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Been saying for a LONG time that the GOP has been RUINED by the fundie whack jobs who've taken over the GOP. One of the headlines in WaPo today is "A Wakeup Call for the GOP." No kidding. There is NO place in our government, laws or politics for religion, it must keep its distance. IMO, Mr. Specter's switch is just another wake up call to the GOP to get back to its roots.
As soon as Franken is seated, hopefully just after a June 1 hearing in MN, the 60-vote majority will be in place.
There may be others thinking of switching. My money was always on the two GOP senators from Maine, both generally moderate centrists who could've put John McCain over the top if either of them had gotten the VP nod, but the GOP went with the evango-fascist VP candidate from AK and sank their chances.
This further makes the GOP a party of the rural south, plus a few midwest farm states that suckle agricultural subsidies from the federal trough courtesy of the idiot Bush.
This is a HUGE event, the meaning, worth and import of which cannot be understated.
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Some of you people seriously need help. The man is going to vote the same way he has for the last 29 years no matter what party he belongs to. This doesn't change anything in the Senate.
The more things change the more they remain the same. The whooshing sound is the rush to the middle from the fascist right wing. The Democrats have never tried to subvert the Constitution as has been done by the neocon fools over the last 8 years. Now the remaining sensible part of the Republican Party is going to be clobbered by the rebound from their compatriots’ excesses. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch. The Rockefeller Republicans should never have let their party be dominated by the thieves and the fanatics.
Sen. Specter has always been considered a moderate.
The main conclusion that can be drawn from his switch is that he has more in common with Democrats than Republicans, which effectively says that as a party, Democrats are more moderate than Republicans.
This should come as no surprise to anyone. It effectively defines what Republicans need to do to pick up voters, and what Democrats need to do to retain them. The difference here is the Dems have already figured that out, while the GOP has yet to acknowledge the fact.
IMO the biggest impact of all this is how this looks to independent voters.
Leaving a party is not a small decision and it attracts a lot of attention. And it's hard not to notice that the party being abandoned is consistently the republican party.
It's like watching rats deserting a sinking ship, it makes you think twice about sailing on that ship.
IMO, Specter's move is going to have a lot of independent voters thinking twice about whether they want to sail on the sinking ship that the GOP has become.
Whether or not this actually results in a filibuster, IMO the bigger impact is the symbolism.
Leaving a party is not a small decision and it attracts a lot of attention. And it's hard not to notice that the party is always the republican party. It's like watching rats deserting a sinking ship, it makes you think twice about sailing on that ship.
IMO, Specter's move is going to have a lot of independent voters thinking twice about whether they want to sail on the sinking ship that the GOP has become.
Well one thing for sure is that the Dems will not have that 60 vote majority for long. Republicans will no doubt pick up senate seats in 2010.
Hopefully, they will. A 60 vote Democrat majority in the Senate is NOT what we need right now with a liberal Democrat in the White House spending money that isn't there. I've come to the conclusion that, even though I don't care much for the two party system, we need a balance of power in Washington, DC. It's never beneficial to have one party dominating the Presidency as well as both houses because it allows the extremists from the majority party to have more power over what they want.
In a way, I can understand why Specter switched parties. I also used to be a Republican, but became disgusted with their so called faith based initiatives using public money, their dictatorship type of control over people's personal lives, and their overspending just as much as the Democrats. Specter really should have become an independent. He doesn't fit in with today's GOP, but he's still not quite liberal enough to be a full fledged Democrat. We need more independents, Libertarians, and reasonable third parties in Washington, DC. This two party system is extremely flawed!
Yes he did. He recognizes that the party has moved way too far to the right and won't let his carear be judged by a group whos views represent a small potion of the electorate.
And the Dems always wind up shooting themselves in the foot.
Yes, and like you said, that works both ways.
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Americans want moderate gov't
