Arlen Specter switching parties, could give Democrats filibuster-proof Senate

Sen. Arlen Specter, the moderate Republican from Pennsylvania who has been in the Senate since 1980, announced today that he is switching parties, a huge power play that could change the dynamics of Washington politics for the rest of the Obama administration.

Reelected in 2004 after a brutal primary contest from Rep. Pat Toomey, Specter may have decided that with Toomey chasing him again, reelection in 2010 required a shift to the left along with his state.

And, as one of only three moderate Republicans to vote for President Obama's $787-billion economic stimulus package, Specter was already an endangered species, a member of a shrinking pool of moderate Northeast Republicans who now include only the two senators from Maine -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Ronald Reagan often said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party, it was the Democratic Party that left him with its tilt to the left. Today Specter said that the Republican Party that once welcomed him as part of a "big tent" party has now moved "far to the right."

Specter warned in his statement that "my change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans."

But Senate Democrats must have been gleeful over the development. With Democrat Al Franken ahead of Republican Norm Coleman by 312 votes in the Minnesota Senate race, the prospect of Democrats reaching the magic, filibuster-proof number of 60 in the Senate is in sight.

In giving Democrats that prize, Specter, a savvy political infighter who is now ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, likely negotiated with Senate leaders for consideration on top committees.

Either way Obama, informed of the party switch that could change the nature of his relations with Congress, called Specter and told him, "You have my full support," according to White House officials.

Read Specter's full statement below.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Statement by Senator Arlen Specter

I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the Party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view. While I have been comfortable being a Republican, my Party has not defined who I am. I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation.

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.

Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.

I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.

I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.

I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters. I can understand their disappointment. I am also disappointed that so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides. I thank specially Senators McConnell and Cornyn for their forbearance.

I am not making this decision because there are no important and interesting opportunities outside the Senate. I take on this complicated run for re-election because I am deeply concerned about the future of our country and I believe I have a significant contribution to make on many of the key issues of the day, especially medical research. NIH funding has saved or lengthened thousands of lives, including mine, and much more needs to be done. And my seniority is very important to continue to bring important projects vital to Pennsylvania's economy.

I am taking this action now because there are fewer than thirteen months to the 2010 Pennsylvania Primary and there is much to be done in preparation for that election. Upon request, I will return campaign contributions contributed during this cycle.

While each member of the Senate caucuses with his Party, what each of us hopes to accomplish is distinct from his party affiliation. The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation.

My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords' switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.

Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy's statement that sometimes Party asks too much. When it does, I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America.

Comments

[Pom Pom Girl]

National Socialism is almost here. Hugo, Vladimir, Daniel and Fidel are ready to applaud.

[Bill]

Pom-Pom, you got it wrong twice. First, specter is hardly a Nazi of any kind, unless by being the (former) darling of the Republicans made him one. And Two, the Nazis were ANTI-communists. they fought politically in Germany until the Nazis captured the whole government. Hitler was quoted as wondering why the West did not join with him to fight Stalin.

If you are going to use silly metaphors and hyperbole, at least use them correctly.

[Gail]

Sen. Specter's nickname on the Hill, where I worked for a number of years, is Snarlin' Arlen. He is a strange man by any measure. He cannot go anywhere without a phalanx of groveling staffers, each and every one of them looking brow-beaten. He's nobody's friend and he can be the Democrats' problem now. Good ridance!

[JAG136]

This man is a fraud and liar straight from the Nixon School of Politics. This is the man who gave the Warren Commision cover under the "magic bullet" theory. I think his 45 years of Washington scum is up!!!
The people from PA should seek his removal.

[ENRIQUE 'KIKO' SALAZAR]

I JUST DON'T TRUST SEN. ALAN SPECTOR. WHY DIDN'T HE SWITCHED WHEN BUSH WAS PRES? HE JUST WANTS TO GET RELECTED AGAIN. DON'T BE FOOL.

[Citizen101]

Arlan Spector has been voting Democrat for some time.
He helped us try to pass all the Amnesty Bill up to the last one. He was a Gang of 14 in the Senate that with John McCain and other strong minded Democrats tried to get passed without giving the other 36 Senator a chance to read the Bill or add amendments. It was a brutal but necessary measure of silencing the opposition to get this Comprehensive Amnesty Bill passed. Arlan Spector will now be able to support Amnesty for illegal aliens and further the cause of Collectivism and Socialism without being hindered by hiding his onw persona agenda. Go for it Arlan, America needs cheap labor.

[puciret]

Don't you think at his age he's skimmed enough to have a comfortable retirement and should just step down? Traitors used to be shot.

[puciret]

To Pom Pom: What do you call Bush's parting gift to Wall Street ($700 Billion).....? Capitalism?????

