Specter Switches Sides; Tells Obama: ‘I’m a Loyal Democrat’

This is goning to be fun.

As a “truth in labeling” measure, this should have been done years ago…..

Welcome Sen Specter I dont Blame you Many More will Follow your Probably Ashamed of the Republican Party I know I am and Anyway Pa is very Democratic!

Now Seat Al Franken and the Dems have their 60 Seats get ready for Republican Melt downs like you aint never seen HAHAHAHAH LOLOLOL HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

And to think I though this would be another boring news day. God Bless You AS. You are wonderful human being.

jhw
I agree we could use a 2 Party system but not with the Likes of Cantor,Bohner Graham etc WE NEED MODERATE REPUBLICANS NOT FAR RIGHT LUNATICS!

Apparently there is no room left in the Republican party for moderates anymore. Specter was left with no choice as many moderate repubs have become independent voters, leaving a base of far right conservatives that were gonna vote him out in the primary. The republicans need to veer to the middle, not to the right as they have been doing, or they risk losing even more moderates and putting more people like Michelle Bachman and her inflammatory rhetoric into office.

This is what Republicans get by branding themselves as the Far Right Christian Only Southern Racism Party.
If they want to salvage the party, the Republicans need more members to move to the center instead of to the right.

haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!! I’m sure this is a major concern for the Republican Party! WOWEE!….

MEMO TO GOP
Listen up GET OUT OF THE FAR RIGHT LANE WE NEED YOU People are dropping out of you party like Flies for the Good of the Country please become MORE MODERATE OR FIND SOME MODERATES!

jamescbuilder:”If they change, the only fair way is to resign and have another election. ”
That would be a radical shift in our governmental system and require a pretty drastic amendment of the Constitution. In the US we have always elected people to the offices, not party representatives. Parties are not even recognized in the Constitution, and there is serious question how they could be within our checks and balances framework.

Actually, he belongs with the neo-marxist left wingers anyway. He always was a Republican in Name Only.
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Keep up the neo-marxist and neo-fascist junk. it only marginalizes you even further. Reasonable people know that just as Bush wasn’t a fascist dictator (just an incompetent president), Obama isn’t a marxist or communist, just a man with pretty sound judgment.

Republican primary was becoming so tough for Specter is that the hard-fought 2008 Democratic primary in the state between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton thinned the Pennsylvania GOP of many of its moderate voters who switched their party registration to Democratic so they could help influence the Obama vs. Clinton race.
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So, Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” ends up giving the Democrats a 60 seat majority. Now THAT’S beautiful….

Good for Specter.
Obviously he is a man who believes his first loyalty should be to his country, not to his party. His voting record shows him to be a moderate. There seems to be less room than ever for moderates in the Republican Party. This news is just more proof of that.

@jamescbuilder-
If people only vote based on the letter next to the name, then we are in serious trouble.
I feel that it is sad that He felt the need to change parties. I hope this is a wake-up call to republicans to re-examine their values.

Let See Here this guy got Vote in By the Repubelican. And Now he what to Jump to the Democrats.Well the way I see this is that the Voter sould have a Right to Vote him out of the Job.And vote someone that they want in there.

There seems to be less room than ever for moderates in the Republican Party—there is NO room for moderates in the republican party. Rush is their spokesperson for God’s sake. The whole party has made a point of saying it is their intention to see this nation into a Depression. They are actively working for our demise so that they can regain political power. They will literally, hurt this country, and its people, in order to get political power and they have made no bones about it. Why would anyone trust our government to people who have made a point of telling us they WILL sabotage it! Hello??????

AW Yeah! Thats what I’m talking about. Any self respecting person wouldn’t allow themselves to be associated with the republican party right now. They are acting like children when we need leaders. No no no thats all they say and don’t offer up any new ideas. It so nice having an inteligent person as president. I feel his ideas and my own for the future are so similar Im glad he’ll have the 60 votes to get it done. Go Obama!

The liberals here are comical because they are joyous that Arlen Specter switched parties.
Specter is now and always been a joke.
You liberals are welcome to a dunce like this.

Gary:” Either way, the people lose, as there will no longer be debate in Congress, since Democrats will have the 60 votes necessary to stifle opposition and push any legislation through, unless one of there own decents.”
There will still be considerable debate in Congress. Many moderate Republicans are already in the Democrat’s tent under the Blue Dog Democrat label. They have had quite an impact on spending legislation and create an impossibly high wall for any extreme gun control legislative efforts.
“The legal challenge to Al Franken’s victory in Minnesota’s Senate Race will delay his appointment a few weeks,”
Oral arguments in the Minnesota trial done start until June 1st, and Coleman has threatened an appeal to the Supreme Court next (the Franken group wanted a shorter schedule, but the court agreed to Coleman’s slower timeline instead). The last gasp of GOP obstructionism will last at least another month and a half, probably more.

WOW!!!! I’m sure this is a major concern for the Republican Party! WOWEE!….
Posted by: FS
________________________________
Not necessarily.
Spector has RARELY voted Republican in his lifetime and it’s finally time for him to admit just what party he really belongs to.
The remaining Republicans, including the MODERATES are more unified than they have been for years…. and if Nancy Pelosi keeps trying to force-feed force-feed far-left liberalism on the people, you can bet that in 2012 the Republicans will take Congress.
In your words, “WOWEE”

GOod…welcome to the team!!!!!!!!!!!
the team of ideas!!!!!!
love ya!!!!

“reasonable republicans”—those are called conservative democrats. There is more room for conservative democrats than there is for moderate republicans. If you consider yourself middle of the road, you have to be democrat. You have no choice. Look at who the republicans put up for election – a man who knew nothing about the economy, a very old man, and hte most extreme right winger with hte most extreme antiwomen views of any republican I can even name. I do not know of a single republican who says rape victims should be forced to carry the pregancies of their rape to term, and the republicans were stupid enough to think women would VOTE for that???? Where is there any room for a moderate in a party like this? Rape victims, for God’s sake????

Obama damages the poor and middle class.
Obama demands high gas taxes which affect the poor and middle class.
Obama defends the rich union leadership at the expense of the rank and file auto worker.
Obama taxes, intimidates, and regulates the job creators into bankruptcy so that job creators can lay off the poor and middle class.
Obama inserts a provision in the stimulus bill approving of the bonuses to AIG executives.
Obama, who is the same guy who made the idiotic statement that we can save more energy from inflating our tires than we can from drilling for more oil, now takes charge of GM and threatens Chrysler with a virtual takeover if they don’t merge with FIAT(giving FIAT untold leverage in its negotiations with Chrysler thereby assuring Chrysler’s rank and file workers that their company will get shafted in any merger deal to come).
Obama threatens to bankrupt the coal industry.
Obama’s reckless spending will almost assuredly lead to higher inflation resulting in higher prices for everyone.
Obama’s failure to drill for more oil or build nuclear power plants will almost certainly contribute to higher gas prices for everyone in the future.
Obama’s elimination of charitable deductions will take funds away from churches and private charities and homeless shelters who depend on charitable support(this sure helps the poor, downtrodden, and homeless—not!!!).
Obama encourages the poor and middle class to sit on their butts waiting around for government handouts rather than inspiring them to maximize their skills.

