one term" I'd ask, "and that would be a bad thing, how exactly?".

Looks like Spectre is pulling a "Garth Turner". lol

"a whiner, an isolationist, and a Jew-hater, or anti-Israel zealot if you prefer it put more daintily."

So what exactly do you do for the Canada-Israel Committee, "Me No Dhimmi"?

This joint couldn't be a more obvious honey pot if Kate was wearing a red serge. Straight up: informer, licky boom boom down.

At least he has made it official now.

"Sarah Palin: While I like and admire the woman she's a poor choice I've regretfully come to feel. Just too polarizing and lacking gravitas and background. We need someone who doesn't generate a derangement syndrome. Note to self: be careful you don't yourself fall into ODS."

Maybe someone like John McCain?

Your summary judgments of polarizing and lack of gravitas just do not convince me you are uniquely qualified to pick the next GOP leader.

Let us not forget the food senator defended Ira Einhorn the Unicorn Killer.

Does it really matter very much ?

Let 'em have their moment strutting in the Sun.

They'll make a mess, for sure, but nothing that can't be cleaned up.

The great pity is that they're all so boring.

At least, Reagen or Rumsfeld were occasionally funny.

If you are right, and the other side refuses to give, then polarizing is a good thing.

I wonder when Limbaugh will start running his "America: Held Hostage!" countdown?

Today is the day the Republicans should start their year-and-a-half long filibuster. Start reading the New York City phone book into the official record.

Just act exactly like the DemocRats did when they were in the minority. It works.

"Sarah Palin: While I like and admire the woman she's a poor choice I've regretfully come to feel. Just too polarizing and lacking gravitas and background. We need someone who doesn't generate a derangement syndrome. Note to self: be careful you don't yourself fall into ODS."

Polarizing: Sounds like Obama.
Gravitas: Yes - too bad she does not have Obama's gravitas! Offending world leaders (allies), kissing tyrants' behinds and terrorizing NYC.
Background: Actual executive experience and the courage to take on the establishment. Not to mention the courage to veto, veto, veto in the face of liberal guilt-tripping!

I always thought derangement syndrome was a negative against lefties, not against conservatives? If leaders are picked based on that - Megan McCain will be the GOP nominee next time round.

I wonder what his constituants think? Anyway its his move. Next election we will see if he made the right one left so to speak. It was his natural inclination anyway to be a socialist.

This was inevitable.

Now we will put the myth to the test that American politicians are more responsible to the electorate than here in Canada. The Democrats may have the uber-majority in government, but their policies defiantly won't benefit the people proportionately to their numbers in both houses. Obama's policies will hurt many Americans that live in Democrat stomping grounds; will their representatives stand up for them?

Barf. I just read Frum's analysis at newmajority.com. Basically Spector didn't leave the republicans - republicans left him!
What did I miss? When did Frum start advocating the squishy mushy middle?

Good analysis liz.

wrt Ron Paul, give your head a shake.

Fred Thompson was a conservative but in hind sight Fred wasn't in it to win, so he wasn't the right guy. Giuliani, Huckabee and Romney were all more qualified than either Presidential candidate; but, Americans weren't interested in qualifications this time around, they wanted "IT"; and "IT" is what Obama has, and that's the only factor.

Well let's see what happens. As Obama and the dem party go on a spending spree like we haven't seen since Johnson days. We can only watch how the jobs fail and our dollar becomes worthless.

Then maybe Americans shall see the truth and elect real REP/Con to all houses.

Yet it's not going to happen over night. )-:

Let the debt party roll on . . . the USA is in for a huge loss of freedoms, a huge growth in government and a massive increase in debt.

Hoe many people work in Government ?

About half.

liz ur just a right-wing extreemist.

Long term, this is excellent news for everyone except the Democrats. Any mistake they make, is all theirs. Hopefully they cause enough pain that people snap to their senses.

You're joking, right? Have you SEEN Obama's M.O.? It should be glaringly clear after 100 days that nothing Obama does, nothing the Democrats do, is their fault. The Republicans are to blame. Bush is to blame. Obama "inherited" this problem.

I don't hold out much hope that people will wake up and see what a disaster Obama's been in the first three months in office.

We need someone who doesn't generate a derangement syndrome.

Newsflash: If they generate a "derangement syndrome", it means they're doing something right. The hatred - the unmitigated hatred - hurled at Sarah Palin shows that the contempt our elites have for a majority of Americans (who are more conservative, working families with children). It wasn't a banner moment for the left. And the right needs to remind people of that.