[SHARON]

Of course no Legislator would care, but if a person runs as a Republican (for example) and is elected as a Republican, how can he just change his mind and become a Democrat. Just why wouldn't "the will of the people" have to OK that move? It sure seems like our Government representatives are just ignoring the people that put them into those incredibly cushy jobs.

I am now of the opinion there should be term limits. We the people are getting played with way to "fast and loose"!!!

[Joey]

This is what I mean that people will do ANYTHING to stay in office. He saw that he burnt his bridge with the right so now he defected to the left. This cowardly act is EXACTLY how I see all those goons in Washington. Forget the people! Do what I need to do for job security. He burnt his bridge and the best way I can see to get re-elected is jump ship!

Democrats...I know you go the votes you needed...but do you want this guy or is it about you passing your socilist agendas.

[howardx]

the gop?

stick a fork in it, its done.

[Winfield J. Abbe]

Let's hope the morons in Pennsylvania unelect this traitor to both corrupt political parties and also to the United States too. One Civil War, two world wars and a great depression with another in progress and our federal government makes the former King of England look like child's play. The war on cancer: failed. The war in Iraq: failed. The war on drugs: failed. Justice system: failed.
FDA, NIH, NCI all corrupted by pharmaceutical companies and failed. U.S. government bankrupt in more ways than one. Gutless coward Spector partly responsible for all this failure as are his good for nothing corrupt cronies in both political parties. Our Republicrats and Demopublicans have created the best government money can buy.

[No big deal]

This really isn't a big deal, as Spector was done in 2010 anyway. He barely won the primary in 2004 (51-49), and has broken so many promises in the 5 years since, that polls had him trailing by 30 points for the GOP primary.

Is he going to win the Dems primary? Probably not. I sincerely doubt that people in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are such drones that they are going to vote for someone just because Obama/Reid/Pelosi say so.

[PT in Claremont]

I am quite pleased to read this news. Hats off to Arlen Specter.

PT
Claremont, CA

[Stuart]

Arlen Spector is a political whore (no offense to working girls intended). He does not care about his constituents or America. All that he cares about is getting re-elected and having a job that requires him to do nothing as he lines his pockets with money picked from the pockets of hard working Americans. If Specter was any kind of a lawyer, he would have stayed in private practice. That being the case, he did what unfit lawyers do, he entered politics and the rest is history. He votes present, he rambles, he takes up oxygen that could otherwise be put to productive use. Maybe his cancer is back and has attacked what is left of his brain.

[Audrey in the OC]

With all these ridiculous rants and ravings by posters of "traitor" and "treason," I see none of them are raising a stink about Gov. Perry's statement about Texas seceding from the U.S. Right, because Obama was foisted upon us by a very comfortable democratically-elected majority. We can only dream.

[Dwight Nager]

Republicans of good will might want to consider certain facts:

the bailout was designed by Bernanke and Paulson, both Republicans who were appointed by Bush. Stimulus was endorsed by Bernanke.

What was Bernanke's resume that got him the Republican appointment? Said to be nation's foremost expert on the Great Depression. And thus, how to avoid another.

How is it that Republicans were in control in the 1920's and the 2000's, and neither the depression nor the current fiasco is (in their view) their fault whatsoever, and a result of their policies?

Spector is being honest. He voted a Bernanke/Paulson line; and got trashed by the Limbaugh wing of the Republican Party. Which is about all that's left, as he seems to see it.

Then consider the Republican governor of Texas. Just 3 months after his state had the presidency for 8 years, he threatens to leave the union if Texas doesn't get it's way. After Texas' president forced many states to wrangle with unfunded No Child Left Behind (which I support), Governor Perry threatens to bolt the union because of DC's meddling in his state.

These people are beyond childish.

Good for Arlen Spector. Good for America.

The filibuster that requires a supermajority is hardly stuff a democracy should be proud of anyhow.

[Sara]

Wow, is someone trying to switch to the popular party just in time for a re-election? Hopefully PA residents and those represented by Mr Specter will oust him and not allow him to cling to power by switching parties. I can't believe that one would switch parties on a "whim"- what about the party you have loyally served for all these years Mr Specter? Obviously none of that matters now, does it?

[Michelle, Burbank]

Isn't that what it's always all about? Re-election??? All of them should be replaced!!!!

[Nathan]

If Mr Spector wanted to do something to make sure that PA Republicans go out to the polls for the 2010 elections- this is it.

Spector might as well retire, there's zero chance he'll ever get re-elected.

[RH]

Good for Benedict Arlen. He is now where he should always have been, in the camp of the Socialist/Progressives. Now he will not have denial privelages as the Democrats slide the knife into the back of the once great USA. The GOP's loss is not the Socialist Democrats gain.

[Nancy]

Old man needs to call it quits. Kudos to the idea of term limits. This man has never seemed trustworthy.

