Specter says he's switching from GOP to Democrats: "'I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate,' he said in the statement.
'I don't have to say anything to them. They said it to me,' Specter said, when asked in a Capitol corridor about abandoning the GOP."
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Specter likely would have lost the Republican primary. In order to win it, he would have had to win over some conservatives. If he said the right things to accomplish that, he would have a harder time in the general election with independents. Times are tough for Republicans these days, anyway. So magically, at age 79, he has discovered that he finds the principles of the Democratic Party more congenial than those of the GOP. The fact that this gives the Democrats a 60 vote filibuster proof majority doesn't slow him down. Specter first. That's the rule.
When I see these elderly legislators clinging to power with every fiber of their being, I always wonder why it is so hard for them to just gracefully retire and let somebody else do the job. The same is true of the US Supreme Court. Why can't Justice Stevens bring himself to step down? He is 89 years old, making Specter look like a kid by comparison. I realize that there are some jobs people can do at almost any age, but...Senator? Supreme Court Justice? When you reach the age where some people are driving their cars at 60 mph through the local farmer's market, isn't it time to let somebody else wield one of the 100 votes in the US Senate?
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