[Nuclear1]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/specter.party.switch/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veteran Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party on Tuesday, saying he has found himself increasingly "at odds with the Republican philosophy."
...
The switch puts Senate Democrats one vote shy of a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats. They can reach the 60-seat mark if Al Franken holds his current lead in the disputed Minnesota Senate race.

"As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party," Specter said.
...
Specter, a five-term Senate veteran, was facing what most political observers believed would have been a tough fight for the Pennsylvania GOP Senate nomination in 2010.

GOP then decides it's not to blame for one of its longest-serving Senators turning to the other side:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21811.html

Senate Republican leaders are pushing back hard against the notion that their party is to blame for Sen. Arlen Specter’s defection to the Democrats.

"This is not a national story. It is a Pennsylvania story," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters in a news conference following Tuesday’s GOP policy luncheon.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that Specter — who spoke at the lunch — had been “very candid to acknowledge that this was nothing more, nothing less than political self-preservation.”

Two GOP senators said earlier in the day Tuesday that Specte's decision underscored the hostility Republican centrists feel in a party that's increasingly conservative. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe said that the GOP hasn't been offering "warm encouraging words" about moderates. South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham suggested that the Republican Party risked becoming little more than the Club for Growth. "I want to be a member of a vibrant national Republican Party that can attract people from all corners of the country — and we can govern the country from a center-right perspective," he said.

McConnell said Specter told him of his decision late Monday, and that Specter had said he decided to make the switch because he couldn't win reelection as a Republican or an independent.

McConnell acknowledged that the GOP was now at the mercy of Democrats, who will have a 60-vote majority if Al Franken is seated from Minnesota.

Note especially the bold part.  The Republicans are coming apart, and frankly it was their own doing, despite what they want to claim.  Thoughts?

[Ford Prefect]

Thoughts?

Not so much thoughts as feelings-- feelings in the form of a raging hard-on.

[Kosh]

It was a pressure cooker from the start, now it is starting to balkanize.

[Nuclear1]

What makes it even worse (well, better to some people) is that even while a fair amount of their constituents are angry as hell for losing the country because they were too bigoted and partisan, they decide the solution to their problems is make the GOP even further right wing, and threatening to pull the plug on moderate Republicans who vote for the stimulus package or support Obama's policies. 

That and the RNC Chairman actually isn't in control of his party, and everyone in the GOP is so terrified of offending Rush Limbaugh they feel the need to apologize at any slight offense.

[Mars]

I'm getting kinda worried, the USA is moving closer and closer to a one party system.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

What do you mean moving towards?  We've been run by the greedy power hungry idiot's party ever since I can remember.

[esarai]

American politics have been dominated by a single party before. We're still here, and we're still free. Democracy still exists. The minority still has a voice. Now, one party is indeed gaining in prominence, but that is no cause for alarm. This isn't the end of disagreement between the common people, and as long as the people stay at odds on their views and ideologies and have the rights to express those opinions, the system in America will continue: there will be different parties. It's just that one might not be as powerful as the other, or might not be able to stop the other side from passing their own agenda, but the right to dissent is still preserved, and that minority can still become a majority. As long as we hold true to the Constitution, the odds of a one-party system becoming reality are incredibly slim.

[Knight Templar]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/specter.party.switch/index.html

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veteran Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switched from the Republican to the Democratic Party on Tuesday, saying he has found himself increasingly "at odds with the Republican philosophy."
...
The switch puts Senate Democrats one vote shy of a filibuster-proof majority of 60 seats. They can reach the 60-seat mark if Al Franken holds his current lead in the disputed Minnesota Senate race.

"As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more in line with the philosophy of the Democratic Party," Specter said.
...
Specter, a five-term Senate veteran, was facing what most political observers believed would have been a tough fight for the Pennsylvania GOP Senate nomination in 2010.

GOP then decides it's not to blame for one of its longest-serving Senators turning to the other side:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21811.html

Senate Republican leaders are pushing back hard against the notion that their party is to blame for Sen. Arlen Specter’s defection to the Democrats.

"This is not a national story. It is a Pennsylvania story," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters in a news conference following Tuesday’s GOP policy luncheon.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said that Specter — who spoke at the lunch — had been “very candid to acknowledge that this was nothing more, nothing less than political self-preservation.”

Two GOP senators said earlier in the day Tuesday that Specte's decision underscored the hostility Republican centrists feel in a party that's increasingly conservative. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe said that the GOP hasn't been offering "warm encouraging words" about moderates. South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham suggested that the Republican Party risked becoming little more than the Club for Growth. "I want to be a member of a vibrant national Republican Party that can attract people from all corners of the country — and we can govern the country from a center-right perspective," he said.

McConnell said Specter told him of his decision late Monday, and that Specter had said he decided to make the switch because he couldn't win reelection as a Republican or an independent.

McConnell acknowledged that the GOP was now at the mercy of Democrats, who will have a 60-vote majority if Al Franken is seated from Minnesota.

Note especially the bold part.  The Republicans are coming apart, and frankly it was their own doing, despite what they want to claim.  Thoughts?

I think there is a bigger story here.

Minnesota still hasn't figured its **** out after five months. GG FrankenColeman.


Also:

I'm getting kinda worried, the USA is moving closer and closer to a one party system.

Uh, no its not, not by a long-shot. The Democrats being in power does not equal a one party system. Nor does a lack of a coherent Republican party. There will always be, at the very least, political bi-polarity, in one form or another. I'm sure a full democrat majority would still manage to piss enough people off eventually to flip the switch to Conservatism again.

There is truth in Republican fail though. Fools put all their chips on Iraq and random religious values, and forgot what it was to actually be conservative politics.