Also, if the 2008 election showed nothing else, it's that the kind of candidate who doesn't generate outright "derangement syndrome" (John McCain) is nearly indistinguishable from the Democrats and is only loved by the media so long as he's a maverick against his own party (read: sides with Democrats). McCain was awesome until he was the GOP front runner, then the media turned on him lest he challenge Obama.

gord tulk - I agree with you; Specter is only doing it because he's concerned that, as a Republian, the Republicans in his area will turf him out. BUT - it doesn't mean he'll succeed as a Democrat either!

Obama and the Democrats are spending these weeks trying to fend off a massive rejection of their socialism, their deficit spending, their lack of patriotism - with attacks against 'Bush' and his era. Obama, the great 'bipartisan' really operates by setting up class, race and political party against each other. That way, he slithers out of the criticism. Or so he thinks.

me no dhimmi - I like Sarah Palin; I don't see that she lacks 'gravitas' and background. However, in a few months..it will be time for the Republians to get a leader. Not too soon, for the anti-Obama movement has to be non-partisn. Those Tea Parties were non-partisn..even though the Democrats and MSM tried to deflect them by saying they were.

I don't like Ron Paul; he's too isolationist and, frankly, his attitude reminds me of the after effect of swallowing vinegar. Romney, Sanford..and there's someone else...I wish I could lremember names but I never can; he's in the House, I think. Not Senate.

Yes, term limits. Three terms.

Meanwhile, it's quite something to watch Obama trying to manipulate the 2010 and 2012 elections, and trying to ignore and deflect criticism.

As for what he's doing to America - it's disastrous. Hopefully, the American people will stand up - as they are doing - and reject him.

Here's the good news.

Since the Democratic Party now controls both houses of Congress and the Presidency, they have a clear path and can do whatever they like, much like a majority government in Canada.

Starting today, anything negative that happens in the US can rightfully be portrayed as ‘Obama's fault.'

There's no fallback position now, saying Republicans are ‘obstructionist.' since the Republican Party can no longer obstruct.

Fill yer boots, guys. It's all on you now.

Give Chrysler away to the UAW and the formation of our southern neighbour into the USSA is happening right before your eyes.

Look, there is precisely one politician on the North American continent who cannot be accused of Marxism to any degree, and his name is Ron Paul. To the extent that neo-con crybabies think he's racist or whatever they can go f*ck themselves. Race hustling crybabies. Neocons are worse than feminists and gays combined, the shrillness is off the charts.

Let's detain, exile and deport race hustlers who attack the one true conservative politician on this planet, Ron Paul, because they are enemies of the people. If your "racism" conspiracy theories result in my taxes going up, you represent a clear and present danger to America and you need to be neutralized, at the very least.

Mark any critic of Ron Paul as a Marxist\Trotskyist. Investigate them, monitor them, watch their every move.

Whaaaaaaa! Ron Paul is teh racist!

Shaddup, crybabies.

What's a neo-con?

And with that change in party so too does he change his name to "Arlen Sphincter" The GOP is better off without him.

Now the GOP should go to work on bringing Joe Leiberman across the isle in order to prevent the 60 seats from happening. Leiberman is much more a conservative than he is a liberal.

Watching Live: Cavuto and Rudy discuss Specter, neither one can talk, both have a sore throat.

Hmmmm, H1N1 in NYC ????

"Leiberman is much more a conservative than he is a liberal."

Ohohohohohoho, that was a good one. Wait, let me guess, crybaby: I'm teh racisist because I mark Lieberman as the Marxist he is. Yeah, shaddup. What an incredibly left wing blog this is, the banner might as well display the frigging hammer and sickle.

I recommend Kate's 8 remaining conservative readers take their eyeballs to a proper conservative blog, like, say, Unambiguously Ambidextrous, it's pretty obvious this is an anti-taxpayer website now.

Raphael Alexander, unlike neo-cons, isn't afraid to criticize immigration, ethnics, women, and gays, it's a much better read than the boring, boring, boring crybaby spam pap so typical of neo-con blogs, who don't even conceal their Marxism anymore. Here's the link:

http://unambig.wordpress.com/

Accusing the one non-commie left in America, Ron Paul, of being "racist" is a bridge too far, kids, you're now officially a national security issue.