So what! There is no true political difference between DEMs and Reps they both sell out the people for money!

USMC
Of course Bush was not a facist. That is just something the liberal media called him because it sounded bad. Fascists, which is what the Nazis were, were actually socialists
Also, barry o is, and probably always has been, a socialist.
He wrote in his book, titled after rev racist’s speech “audacity of hope” that in college “i sought out the marxist professors”.
He said on a radio interview that “it was a tragedy the courts of the 1960′s didn’t get involved in wealth redistribution”.
He told joe el plumber “i just wanna spread it around a bit”
He also spent his whole life surrounding himself with people who HATE America and HATE capitalism (rev racist, bill ayers, bernadine dhorn, rashid khalidi, michelle obama).
Please give me one example of this over-enthusiastic community organizer ever saying anything positive about capitalism before his presidential bid 2 1/2 years ago, and I will reconisder my beliefs.

He’s obviously concerned about his afterlife prospects – you know you liberals just gotsta give it all away! (even if it’s not yours to give). So perhaps you think Spectre’s getting a straight ticket to Hell if he remains a Republican? But oh wait, Blagojevich is a Democrat; for that matter, so is Bill Ayers.

Callis – one doesn’t leave their morals at the door to accommodate more people or to get along. Neither should the republican party. If they do change, then rename the party or better, leave. The democrats have left their morals a long time ago, and now they are socialists who allow for anything. A house without a solid foundation will crumble.
The republicans are doing spring cleaning and getting all the dirt out! Thank you Sen. Spector, hopefully McCain and other moderates (democrat-lite) will leave too. Remember, quality and NOT quantity!

“The remaining Republicans, including the MODERATES are more unified than they have been for years”——I’m a moderate republican/conservative democrat, whateer you want to call it. As most people, socially liberal, fiscally conservative and I see zero option nationally besides voting democrat. I hate what we’re spending, but the past 8 years absolutely killed our economy and destroyed our national banking system. What options do we have? Let the banks fail? It’s a recession, going to last a while, you want to cut spending NOW??? I was kind of hoping that would ahve been done about 7 years ago. I dont vote for people who wish for the demise of the union for political gains. You loud mouths got your party. Enjoy it. It’s yours. only yours. We’re gone.

OH GREAT ONE PARTY RULE JUST LIKE WITH THE REP. IT NEVER WORKS I KNOW I LIVE IN GOOD OL MASSACHUSETTES TAKE A LONG LOOK AT THIS STATE ITS NOT GOOD.

Marco, keep denying what is happening. Soon, you’ll be part of a party of 10. 10 people in 10 states. But you’ll be proud of it. You’ll be proud that you’re the “real Americans.” There are no more moderate Republicans. We’ve been drummed out of the party.

He wasn’t going to win as a republican so he switched.
Talk about POWER let the democrats have him.

You always voted with the other side anyway.

jhw539: Without decent, there are no “checks and balances”…which is the case we have now. We’ll see how long it takes for Democrats to screw this up and give Republicans the opening they need to win back the independent vote that truly elects the leadership of this country. When you can only blame one party for our nations problems, the pendulum will swing the other way…it ALWAYS does. Republicans may not have had absolute control of both the House and Senate during the Bush years, but they rode this wave of popularity just a few short years ago…just like Clinton did early in his administration. What goes around, comes around. Nobody is satisfied with what they have, so unless there are sharp improvements in the economy and foreign policy, Democrats are doomed to failure…not because they did necessarily did anything to set us back, but because there was a significant leap forward. Probably the most important issue right now is Jobs…and the policies of this Administration are undercutting that effort more and more every day. You can’t increase the burden on those who do the hiring and firing and expect them to absorb the losses. Business owners will lay off more workers to keep their profit margin from shrinking. President Obama hasn’t figured out that he can’t “legislate attitude” yet, but he will.

Goodbye you serial traitor. He did this because he wants to keep his seat, not for his constituents.
No excuses Democrats. Implement Euro-style socialism at will. It will fail miserably and people will forget again in a generation and try it again.
A nation cannot separate their citizens from the fruits of their labors. Doing so ensures failure.
Welcome to the People’s Republic of America – while it lasts.

golfer:”Specter is doing this to help his political fortunes–he wants to win in the next election”
Lets re-read that and think a moment. Spector wants to win the next election. That means he want the support of the majority of PA voters… Is it now bad for a sitting Senator to want to represent the MAJORITY of his constituents (who overwhelmingly voted for Obama despite McCain making PA his last gasp hard push)?
Seriously, how can you fault the guy for switching to support the president who his constituents supported by over a 10% margin?

Pass the popcorn. I love to watch the party of the past hyperventilate. HA!

@justrighttoo
See, the problem with the “Quality over Quantity” is in a Democracy, Quantity has a distinct advantage. While I disagree with that ideology (extreme case scenario is mob rule, while I don’t think we’re anywhere close too), it is what our voting process is based on.
If you limit yourself to only people who think and act exclusively your way, you’re going to have a small consistency, which won’t be every well heard in Congress. No matter how ‘quality’ the senators, 40 is still less than 60, meaning you will not be heard.
By contrast, if you are will to make compromises and negotiate, you won’t get your way, but your voice will be heard and you will still be able to influence decisions.
In short: In a Democracy, numbers matter.

Gary:”Without decent, there are no “checks and balances”"
That is not true. Checks and balances refers to a specific seperation of powers defined in the Constitution and has nothing to do with the level of political dissent. There were checks and balances under President Washington, who was literally offered the title King at one point.

The people of PA will answer this when he comes up for reelection. I’m neither a Rep or a Democrat, just a person who votes for who I think is the better person. It probably won’t be Specter. He was elected as a Republican and I hope all that voted for him in the past will remrmber that in the future. I will.

And… Spectre’s changing sides parallels the continued degradation of our society. Like my state’s legislators sending the message it’s normal to allow men into women’s public dressing and restrooms because of their sexual orientation. Spectre “changing teams” has essentially done the same thing. My fear is that it will land our country into even more dire straights. The trouble with “normal” is that it keeps getting worse.

