RINO No More

Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has spent 28 years in the United States Senate as a Republican, until today. As of today, he has decided to switch and become a Democrat.

During his time in office, in an effort to keep his seat, Mr. Specter has accepted help and money from Republicans across the country. Most notably in 2004 when President Bush and his political apparatus helped Sen. Specter defeat a strong primary challenger, Pat Toomey. This was despite the fact that Mr. Toomey was more philosophically in line with President Bush than Sen. Specter. Evidently, Arlen's feelings on this type of thing is what have you done for me lately.

It is clear that Mr. Specter has switched parties solely to remain in the Senate. Pat Toomey has already announced that he is running for the Senate and the polls out of Pennsylvania show that he would defeat Sen. Specter in the primary. In order to avoid losing his seat, Arlen has done what politicians do best, take care of himself.

At this point, the honorable thing to do is what Sen. Phil Graham of Texas had done. Upon announcing his switch to the Republican Party, Sen. Graham resigned his seat and ran for election as a Republican. If Mr. Specter is so sure of his success as a Democrat, he should face the electorate and let them judge.

Sen. Specter was never a reliable vote for the Republicans, as evidenced by his vote for the so called stimulus package earlier this year. It was one of a long line of votes that got him the RINO (Republican in name only) label.

Sen. Specter's switch at this time is critical because it will give the Democrats 60 votes in the Senate (assuming that Al Franken defeats Norm Coleman, which appears to be the case). With the magical 60 votes, the Democrats can now stop any attempted Republican filibuster. There will not be any check on Capitol Hill of the Democratic agenda. In speaking with a close friend who is a Democrat, he agreed that this is not good for the country. He pointed out that one party rule, by either party, is not in the best interests of the republic. The political pendulum often swings too far and that certainly seems to be the case today.