Switchin' It Up

It's been rumored for awhile, but today made it official. Senator Arlen Specter has announced that he will be running under the Democratic ticket in next year's election.

Specter was facing a rough primary against Pat Toomey, who Specter had been trailing in polling for the past few months. Specter was poised to lose his re-election campaign before election day even arrived, so this is a potential game saver for the longtime senator. Pennsylvania has become increasing Democratic politically over the past few years, as evidenced by the landslide defeat of incumbent Senator (and all around completely awful person) Rick Santorum in 2006.

Specter has long been one of the three moderate Republicans in the Senate, and frequently votes on the Democratic side of many issues, including positions on the Iraq War and social issues such as abortion, so the move is largely symbolic in contexts outside of his re-election campaign. Regardless, this means that when Al Franken is seated for the Minnesota Junior Senator seat, the Democrats will enjoy a supermajority in the Senate; as long as the conservative/moderate democrats stay in line, the time of Republican obstructionism will be over.

Here is the full story.

Before he didn't have a ghost of a chance! Hopefully he won't be haunted by his Republican past! Specter's move seems to be a bit transparent! His party switch might be the BOOn he needed for the next election.