Wow- A lot of sour grapes and childish name-calling as usual from the far right.
Careful–Your party is leaning so far over it’s going to tumble sooner rather than later. Just keep on doing what Rush tells you and before you know it, you’ll be even more insignificant.

The democrats have left their morals a long time ago—oh please. the democrats are the only ones who HAVE morals. The democrats have been the guardian of the soul of this country for years. Republicans have declared WARS on innocent people and justified it with any old excuse, while hundreds of thousands of people needless die, is there any bigger sin, than waging a WAR on country??? mass murder. For what? No threat. No reason. They never asked us to ‘liberate’ them. In fact, they were so ticked at us invading and occupying them, a huge insurgency bigger than the war itself was waged for about 100x longer than the war! And let’s not even get into the torture! Who exactly, is staying honest, saying no, we need to actually BE good, in order to claim we are the good guys??? who??? republicans??? HA! Republicans will wage murder, war, torture..do you realize how many of those prisoners were simply male population round ups? we mixed in guys on the street with terrorists and just wanted to keep them locked up forever. Is that moral? Please. This country is turning the corner to actuallky having some moral high ground again thanks to democrats being back in control.

USMC
Obama and the socialist thought process are IDENTICAL. They both believe that they gov’t should be the central planner of an econmy….
-gov’t controlled healthcare
-gov’t controlled schools
-gov’t controlled banks
-gov’t controlled auto industry
-social security
-gov run daycare
This sounds like a typical teleprompter speech ready by BO, the anti-American socialist neary everyday.

I think its ashame that knowone can be independent anymore, liberals trash conservatives, conservatives trash liberals. All of you lovers of Democrats now will soon be singing the same tune Republicans were singing. this crap never stops, and to Arlen, so you woke up at 79 yrs old, and “decided”. this makes me sick cause its so transparent. Dems would loathe anyone who switched “from” their party. Long live REAL independents.

good move and an indication of what is happening in the rep party

People seem to think that spector is moving to the far left. Nope, he’s bringing the democrats coloser to the center. But if you’re standing on the platform of the far-right, even though you’re drifing farther away from the center it looks like the center is drifting farther away from you.
Hopefully now there can be a viable party that forms in the center and pushes the far left out to match how isolated and alone the far-right is.

USMC – No, we conservatives don’t want America to fail. Obama’s policies will make sure of that. Just go by history. Tell me, what government that has socialism or communism has done well and been a success? Universal healthcare has been a disaster for the countries that have it.
Obama is not only outdoing Presidents Wilson, FDR, Carter and Clinton, he’s carrying out Karl Marx’s and Saul Alinsky’s theory.
This man can’t make a speech without a teleprompter – yesterday was priceless!

USMC, you should become a comedian. You are hillarious!

jhw539: If the legislative and executive branches have the same agenda and no one to challenge…is there REALLY Checks and balances? Democrats have a monopoly on the two branches of government that write the laws and enforce the laws…and they already have their agenda spelled out together…so who is to challenge? Unless the Supreme Court is involved to rule something unconstitutional, there is no decent. The far-left is much scarier than the far-right, but we’ll figure that out the hard way.

“The democrats are the party of the 4 S’s….
Slavery
Secession
Segregation”
——————-LOL!!! You know very well the very same people who were democrats in the days of wanting to maintain slavery and segregation are the same folks, their kin, who switched party en mass when the civil rights movement in the 60′s took hold. The mass exodus to the republican party was because of segregation! Dixiecrats, remember? who do you think you’re fooling? LOL!

Hey all you gloating Democrats out there. Representative republics don’t stay that way for long under one-party rule. Be careful what you wish for.

USMC, My devil dog brother, he is a middle of the road politician if that even exists in fact. More than that, he sees the writing on the wall and knows he’ll be out of a job. If that had been the case in 2003, he would have changed parties then. His ideas dont matter to him. His fat pockets do.

The more Obama and supporters deny they are socialists, they more their actions show otherwise. It may not be 100% socialsim, but it’s definitely a Euro-style socialist-market blend.
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You mean like a social democracy? Like we’ve had since Woodrow Wilson? Yeah, that’s totally all Obama’s fault.

“communism has done well and been a success? “— China OWNS us. Quite literally. Not that I want us to go communist, but operating successful businesses when government and industry work together makes running a successful business EASIER. So, you’re polluting all your rivers, your people are dying and working as slaves??? good! The government says Good! and dont complain about it or you’ll go to jail! Now get that 10 year old back to work! We have to give billions to support the American wars.

this is GREAT news .i was hoping he would be defeated in the election but now hes a dem hope you guys enjoy him and when unemployment is at 15 percent and inflation gets out of control before the next election and he wants to come home to reps imma lafffffff could you dems possibly take the other turncoat too please i dont want to mention the womans name but you know who she is PLEASE

Now Olympia Snow, Susan Collins, and Chuck Hagle need to change parties. At least then the Republican party would be rid of the most obvious misfits.

Spector is following votes.
He is doing what he needs to do to get re-elected.
He is not confident that his reputation and what he has stood for will win him re-election so he is trying to win re-election by changing teams.
It really is telling of his character and what he stands for.
He is doing what is needed to be re-elected.

Sour grapes? How often was America accosted by footage of some liberal wailing about the smallest transgression of some boon-dock conservative dredged up by the media for comedic and sensational affect? It would be different if you liberals had some shame about taking what isn’t yours, but you think you’re ENTITLED to it. Oh, but that is only until someone else comes along; handout, and insisting you put your money where your mouth is. How fast can a Liberal become a Conservative? As soon as he’s told to practice the “spread the wealth” values he’s preached – just long enough to steal what was never his in the first place. I

Sen. Spectors own words tell us why he switched to maintain his own seat. It is all about political posturing. He was a loser anyway.

jhw539: checks and balances are determined by committees and the heads of all the committees are democrats so please tell me where the checks and balances will come from? Look at the stimulus package there’s no checks and balances there! This is why i believe it would be best if the president is democrat then the house and senate be republican and vice versa it worked under Clinton and Reagan didn’t it?

Of course the liberal idiot switched. After voting for barry’s massive socialist spendulous package, he can never again call himself a conservative.
Please specter, take mccain with you!

‘former’ being the key word. And you’re going to hang George Wallace on the democratic party? Really? Do you want to go down the path of associating radicals with party mainstream? Because you have some doozies in your closet.
But lets be honest, the marches in the 60′s in Selma and Birmingham? Those weren’t a bunch of republiicans getting bitten by dogs and hit with water hoses.

Susan Collins, Olimpia Snowe, come on down. Moderates aren’t welcome in the Rep. party.

