The Specter of Defeat

So now Arlen Specter is officially a Democrat and we’re all supposed to be excited . . . blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, what’s on TV? I would be excited if I thought Specter was going to hurt liberals and the Democrats half as bad as he has hurt conservatives and Republicans but I don’t see how he could possibly be that bad for them.

Headline number one is “OMFG: The Democrats will have a filibuster proof majority!” The reality is that for the Republicans to successfully filibuster they needed Specter and the other uber-RINOs, Collins and Snow, to vote the party line and that just wasn’t going to happen. In 2007, Specter, Collins and Snowe all voted against the Republicans more often than they voted with them so explain to me how Specter switching parties is a big deal?

Headline number two is the spin that’s being put on this by Specter and by Snowe that Republican moderates are being squeezed out by the party shifting to the right. There’s a brilliant quote over at Hot Air about this:

First, let’s deal with the canard that the GOP has moved “far to the right”. When exactly did that happen? When a Republican-controlled Congress, yoked to a Republican White House, grew federal spending by 50% in six years? Would that be the GOP that created a new entitlement program for prescription medication? The same Republicans that expanded spending above inflation on discretionary areas like education (58%), health research and regulation (55%), community and regional development (94%) and on entitlement programs like Medicare (51%)? If that’s moving to the right, then I’m Chairman Mao.

This brings up the key point: the Republican Party has immolated itself not by moving to the right but by moving to the left. Eight years of big government programs and excessive spending have destroyed Republican credibility not just with the Democrats and the media but with the Republican base as well. There is plenty of blame to go around but the only better example of everything wrong with the Republicans than Arlen Specter is his defender, Olympia Snowe.

In fact, this could a watershed event in the re-invention of the Republican Party: it could be a time for reflection about how the oxymoronic Big Government Republicans have driven the party into the ground . . . alas, it is not to be.

I got my obligatory fund raising appeal from Michael Steele today, explaining that Republicans need lots of my money because Arlen betrayed conservatism (like he hasn’t been doing that for years) and because OMFG: The Democrats will have a filibuster proof majority!

Mike says this in at the end of his fund raising letter: “The strongest message you can send to Arlen Specter today is to make a decision to stand with me and Republicans across the nation” by sending the Republicans money.

No Michael: the strongest message you can send to Specter is to say “We’re deeply sorry for the mistakes Republicans made in spending too much, in making government too big, and in supporting liberty too little. From here on the Republican party will only support candidates who are for responsible spending, a free and powerful economy, and increasing personal liberty because principles are more important than political power. Getting rid of Arlen Specter is an important first step in bringing back a principled and meaningful Republican party and there are more painful steps to come.”

For that, I would send the Republicans money. For trying to tell me that Arlen Specter leaving isn’t a good thing and that I should send them money that they will use to help re-elect Snowe, Collins and the other clowns who destroyed the party, well that’s not quite so compelling.

UPDATE by Nettie, Thursday April 30
From LiberalValuesBlog: “Arlen Specter is switching from the Republican to the Democratic Party. While this is motivated largely by his personal electoral prospects, it is nevertheless another move towards turning the Republican Party into a regional party of the south and the Mormon belt of the west…With so many of the remaining Republicans deluding themselves into thinking they lost because they are not conservative enough.” [italics mine] Wow. What would happen if the Republicans were actually “conservative enough.” Wouldn’t it be nice to find out?