Wife just called from Capitol Hill, Specter just changed affiliation to Democrat. Now the Dems have a filibuster-proof 60 member majority in the Senate regardless of the MN race outcome.
Sorry, no cite at this time.
I really, really, hope you’re pulling our legs. If this is true, we are in for a very tough fight on any issue. The only bright light is that there are one or two sensible Dems who do tend to vote conservative.
Sorry, but no this is not a joke. His web site is down, I imagine when it comes back up it will have the announcement.
Here you go: I beat CBS by two minutes. 
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4974413.shtml
edited to add: The CBS thing says he’s saying R until the election next year, though. It’s a minor technicality so long as he continues to vote with the Dems and the Dems retain majority. Still, that’s an important distinction over what I reported initially.
A tougher road ahead…
My aol page says his switch puts the dem count at 59 Not sure if this is correct or just a typo ??
s.m.
Why is that not a surprise? Fox also reporting:
The switch puts Democrats within one vote of a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Democrats currently hold 56 seats in the Senate, and two independents typically vote with the party. Republicans have 41 seats, and there is one vacancy.
I’m not shocked.
They are assuming that Norm Coleman is going to lose to Al Franken in the Minnesota recount.
Coleman is currently appealing to the Minnesota Supreme Court, a lower court ruling that Al Franken won the recount vote in Minnesota. A Franken victory gives the Dems a 60 vote majority with Specter coming over too.
By the way he votes, this just makes it official. F-him, he’s betrayed us PA residents for way too long. I was going to give my vote to knock him out of the Republican primaries when they come up anyhow, now I’ll just vote against him in the general election.
Good. The RINO herd needs to be thinned out anyways.
“Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party…?”
So the RINO officially becomes an ass… 
The simple fact is that he would have lost as a Republican in the next election, so he’s simply trying to keep his political career afloat by changing parties. Anything else he says is hogwash.
I recognize his name and , IIRC , he is from Pa. and often called a moderate , sometimes called a traitor or a Rhino.
That’s about all.
Anybody have a source for his voting record (etc) on gun rights, national defense, and Vet’s issues?
That’s too bad; if Specter were to remain a Republican, I’m sure he’d get his ass beat by Pat Toomey. I know plenty of Pennsylvanians who are upset over the bailout/stimulus debacle, and Specter’s role in it.
For starters on his voting record, most recently he was one of three Republicans that voted for and allowed the porkulus bill to pass.
Specter’s GOA Grade is D.
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Thanks .
I believe Specter was the tie breaking vote for the 1994 AWB IIRC. Right now he’s complaining about the Republican party and the Club for Growth supporting far right candidates which cost the Republicans the majority, according to him. That’s funny, I seem to remember Bush throwing his support behind Specter over Toomey, a true conservative. Bush could have just stayed out of it. Specter is switching because he knows he’ll lose to Toomey in the primary. I talked to Pat Toomey personally in 2004, when I helped with his campaign, before I moved here. I believe he’s a true supporter of the 2nd, in the traditional sense. The Republican party needs to throw everything they have behind Toomey in 2010, because he’s the best chance they have to knock off a senior Democrat. When Specter originally ran for Philly attorney general in the 1960’s he was a Democrat, but the incumbent was a Dem, so he switched to Republican with the intention of switching back after he won. He’s always been a democrat, he just never bothered to switch back. If he would have gone the independent route that Lieberman went after losing the primary, that would have been somewhat honorable. But switching was a power move, to keep seniority and get chairmanship. This is all about power for him, just like it was when he first ran for political office.
People seriously need to do some research about Specter’s positions on gun control…notably that he doesn’t support it.
He voted against the 94 AWB.