It is interesting to see how Conservatives react to situations such as this…..No reflection on their actions only attack of the individual…Truth of the matter is the Republican party has muted all moderate dissent within their party for years….It is no wonder Specter left….and Conservatives will do as they always…..deflect blame…

The American people have been duped by a media about as honest as bill clinton was during his impeachment hearings.

jhw539: checks and balances are determined by committees and the heads of all the committees are democrats so please tell me where the checks and balances will come from? Look at the stimulus package there’s no checks and balances there! This is why i believe it would be best if the president is democrat then the house and senate be republican and vice versa it worked under Clinton and Reagan didn’t it?
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Umm, the checks and balances are more a judicial v legislative v executive branch thing.
I wouldn’t mind having more republicans in the senate and house but first they have to come up with a message that appeals to more than 22% of the population. Running on a platform of opposing civil liberties, creating secret agencies and legalizing torture just doesn’t seem to be resonating with the American populus anymore.
I agree, it’s the democrats to screw up now. I hope they don’t, but they might, the republicans sure did. However, if the democrats screw up they will simply be voted out, just like their predecessors. The end-all won’t be socialism. That’s just stupid.

Congratulations Mr. Spector. You are truly bipartisan! More of what our county needs. As for my party, republican where I have been for 35 years, it is sad that the far right-wingers have taken it over and forced this move. As i counciled my 18 year old daughter recently as she registered to vote, I would switch to independent from republican if we had an open primary where I could still participate in choosing the candidate. She ended up registering republican – but do not take that as an affirmation of where our party has gone. More of a hope that we can still save our party from the far right fringes and pull it back into the moderate mainstream. Count on her voting Democrat at least as much as Republican, and moderate in our primary elections. Anyway, “Right-On” Mr. Spector :)

Yes Specter was A republican A MODERATE Not a Far right And Most People in PA Who Switched to Democrat were MODERATE REPUBLICANS!

jhw539: You aren’t grasping the purpose of why the system was created, but you will understand my concern a year from now. Until now, consequences have been ignored, but this error in judgement by Arlen Specter will do more to help Republicans than any assistance he can offer the Democratic Party.
The final words of the movie “Patton” state, “…All Glory is Fleeting.” Democrats just might have accepted responsibility for the well-being of this nation at a time when there is no up-side in the foreseeable future. I think Republicans just got the break they needed…or this country is FINALLY ready for a third party to gain 25 percent of the electorate, leaving Republicans, Democrats and non-affiliated voters to split the remaining 75% fairly equal. There may be hope for this country, yet!

mike – You just described most of them.

I absolutely LOVE this!!! Thank you Spector. I hope Rush bites that stupid cigar in half!!

Phillybuster proof

I don’t see how the senator can do this.
Did’nt the people of Pa. elect a Republican? How can he just change to Democrate without any say from the people that elected him?

What majority controlled states seceded in 1861 from the union and owned slaves? —LOL!!!! —-get a CLUE!—-What’s a DIXIECRAT???? know the term??? look it up. The same block of folks have moved from party to party with their racist agenda from since before the civil war and will follow any name that supports their southern racist no-tax theory of government. With the election of Lincoln and Seward saying slaves should be freed they exodus the Republican party and became democrats. After the New Deal, there was a small exodus again (the fiscal ones) and when Johnson had his civil rights agenda the southern dixiecrats were on the move again ,this time back to hte republican party. This is about people. Specter is still Specter. The party has moved what it stands for, the people are still the same. the southern racist backwards folks are all the same, no matter the party you’re from. To say ‘Democrats’ were proslavery is hysterical in the context you are using, considering democrat majority states of today outlawed slavery on their own and then fought the southern states for the common sense idea that maybe we shouldn’t enslave humans. The Republicans lived in the north back then, the democrats in the south. Go back to when the constitution was ratified, wasn’t it northern yankees who thought slavery was contradictory to our constitution??? And wasn’t it a senator from south caroline waltzing around the senate with a bible in his hand preaching that the bible sanctions slavery. My goodness, changes the name of the party, but my goodness, the people haven’t changed all that much in 200 years, huh?

Phillybuster PROOF !!!!!
There’s republican party: “I’m melting”

just sayn – Yes the democrats DID leave their morals at the door. You seem to cherry pick many things.
It’s NOT the right that kills millions of babies. Having the brains sucked out or leaving a botched abortion of a baby to die in a linen closet seems to be no problem with this President!
It wasn’t the right that invaded Vietnam.
It wasn’t the right that wants to take away the 2nd Amendment or the 1st Amendment.
It’s NOT the right who went into Kosovo that wasn’t in our national interests.
It wasn’t the right who treated the 1st World Trade Center attack as a criminal matter. Was the CIA involved? NO. The NY Police dept. In FACT, the FBI and CIA couldn’t talk to each other. Clinton didn’t even think it important so he didn’t even visit after the attack. His weekly radio address just mentioned the economy!!!
It wasn’t the right who didn’t think it important enough to meet with the Sudanese in obtaining Osama Bin Laden. Clinton and Gore had campaign engagements to do!!!! 3 TIMES Clinton had been contacted!!
It wasn’t the right who denied civil rights legislation in the 1960′s!
It wasn’t the right who denied 1,000 jews to come over here from Europe – FDR DID!!!
It wasn’t the right who introduced the NOW income tax and witholding!! It was considered unconstitutional!!!
And FYI – have you EVER heard of the Iraqi Liberation ACT of 1998?
FYI – Have you ever heard of the U.N. Resolution that caused the Gulf War to cease in 1991? What did it say?
Please JUST SAYN, Do yourself a favor and brush up on history! Clinton had many bad guys be sent to “not so friendly countries” and were tortured too! If you don’t think so, you are a fool!!

“People change parties all the time when the party stands for something thye do not believe in”.–Like, hoping the country fails and making it publicly known that you’re willing to sabotage the current administration in an effort to regain political advantage.

Good news. BTW, Hey Norm, it’s over. Let the people of Minnesota have their senator.

A lot of Liberals don’t quite understand that the real separator between the parties right now is fiscal ideology, not religious. Talk to me in 10 years when we can actually survey what Obama has done w/ the dollars. Ask yourselves if revenge is a noble motivator at the price of financial self-destruction.

This was a comment made by the blundering idiot biden and was COMPLETELY ignored by the media.
Biden also said that roosevelt came on television in 1929 to talk about the depression.