Specter has to be excited about his chance for realection now. Acorn will be running door to door to bring out the voters for him.

grok: a neo-con is the latest trendy breed of big government conservatives!

Spectre to run in 2010? He's 79 years old!!
Recall the outrage that McCain was too old to run for President? This man is past his best before date!!

In the last decade even so-called conservatives have become nanny-state big-government hypocrites. This applies in Canada and in the US. The current bunch of republicans are a particularly scurrilous bunch for the most part, and a disgrace to conservatism.

These days it's just a matter of degree that differentiates left and right, not principle. And that's what the public seems to want. Government intervention and no personal accountability.

The only way we can ever really cut back big government, and have a party that genuinely espouses a government that is smaller and withdraws from the public sector as much as possible is to create such a huge backlash against those policies that this becomes possible.

Giving the emerging neo-socialism in the US, a chance to demonstrate the inevitable failure of this philosophy as a sustainable social and economic model might permit that backlash, but I hope it does not a complete social and financial disaster in the US to create that scenario.

My faith in American exceptionalism is being tested, but I still believe it for now.

Let's see how Americans react to the inevitable disaster that will come from government involvement in "solving" global warming, healthcare problems, manufacturing problems, and immigration issues. Looking at England, it takes about 10-20 years of this type of policy to nearly destroy a nation. Looking at the current state of the right in the US, the democrats may well have that 10-20 years.

p.s. the Lori posting above me is not me. I am the Toronto-based Lori that has been posting at SDA for a couple of years. Not sure who the other Lori is, but would prefer if we did not share a name for purposes of clarity re: who is saying what.

"big government conservatives!"

This phrase makes as much sense as "small government Marxist". Conservatives, by definition, are anti-welfare state, you cannot be conservative in any way shape or form otherwise. If you don't get this, you read too many newspapers.

The "social" in "social conservative" is superfluous; you cannot be socially liberal and fiscally conservative, that is pure fiction. Here's the deal: conservatives make up maybe 2%-5% of the population in Canada, and maybe 15% in the States. All the rest are Marxists, to varying degrees. The confusion re: what is a conservative lies in the fact that many of these people are a little embarrassed to admit how Marxist they are, so they present themselves as conservatives. They're not.

Ick. There goes the neighborhood.

The "social" in "social conservative" is superfluous; you cannot be socially liberal and fiscally conservative, that is pure fiction.

______________________________________________

LMD: what does "social liberal" mean? What does "social conservative" mean?

Some people here would label me a social liberal because I don't agree with legislated morality and bible-based thinking.

But I consider myself as conservative as anyone here. Am I a contradiction? Am I a Marxist?

LMD - my concern is your binary framework, where you insist that one is either a Conservative in the manner of Ron Paul, or, one is a Marxist.

I don't think that the two political ideologies can be defined with such extreme criteria.

I certainly agree with 'limited constitutional govt', low taxes and free markets' but these are all terms that are not rigid and specific in themselves, but operate, definitionally, across a spectrum of criteria.

But for you to assume that when a government moves into, eg., regulation of private industries or of immigration, that this immediately makes such an action 'Marxist' - is stretching the definition of Marxism beyond its validity.

Am I the only one who read the article???

look at paragraph 5,

...

"...Specter faced an extraordinarily difficult re-election challenge in his home state in 2010, having first to confront a challenge from his right in the Republican primary before pivoting to a general election campaign against a Democrat..."

...

faced in 2010???

Hello???

Old Lori:

We don't share a name: you are the old Lori and I am presumably, the young Lori.

Take a look at this guy. I hope he gets in, but these days principled folks get eaten alive in Washington.

Free Speech Summit: Lt Colonel Allen West Interview

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/04/free-speech-summit-lt-colonel-allen-west-interview.html#comments

Big Government Conservative seems a very accurate description to me. How many Conservatives applauded the banning of incandescent light bulbs, as opposed to fought it as an unwarranted intrusion into our homes? How many Conservatives agree 100% with the socialists that the financial meltdown is due to de-regulation and a failure of capitalism? How man Conservatives answered Obama's call to rage over AIG bonuses? How many took even a moment to think "wage and price controls"?

Not only should we go Galt, we should vote in a large NDP majority on our way out the door. The only true cure for socialism is to give people as much as they thought they wanted.

Kevin your sorta right but I want my childrens children not to have to pay for it. Socialism is a mental disorder.