Arlen Specter is a Democrat? Surely, you jest!!! That was my reaction when I first heard that Specter had shifted parties. Almost 30 years as a Senate Republican. It is a move that hit Republicans like an atom bomb. Senator Mitch McConnell said his defection created a threat to the nation. Perhaps he wants Homeland Security to investigate Specter. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, says it does not matter because Specter left the party ideologically when he voted for the $787 billion economic rescue package. Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican Party says Specter defected because he was sure to lose the next Pennsylvania Republican primary to the anti-tax conservative, Pat Toomey.
Gingrich and Steele are both correct and conservatives should be happy Specter is gone. His departure helps to complete the purge of moderates from the Republican Party that started way back with Barry Goldwater. Specter has always been a moderate Republican and perhaps a bit closer to the Democrats than to the strong conservative majority of the Republican Party. But for him to be driven out of the party that has been his home for almost thirty years is a show stopping move.
As a political move, Specter's defection is a stroke of genius. He has moved from a likely loser in the Republican primary (one recent poll showed Specter less popular with Pennsylvania Republicans than President Obama) to an almost certain reelection. You may have noticed that the Democrat who would likely have challenged Specter in the next general election has already withdrawn his name from contention. Specter, when he is reelected, will keep his seniority and probably be given a top committee chairmanship.
On a national sense, Specter's defection is the culmination of what seems like an inexorable trend of former Republicans to the Democratic Party. As the Republican Party continues to drift to the right, it is becoming more and more at odds with the center-leaning-liberal mood that pervades the nation everywhere except in the Deep South.
Republicans seem to think that the reason they have lost, big-time, the last two elections is because their party lost its conservative way and that if they become more ideologically conservative, they will regain the majority. I think they have missed what is happening to America. Over the past several years, Americans have become a bit fed up with conservatives and have been moving slowly toward a slightly more liberal point of view. This move is particularly strong in the suburbs with the citizens once thought of as "Reagan Democrats." They have now become Obama Democrats and Specter is going to ride that wave into reelection as a Democrat.