Chris : You stated: “Hey all you gloating Democrats out there. Representative republics don’t stay that way for long under one-party rule. Be careful what you wish for.” This coming from a party that had total control for 6 of it’s 8 years and that in the last two filibustered everything not theirs and with a Bush Veto to back it up. Chris, don’t be a hypocrite. The Republicans “far right”, even when not in power still try their best to throw out hate, deception and misinformation for their own agenda and not for the betterment of the country. When the Republicans start moving away from the extremist ideals of the past 20-30 years than you might see a re-growth of that party. Not until the moderate middle-class Republicans take back there party from these extremist will any of this happen. This is not the conservative party that was around in it’s prime. Hate and deception and distrust does not build a party or a country, it only divides. Welcome aboard, Sen. Arlen Specter. Welcome to the party that cares more about the Country than it’s party. Your moderate conservatism is welcome here.

For those of us who are sick and tired of career politicians, this is just more evidence that term limits are needed.

“I’m a loyal Democrat. I support your agenda.” So how could even a moderate R say those words unless he was a liberal Democrat. Sorry, he never was comfortable as a Republican. Bye, Senator. You belong to the party who is so open minded, their minds have fallen out.

OMENTUM
Looks Like The Dems are sweeping Up the Nation I dont Think there Is Hardly Any left in The North East!

He’s got to win to stay in. Most likley will be gone for this.

The liberals are socialists. They hate America and they are ALWAYS rooting for our enemies to win.

Angie
CONGRATULATIONS……
GREAT NEWS
America is back. GOP is shrinking. Sun is brighter. Air is fresher
aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

I once read in an interview with Rush Limbaugh that he wouldn’t stop what he was doing until everyone in America agreed with him…its really funny to watch him LOSE ground…

Senator Specter has always been a moderate, bipartisan, intelligent, compassionate, republican just like Senator John Heinz was before he died. With the republican party imploding due to the horrific right wing faction taking over and destroying the cohesiveness of this country, who can blame anyone for switching parties. Democrats in Pennsylvania have always voted for Senator Specter because even as democrats, we knew Senator Specter was always voting for the people, not the party.. Congratulations on your switch Senator Specter. You have the Democratic vote in Pennsylvania. Toomey is nothing more than a conservative religious mouthpiece for the evangelical faction of the republican party. Same as Rick Santorum was. Pennsylvanians knows who is best for Pennsylvania.

“It’s NOT the right that kills millions of babies”—again, you think that forcing girls and women to maintain pregnancies against will and forcing them to develope nad birth babies against thier will is MORAL??? LOL!! Whether or not abortion is wrong is not the issue. What it is CLEAR is that FORCING Girls to develope and birth babies against their will IS MORALLY WRONG!!! That’s easy to see and that is where MY ROLE in this belongs. Pregnancy is an act of love. Self sacrafice and love and it’s twisted to think you can force someone to be selfsacraficing. YOu people have a few screws loose. you have no moral compass. What you think is your moral high ground is actually some sick power grab at forcing mass amounts of women into involuntary servitude to develope millions of babies nobody wants that the state will have to support in one way or another who will have an inordinate amount end up incarcerated. Odd violent ducks you people are.

The liberals are socialists. They hate America and they are ALWAYS rooting for our enemies to win.
Posted by: BOstinks | Apr 28, 2009 1:52:17 PM
=============================
SSSSMMMMAAACK!!!!
Thank you thank…. you are the gift that keeps on giving. What will people with common sense do if they didn’t have a reason to come from the dark side. Specter saw the likes of you and make a SMART decision
please please more vulgarity please….. america needs you

CONGRATULATIONS, WELCOME HOME ARLEN!! The election in 2010 will oust several Republicans. They are a dying breed!
JUST SAY NO to Democratic legislation and you are OUT !!

Can you guys take Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins as well?? they are Wolves is sheeps clothing anyway switching parties would just make it official. I can’t wait for the next election and the new conservative revolution! Now that the Loons are out of the party, we can focus on taking back America from the socialist democrates of America party.

I don’t know about this but with Spector becoming one of us democrats it could give us the edge.

Barry is a socialist(his voting record was MORE to the left of the outspoken socialist senator from VT). What more proof do you people need?
=======================================
this is just an outright lie fabricated by the far right.
e’s a businessman, look at his appointees: Geithner? How is Geithner any thing like a pick a socialist would make? If he had picked Krugman, maybe you’d have a point, but you’re the one that needs to wake up. You just want to believe so bad that he’s a socialist.

Talk to me in 10 years when we can actually survey what Obama has done w/ the dollars—as if it’s Obama’s fault the Bush ruined the economy, the banks failed en masse under his dereguation 8 years, with unregulated derivatives. What was Obama supposed to do? You want to blame someone for the disease, dont blame the doctor who had to cure it, how about blame the swine who infected us all – the republican FISCAL agenda that ran hog-wild for 8 years. Did you realize the subprimes that went belly up were made on the PRIVATE mortgage market??? catch those articles in Business Week and Wallstreet Journal???? Fannie and Freddie loans were solid. Much higher standards, you konw, the kinds of standards maybe if we had some regulations! it was their INVESTMENTS in securities backed by derivatives that killed them. Obama’s fiscal policy thus far has been trying to fix what republican fiscal policy decimated.

Don’t Worry Right Wingers Rush the Lush Limblah and Sh-Yawn ins-Hannity will keep your Party together.. and with the Alaskan Bimbo and Joe the Fake Plumber running in 2012! You’re Party will come back Stronger then ever… Yeeeeeeehaaaaawwww Drill Baby Drill!

Dave: Your really do not know what socialism is, do you? Many of you anti-socialists out there fail to understand how much of your world and the United States relies on the social good to maximize the good for the majority of society. You are reaping the results of that socialism every day and many times each day. Each time you get into your socially mandated safe cars and ride on that tax-paid highway and see the fire put out by your government paid fire departments, and protected by your local police. The water you drink out of your faucets, the military that protects you at home and overseas, and the list goes on and on with the socialist policies. Capitalism helps to make that process work from the other direction to help us pay for these required and desired needs. If we share in the support and cost of anything as a society, that is known as “socialism”. Note that both capitalism or socialism can be termed as parasites of society if either grows too large or out of control. Neither of them can succeed without the help of the other. You might call it a symbiotic relationship that works best for both when proper balance is achieved. Your government, appropriately sized and with proper checks and balances is part of this whole mechanism that we the people have voted and put into place. This, as stipulated in our Constitution, as much as possible, is “For the people, by the people and of the people”. President Obama and his administration is an extension of that mandate by the people that we placed into power via our “Fair” election process to find the appropriate path to overcome the poor balance between these capitalist and socialist policies of our society. You can “choose” to be part of a constructive process to help us heal ourselves or be part of the problem and continue to hope that there is failure. That, as an American, is your choice. So, do the “right” thing and help be part of a constructive solution, not part of the problem. Voice your opinion by agreeing or disagreeing but work for the greater good. Get involved! Run for office! Work locally and don’t just think about yourselves. Working for the greater good helps us all and not just you. Be the patriotic American that we all “claim” to be and please convince you corporations that their patriotism is just as important as the individual. Shipping jobs overseas is not patriotic. Too much of this thing has be partly responsible for another part of our problems today.