[Jonathan]

The replies of the Republicans on this thread are amazing. Way to represent your party! If Spector, McCain, Snowe, Jeffers, and all the others aren't real Republicans, than exactly who represents you? Rush Limbaugh and Tam Tancredo? LOL

[IonaTrailer]

Hey all you right-wing wing-nuts!!
Here's your first 100 days present!

For Bo Obama it's 700 days!

[Xenu]

And I hear the Captain Rush Limbaugh plans on going down with the ship!

[annemarie]

As Spector has pointed out, the right-wing, corporate controlled "Club for Growth" knocked out four moderate Republican Congressmen who then all lost the general to Democrats. That included Lincoln Chaffee whose defeat gave the Senate to the Democrats. It also meant that the dozens of District/Circuit courts judges, nominated by Bush, who were still in the pipeline, now have to face a Judiciary Committee helmed by Democrats instead of Republicans. Specter was told point-blank that the state party wouldn't support him after 29 years in office and the suave Michael Steele implied that the RNC would follow suit. The Republican moderates have been treated like crap for the last 8 years by their own leadership for voting their consciences. This is the Republicans idea of success. Keep up the good work.

[Mike in Pasadena]

It seems pathetic when the only principle that matters to our elected few is to do what ever is necessary to get re-elected. Spector is welcome to become a democrat, or an independant or a transvestite drag queen if he wants to and thinks he can get re-elected by doing so.

One can only hope the Republican Party can find its true message, smaller government, less taxation and show they honestly care for the public. If they do I will welcome their resurrgence.

[michael d]

I'm surprised that more Republican elected officials haven't defected from the party. The Republican party has sold out to the right wingnuts, delusional religious fanatics, hardcore ideologues, and scientific illiterates. I am old enough to remember when the Republican party was the party of fiscal responsibility, individual rights, and reasonable limits on government power. The modern Republican party is the party of borrow, spend, and enrich the rich, stomp on individual rights that the religious nuts don't agree with, and expand executive power through secrecy, lies, and bogus legal opinions. Any party in which ignorant fools like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Pailin are considered to be viable candidates for national office deserves to go the way of the Whigs. If Specter's defection helps President Obama and the Democrats fix the horrific messes the Republicans made, then all power to him.

[Dick Diamond]

Ah, a lesson in history. In the 1850's the Democratic Party was in control and the Whig Party was the party of "NO," as they had been for almost 20 years. The Whigs disappeared and the "liberal" Republican Party came into being. Is there a lesson here? Is a centrist party going to come into existence AGAIN?

[Louweegie272]

It's a sad state of affairs when our politicians openly admit that they act not in the best interests of their constituents but in the interests of getting reelected. We need term limits badly.

[Tim in mariposa]

Republicans seem upset - now. They were happy when Ben Nighthorse-Campell and other Dems jumped over to the republicans after the 1994 "Republican Revolution".

What goes around, comes around

[BUDDY IN PA]

I AM ONE OF THE 200,000 Registered voters in Pa who left the Republican Party last year to vote for President Obama. I was thinking of switching back to the Republican Party so I could vote for Arlen...Now I won't have to switch... And I will be voting for Arlen both in the Primary and General election. Arlen Jumped a sinking ship...The Republican Titanic !!!! It's still not too late for you others to get out of this sinking ship and get invloved in Rebuilding and Retooling America that has been gutted by 30 years of the Republicam Mantra of Greed and Selfisfness.

[BUDDY IN PA]

The Ronald Reagan Dream is now becoming the Republican Nightmare. All the High paying jobs shipped overseas and the country gutted and left with the bill.

No wonder Arlen Specter has decided to switch sides..

He has WISDOM in his years that you complainers would do well in taking the time to really look at the Issues that are Confronting this country.

[Bob]

Wow! This post sure brought out a lot of Republicans tonight. A lot of Republicans who apparently feel betrayed. Specter is just a moderate, that's all. And the Republican party these days is veering ever more to the right.

[Will]

Arlen Spectror actually has been more of a Democrat for a number of years, He is also behind his Republican challenger in the polls in PA. So great time to switch parties vs losing to a new Republican challenger. The current Republican party was sold out by the Bush administration. Obama's Democratic party has sold out to the left wing wing nuts, delusional eco fanatics, hardcore ideologues, and scientific illiterates. A Democratic majority run by ignorant fools Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid should make every one shudder with fear.

[fantazamaraz]

Proof thank...thank goodness " change has come to America." Obama can now hopefully finish what he started.!

[fantazamaraz]

What border.? Mexico annexed California thru too Texas
way back....are you kiddin.?

[Steve]

Democrat, Republican, no matter, as both parties are addicted to overspending. Thanks to Reagan and Bush's spending spree, we're on a spending course to financial oblivion. The dollar will not recover from this debacle. It doesn't matter if one political whore changes sides or not.