[karajorma]

If the republicans continue to slide to the right then other parties will appear to take their old position. Especially since the slow disintegration of the party means that the Democrats can take a more left-wing approach than they previously could.

[Liberator]

Funny thing about this, most of the GOP is still in the same place it was when Reagan was in office.

Specter has never been particularly reliable on votes, often siding with the other side on important stuff.  He was one of 3 Republicans to vote for the stimulus bill last year.

In most camps this won't change much, his common title was RINO(Republican In Name Only).

Honestly, all he's really done is show how petty and uncaring for his constituency he is.  He has been quoted in several places from his announcement that the reason for the swtich is that he refuses to let his political future be determined by the voters of the state of Pennsylvania.  We got ourselves a modern Marie Antoinette in Mr. Specter.  If he gets reelected next year then I'll start wondering how he did.  Not even democrats, notorious for ignoring the specifics about they're candidates, could reelect this moron.

That said, I'm glad he's gone, we can give his seat to a true conservative.

[Mars]

He's a ****ing politician, of course he's doing it for his agenda. What did you expect?

[Kosh]

Honestly, all he's really done is show how petty and uncaring for his constituency he is.

If he didn't care for his constituency then why did they keep electing him?

[Janos]

Funny thing about this, most of the GOP is still in the same place it was when Reagan was in office.

Specter has never been particularly reliable on votes, often siding with the other side on important stuff.  He was one of 3 Republicans to vote for the stimulus bill last year.

In most camps this won't change much, his common title was RINO(Republican In Name Only).

Honestly, all he's really done is show how petty and uncaring for his constituency he is.  He has been quoted in several places from his announcement that the reason for the swtich is that he refuses to let his political future be determined by the voters of the state of Pennsylvania.  We got ourselves a modern Marie Antoinette in Mr. Specter.  If he gets reelected next year then I'll start wondering how he did.  Not even democrats, notorious for ignoring the specifics about they're candidates, could reelect this moron.

That said, I'm glad he's gone, we can give his seat to a true conservative.

You don't know anything about Specter, right?
Because if you knew anything about him, you couldn't say stuff like "petty and uncaring" without at least making a passing mention of Gonzales farce.

Hell, I am not even American and I have pretty deep respect for Specter as a kind of senator who is more bound by the law and morality than the petty politics.

[Blue Lion]

21% identified as Republicans in a recent poll

More people think the country is on the right track than the wrong track.

Obama's approval rating hover somewhere between 60 and 65%

The far right wing is going nuts over release of torture memos, Obama not punching South American guys in the face and the like. The problem is everyone else loves it.

They just don't know how to turn off the "hate". I have seen more of Dick Cheney since the election than I have ever seen in 8 years. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) says it's "interesting" that we have a second swine flu outbreak under another Democrat (she means Carter) but it really started under Ford (A Repub).

<a href="http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/43699772.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUnciaec8O7EyUsl'>A majority in Minnesota think Norm Coleman should just quit, and that includes people who voted for him.[/url] It's turning moderate Republicans and Independents away. Which is exactly the opposite of what you want to be doing.

[StarSlayer]

I'd love to see the GOP collapse, then the Democratic party would break up as well under the weight of not having a common foe.  A refreshing of the parties would probably be one of the best things that could happen.  Not that I have realistic hopes of it happening but still having the Dems and GOP disintegrate would warm the cockles of my heart.

[Rick James]

Speaking as a Canadian, it's puzzled me that there were only ever two political parties in the United States. Two parties is, in my opinion, not nearly enough to represent the diverse political ideologies of America.

In conclusion, I think that an American Parliament would be awesome.

[MP-Ryan]

Michele Bachmann (R-MN) says it's "interesting" that we have a second swine flu outbreak under another Democrat (she means Carter) but it really started under Ford (A Repub).

And she's apparently a ****ing moron if she thinks who is running the country has anything to do with what diseases pop up on the global map.  But then again, it's what I've come to expect from politicians.

[Blue Lion]

Michele Bachmann (R-MN) says it's "interesting" that we have a second swine flu outbreak under another Democrat (she means Carter) but it really started under Ford (A Repub).

And she's apparently a ****ing moron if she thinks who is running the country has anything to do with what diseases pop up on the global map.  But then again, it's what I've come to expect from politicians.

She's the one who suggested we investigate Congress for anti americans.

[Sushi]

I'd love to see the GOP collapse, then the Democratic party would break up as well under the weight of not having a common foe.  A refreshing of the parties would probably be one of the best things that could happen.  Not that I have realistic hopes of it happening but still having the Dems and GOP disintegrate would warm the cockles of my heart.

Yeah, same here. I doubt they would disappear, but I can see a scenario where both parties rebuild themselves from scratch. That would be healthy, I think.

Speaking as a Canadian, it's puzzled me that there were only ever two political parties in the United States. Two parties is, in my opinion, not nearly enough to represent the diverse political ideologies that America represents.

In conclusion, I think that an American Parliament would be awesome.

Well, there are (and have been) more parties, they just don't get very much representation (at least these days).

Also, some questions about parliamentary governments (since I don't live under one and only have a fuzzy idea of how they work). Don't the many diverse parties usually end up grouping into two opposing coalitions? And don't you sometimes end up with situations where some small party ends up being disproportionally important because they are the "tiebreaker" that everyone is trying to woo? Or am I totally misunderstanding how things work?

[BlueFlames]

He has been quoted in several places from his announcement that the reason for the swtich is that he refuses to let his political future be determined by the voters of the state of Pennsylvania.

That's not entirely correct.  He refuses to let his political future be determined by the Republicans of the state of Pennsylvania.  His concern was about being able to win the GOP primary, not a general election.  He's got the support of most of his constituents for re-election, even if he doesn't have the support of most of his Republican constituents.