“Dave, again you misappropriate history. both parties used to be diverse. George Wallace would certainly be a republican today.”
I know why you say that, but as a native Alabamian, I have to disagree with you. Unlike Strom Thurmond, Wallace wasn’t a segregationist by inclination but out of sheer opportunism. Early in his career he was the more “liberal” candidate — more like Kissin’ Jim Folsum or the late Ryan DeGraffenried. He hecame a states rights conservative after losing big to the racist John Patterson. In the latter part of his career, when times had changed, he apologized abjectly to the state’s black voters and managed to re-define himself as a centrist Democrat in state politics. He was always something of an activist governor. His monument is a series of “trade schools” (now called junior colleges) the state established. It’s true he’d be more conservative now than the average Democrat, but I think he’d be more in the Don Siegelman mode, managing to hold onto white and black voters at the same time. Of course none of this alters your main point, which is that the Republican Party under Nixon started courting the racist vote and has never stopped. They are still using coded “states’ rights” language, still trying to get the Voting Rights Act done away with, etc.

Dave cant Help it he has Been Brainwashed By the Ilks of Limbaugh,Hannity And Beck and we Democrats thank them so Much for their Daily Hate spew Look at the democrats Ratings compared to Republicans keep it up!

He was trailing in the polls. He’s a chicken that only cares about himself. Good riddance!!

Omentum
You capitalize “specter”, but not “America” in your post. As usual, you confirm again that liberal patriotism is an oxymoron.
Tell me, why do liberals hate America?
Why are you people always rooting for whoever America is currently fighting against?
Also, has Michelle O found a reason to be proud of her country yet?

mike:”Democrats are the only people i know who proudly say we have a KKK member as a senator in West Virginia and a murderer as a senator in Mass”
The FACT that there are many black Democrat members of Congress, but not a single black Republican member in Congress says an AWFUL lot more to most minority voters (and even if Strom Thurmond was nice to minorities in private, Republicans have a pretty recent history of supporting some pretty dubious racial policies).
But feel free to beat up on the drunkard dying of brain cancer. I’m sure that’ll really help rally the public to the Republicans.

mike—please submit who your quote is from? who said proudly they are happy to have a KKK member in the party.
just ask yourself. if you were a racist today, 2009, what party would you find a nice home? if you hate minorities? if you hate immigrants? you guessed it, your party, the Grand Old Party!

dlboggen: Do you buy everything made in America even when the cost is higher and the quality lower? Businesses move oversees or to mexico to produce a product cheaper so that most poeple and almost all liberals can save a dime. when you walk into walmart do you buy the higher priced wiggit or the lower priced wiggit?

Tell me, why do liberals hate America?
Why are you people always rooting for whoever America is currently fighting against?
Also, has Michelle O found a reason to be proud of her country yet?
=======================================
Why do YOU hate America so much? You lose one election and suddenly the whole country is ruined? Sounds like you only love America when you’re winning the game. Pretty lousy excuse for patriotism.
Since Obama won with a majority, does a majority of America hate America, or ould it be you are way, way out of line? Find a viable platform that can win an election or two or pick up your jacks and go home!

Michael, “a group of socialists bringing down capitalism”? Are you insane? Do you know what has brought down capitalism? It was the unchecked and unregulated markets of the past 8 years. George Bush brought down capitalism. Wake up man.

dlboggan
Of course we have socialist elements in this country (which is why we have fat poor people in line at food kithens).
Can you imagine explaining to someone in asia, india, africa, europe that our “poor” people often weigh 300+lbs?!
Come to America, the land where our “poor” people can afford to have pot bellies, cigarettes and scratched lottery tickets in their homes, all paid for by the gov’t!

Here’s something the Loons won’t want to hear in 2010: Chris Dodd is trailing in the polls 59-41 to a Republican: Ben Nelson of Nebraska doesn’t even have a challenger yet and is so unpopular that he is trailing no-one by 61-39. All indications are that Missouri is leaning Republican (again)and all other republican seats are safe. If Bo keeps doing what he is doing, the repbulicans will probably have a net pick-up of 4 seats in the Senate in 2010 possibly 5.

USMC, um, you libe said America was dead 4 years ago and wore black ribbons.

see http://www.citywelcomecenter.ws
Remember the ws at the end

far right wing theories have all gone bust at around the same time. Need we even mention deregulation. nuff said. How about abstinence only -yeah, that worked great. First time in nearly 20 years pregnancy rates have shot up. Fed stopped giving money to clinics, schools stopped teaching sex ed, sex ed programs that were 100% abstinence only were being introduced all through the bible belt, our teen pregnancy rate shot up. Have fun with your welfare roles for the next 18 years, folks. The state with hte lowest divorce rate is Massachusetts while red states freak out about gay marriage hurting marriage, even though they have outlawed gay marriage their marriages fall apart far more than blue states who don’t freak about gays. The banks have nearly failed, the Iraq war was a distaster both fiscally, personally, wiht over 4000 deaths, more than 9’11 (Hate it when the cure is actuallyk WORSE than the disease -well ,that and that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11) oh, and OBL was never caught, and taking out Saddam lead to the emboldening of Iran. So, is that it??? Yup. Foriegn policy, fiscally ,and socially, right wingers have been on the perfectly WRONG side of everything.

The real question now is how many more will follow? Spectors openned the Door and he’s one of the very respected Senators so it wouldn’t be too out of the question to jump ship, especially a sinking ship. With the impending hearings on the Torture cases which I’m sure will be just the tip of the iceberg. Why wouldn’t a rational Republican leave a Party hijacked by Rush the lush and ShYawn “Conservativism in Exhile”? I was listening to Sh-Yawns show yesterday and he and Culture were tearing John McCain a new A-hole! Why should McCain stay with the Republicans? He should go over to the Democrats and join his Buddy lieberman. Arnald Schwartzaneger would be another to go Democratic. The Exodus will be huge…

Dave—you shouldn’t make fun of overweight people. i think you owe Rush Limbaugh an apology.

JWH-539 – ” elected people, not party representatives… then why do we have primaries, wouldn’t everbody be eleigible to run – why are the presidential debates limited in participation to the major parties, you are right parties are not part of our constitution, that is what I find amusing – if it is people only and not the party – then why did Specter change.

