Being A Democrat In The Senate Means Nothing

So Arlen Specter still doesn't support card check - apparently his hard tack to the right a few weeks ago was from long-held principle.  And he doesn't want a public option for health insurance.  Like most Republican "moderates," he voted with the rest of the GOP the vast majority of the time, 70% in Specter's case.  Now comes this:

There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner.

That's not a "moderate" statement by the way; Franken has a clear lead, has had a clear lead for some time now, and everyone, Republicans included, know that the only thing keeping Coleman going is spite.  Saying this is usually the realm of a real extremist, and frankly I'd have been surprised to see Specter say such a thing before he switched parties.

Harry Reid's response?

Mew mew mew mew, gurgle gurgle goo.

Oh, sorry, let me translate that into something vertebrates can understand:

Well, on that one we are just going to have to disagree.

As for Chessmaster Supreme Barack Obama?

So what can Obama and the Dem establishment do to pressure Arlen Specter to get behind their agenda?

Today’s White House press briefing dramatized the problem well. The key moment came when ABC News’ Jake Tapper asked White House press sec Robert Gibbs a good question: Is there any point at which Specter’s refusal to back key aspects of Obama’s agenda might get him to, you know, rethink his automatic support for Specter through the 2010 Dem primary?

As Tapper put it, is there “anything that Specter could do” that would persuade Obama not to back him against a Democrat “more in line with the president’s priorities”?

Gibbs’ answer: Not really. “Senator Specter has his full support and he’ll do what — what’s necessary to see him reelected,” Gibbs replied.

I'd say that Specter switched parties partly because he knew he was doomed as a Republican and partly because he wanted in on all that sweet action Lieberman, Bayh and Nelson are getting from the press.  Who wouldn't want to switch parties into a consequence-free environment, getting the money and good press of a Democratic wave without any need to support anything that Democrats want?

The US Senate is increasingly hostile to anything that could be described as even moderately "liberal."  We're going to see that put in sharp relief when Specter, Bayh, Nelson and other faux-Democrats find themselves forced - by their deep-seated convictions, of course - to oppose whoever Obama nominates for SCOTUS for being "controversial, divisive" or some such thing.  A real Democratic caucus, even one that accepted a diversity of opinion on a host of issues, with a real Majority Leader, would have either made Specter promise something or told him to fuck off.  And a real Democratic caucus would have kicked him out for the nonsense he's been pulling the last few days.

I hope Tom Ridge manages to run for Senate, beat Toomey in the primary and Specter in the general.  Maybe that will make switching parties less attractive to the few remaining GOP moderates, because frankly, I don't think our democracy can handle any more of these faux-Democrat clowns.

Comments

[Edmund in Tokyo]

"A real Democratic caucus, even one that accepted a diversity of opinion on a host of issues, with a real Majority Leader, would have either made Specter promise something or told him to fuck off."

At this point we don't know what Specter may or may not have promised Reid, do we?

What matters in practical terms is how he votes on the filibusters. He could vote against all Democratic legislation, claim that John McCain was the real winner of the 2008 presidential election and demand genetically-engineering a set of Scalia clones to fill any remaining SCOTUS vacancies - as long as he doesn't actually filibuster the results of the votes he loses, it's still better to have him inside the tent.

[litbrit]

At this point we don't know what Specter may or may not have promised Reid, do we?

It could be that Specter is in possession of semi-nude pictures of Reid wearing pink panties, with his back (partially) turned from the camera; thus Specter has set himself up to carry out a season of spectacular ratfucking with no fear of reprisal.