The GOP did this to themselves. For years they have counted on his vote while disrespecting his thoughtful approach to his job. They more ore less told him to get lost when they announced the strategy to force him out in the primary. I seem to remember that all of the Republican senators who voted for the stimulus were threatened. Can Olympia Snowe be far behind?

Gotta agree with those who worry about 1 party rule – I do too, it usually doesn’t work well. Leads away from moderation and towards extremism. If you want proof, look at the GOP. GOP moderates are dead and gone. Extremism and demagoguery have taken their place. If you want proof of that, take a look at some of the above posts – millions of dead unborn? Socialism? Revolution? Get a grip, please.
As Julia Child used to say, “In all things, moderation”.
To those of you on the far right, you lost. 2 Novembers in a row, big time. It should be getting obvious to you at some point that your virulent gunpowder-headed screaming paranoia is not wanted by the majority (vast majority) of the people living in this country.

No Democrat, and especially not Robert Byrd, is proud of the fact that Byrd was a member of the Ku Klux Klan for a year or so in his mid-20′s (he’s now 92). In his latest autobiography, Byrd explained that he was a member because he “was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision — a jejune and immature outlook — seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions.” Byrd also said, in 2005, “I know now I was wrong. Intolerance had no place in America. I apologized a thousand times… and I don’t mind apologizing over and over again. I can’t erase what happened.” By contrast, Trent Lott declared in 2002 that the country would be better off now if segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had beaten Harry Truman in 1948. And Ronald Reagan chose to launch his 1980 presidential campaign with a speech endorsing states rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the site of the murders of civil rights workers Gibson, Chaney and Schwerner. Reagan received the formal endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan.

Who in their right mind would want to be associated with the likes of Hannity, Coulter, Savage, and fatboy Limbaugh?
Just keep flapping your gums, you morons, right-wing talk radio is one of the best things to happen to the Democratic party.

But feel free to beat up on the drunkard dying of brain cancer. —how quick folks forget that the car accident that killed that girl, that the downward spiral of that man happened AFTER he witnessed his two older brothers shot to death in front of the entire country and while everyone looked him and said “oh yes! YOU next!” Yes, he became an alcoholic. I get that. Why was a young girl getting in the car with a drunk married man so late at night? she is not responsible for the actions that lead to her death? Anyone wihtin a fifty mile radius of that man knew he was spiraling down. It was no mystery as to what was going on and how. Who would you be if your three older brothers were all killed in the span of a few years, the last one being the straw that broke his back into drinking. And that is unforgivable. Surely no one here would turn to drink under so much sorry, huh???? sure. Some of the biggest alcoholics, dry or wet, are republicans and they were pretty horrendous in their actions and I dont know any of them to carr ythe burdens or sorrow of man who sees his older brothers murdered in front of the world.

“When are people going to wake up and see where this country is going? Socialism people-look it up ”
YOU look it up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m continually amazed that so many right wingers talk about socialism without ever cracking a dictionary. The Federal Reserve and interstate highway system are both socialist ideas. Ron Paul, to his credit, knows that (and opposes both), but the vast majority of right wingers support both, and still rail against “socialism.” I think their idea of socialism is anything a black President proposes.

Anyone nervous about a 1-party system, let’s remember, if more people join the democrats, there’s going to be more opinions and arguments
When people star feeling alienate, the either defect, or if there are a lot of them, start a new part. Republican part is younger than the Democratic party, but was the stronger party for a while. I don’t rule out the idea of a new party starting up if the Republicans don’t shape up.

THANKS RUSH !!!!!!
BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!!!

Rediculous…you should not even be able to legally do that…if you change parties you should have to do it at re-election time…Definitely paid off to do this…the timing with this and Franken stealing his seat are too coincidental…by the way is there still a war going on in Iraq and AFgan…I sure don’t here the screaming and daily body counts like I did after every McCain Campaign ad or during thelast 4 years of the Bush Admin…kind of funny how that has all just faded away and all we talk about is how great Obamanations 100 days were…despite the fact that it will take 4 generations to pay off the debt he has amassed in those 100 days, with more to follow…hello third world

Republicans helped drive Spector to this, and they’ve threatened to target Olympia Snowe and drive her out of the party too. It will be interesting to see if they back off now that the’ve seen their handiwork. I doubt it. They either cherish the delusion that the country secretly supports “real” conservatism and would just love to elect a Limbaugh clone Senator from Pennsylvania or Maine, or they don’t care about winning and would rather be a far right party confined to the the deep south and losing ground all the time than a big tent party.

I find it hillarious that you libs are gloating over 1 person switching sides. Just like how you claim a big victory over a 1 point margin in an election. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Angie in Pa – You’re correct. The current slide of Republicans into the far right spectrum leaves out anyone of moderate politics. Although Iprefer the Democratic philosophy, I have voted for Republicans in the past who I believed had a sound, fair and responsible message. The current Republicans seem to cast anyone in the middle as socialist or far left. The actions and messages of current lot of Rs are stale and, from my viewpoint, detrimental to the country. They need to reign in the Hannitys, Limbaughs, Becks, O’Reillys, Malkins and Coulters. They provide poor leadership and direction.

U.S.S.R.?

Take olympia Snowe, Susan Collins with you and don’t let the door hit you on your way out. Good Riddance.

I agree – this was ONLY to enable Specter to get re-elected in PA because it’s so disgustingly democratic. He feels Toomey will landslide him so he’s running scared right in to the democrats’ arms!!!!! Shameful.

jamescbuilder:”then why do we have primaries, wouldn’t everbody be eleigible to run”
uh, everyone IS eligible to run who meets the Constitutional requirements and party affiliation is NOT one of them. Hundreds of people officially ran for president in 2008.
“why are the presidential debates limited in participation to the major parties,”
The debates are a private event setup and run by the Commission on Presidential Debates – which was created by the Republican and Democratic party. They’re no more an official part of our government than the Miss America Pageant, and haven’t been around as long.

Somebody get the lime.
The stench of the dead republican party carcus is stinking up the place.

Good riddence, now when the country really starts to spiral out of control all you Obots have nobody to blame but your own party. Spector new he was not going to get re elected and Steel was going to withold funds for his campaign, the Dems can have his loser a$$.

Jane:”Politicians – It’s all about re-election NOT THE PEOPLE!”
I can’t help but read that and smile. Yup, it all about re-election, doing what the majority of your constituents consider the best job out of all the people available.

It is not good to lose a moderate voice in the Republican party, it further marginalizes the party. To me there is now only one choice, to either come up with ideas or be more marginalized.

CHAOS: Typical reply from someone who cannot understand the concepts. You are a capitalist to such a degree that you fail to understand the social responsibilities that should be applied towards corporations as much as the individual. At what point do you decide that ok to continue to tear apart the local businesses and job markets until no one has the money to buy you cheaply made products in far away places. Have you ever heard the famous philosophy from one of our greatest capitalists “Henry Ford”. A taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford “When Ford started the 40-hour work week and a minimum wage he was criticized by other industrialists and by Wall Street. He proved, however, that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing and be good for the economy. Ford explained the change in part of the “Wages” chapter of My Life and Work.[18] He labeled the increased compensation as profit-sharing rather than wages.” In other words, keep destroying our economy and our jobs here at home and pretty soon there will not be a market to sell too. This is such a basic concept that I am surprised you cannot see it. But, than again, you are an anti-socialist or maybe I should state, “anti-American” in regards to your local economy. In case I have not made my point, I do readily admit that I am against the “flat-world” economies being pushed by pure capitalist. It will eventually bring us all down to a much worse quality of life. No job, no money, no food, no security. Domino affect. Get it “Chaos”. Appropriate name, by the way. Oh, and one more thing, I don’t hate anyone, I just identify those the show their hate towards others. Saying that someone is hateful does not make me hateful. If you see a racist at work, do you not call them on it. Should you be called a racist because have identified someone as racist?

So Dumb – if Democrats are the mean ones, then why do the repubs call them “Bleeding Hearts” and “Tree Huggers” and “Girly Men”? These names imply that Democrats are too nice. Nobody goes to greater name-calling lengths than the repubs. There’s also Global Warming Alarmists, Activist Judges, Terrorists, Liberals, an so on. A little objective reflection before you post would be beneficial to your message.

As defined in the Oxford Dictionary and Thesarus; “socialism, 1 a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the community as a whole should own and control the means of production, distribution, and exchange.”
U.S.S.R.-Socialist Republic
China-Socialist Republic
North Korea-Socialist Republic
North Vietnam-Socialist Republic
Cuba-Socialist Republic………

Happily ever after for the dems? Not so fast. This guy Specter is a 100% opportunist without any principle. The only reason for him to switch party is he wants to win. Listen to what he said: “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right.” Give me a break. Every one knows Reagan is a far right conservative. You have to be an idiot to believe that G. W. Bush is more far right than Ronald Reagan. Listen up! There is nothing for the dems to cheer about this. They can still lose big in 2012 if Obama can’t fix the economy.

“This is a white man’s country, and will always remain a white man’s country.”
–Rep. James F. Byrnes (D., S.C.), 1919
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941
Appointed Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman in 1945
“Slavery among the whites was an improvement over independence in Africa. The very progress that the blacks have made, when–and only when–brought into contact with the whites, ought to be a sufficient argument in support of white supremacy–it ought to be sufficient to convince even the blacks themselves.”
–William Jennings Bryan, 1923
Presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, 1896, 1900 and 1908
Appointed Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913
His statue stands in the U.S. Capitol.
“Anyone who has traveled to the Far East knows that the mingling of Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results. . . . The argument works both ways. I know a great many cultivated, highly educated and delightful Japanese. They have all told me that they would feel the same repugnance and objection to have thousands of Americans settle in Japan and intermarry with the Japanese as I would feel in having large numbers of Japanese coming over here and intermarry with the American population. In this question, then, of Japanese exclusion from the United States it is necessary only to advance the true reason–the undesirability of mixing the blood of the two peoples. . . . The Japanese people and the American people are both opposed to intermarriage of the two races–there can be no quarrel there.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1925
President, 1933-45
“This passport which you have given me is a symbol to me of the passport which you have given me before. I do not feel that it would be out of place to state to you here on this occasion that I know that without the support of the members of this organization I would not have been called, even by my enemies, the ‘Junior Senator from Alabama.’ ”
–Hugo Black, accepting a life membership in the Ku Klux Klan upon his election to the U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Alabama, 1926
Appointed to the Supreme Court by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937
“Mr. President, the crime of lynching . . . is not of sufficient importance to justify this legislation.”
–Sen. Claude Pepper (D., Fla.), 1938
Spoken while engaged in a six-hour speech against the antilynching bill
“I am a former Kleagle [recruiter] of the Ku Klux Klan in Raleigh County. . . . The Klan is needed today as never before and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia. It is necessary that the order be promoted immediately and in every state in the union.”
–Robert C. Byrd, 1946
Democratic Senator from West Virginia, 1959-present
Senate Majority Leader, 1977-80 and 1987-88
Senate President Pro Tempore, 1989-95, 2001-03, 2007-present
His portrait stands in the U.S. Capitol.
President Truman’s civil rights program “is a farce and a sham–an effort to set up a police state in the guise of liberty. I am opposed to that program. I have voted against the so-called poll tax repeal bill. . .. I have voted against the so-called anti-lynching bill.”
–Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1948
U.S. Senator, 1949-61
Senate Majority Leader, 1955-61
President, 1963-69
“There is no warrant for the curious notion that Christianity favors the involuntary commingling of the races in social institutions. Although He knew both Jews and Samaritans and the relations existing between them, Christ did not advocate that courts or legislative bodies should compel them to mix socially against their will.”
–Sen. Sam Ervin (D., N.C.), 1955
Chairman, Committee on Government Operations, 1971-75
“The decline and fall of the Roman empire came after years of intermarriage with other races. Spain was toppled as a world power as a result of the amalgamation of the races. . . . Certainly history shows that nations composed of a mongrel race lose their strength and become weak, lazy and indifferent.”
–Herman E. Talmadge, 1955
Democratic Senator from Georgia, 1957-81
Chairman, Committee on Agriculture, 1971-81
“These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don’t move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there’ll be no way of stopping them, we’ll lose the filibuster and there’ll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”
–Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson (D., Texas), 1957
“I have never seen very many white people who felt they were being imposed upon or being subjected to any second-class citizenship if they were directed to a waiting room or to any other public facility to wait or to eat with other white people. Only the Negroes, of all the races which are in this land, publicly proclaim they are being mistreated, imposed upon, and declared second-class citizens because they must go to public facilities with members of their own race.”
–Sen. Richard B. Russell Jr. (D., Ga.), 1961
The Russell Senate Office Building is named for him.
“I did not lie awake at night worrying about the problems of Negroes.”
–Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, 1961
Kennedy later authorized wiretapping the phones and bugging the hotel rooms of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“I’m not going to use the federal government’s authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnically homogeneous neighborhoods. . . . I have nothing against a community that’s made up of people who are Polish or Czechoslovakian or French-Canadian or blacks who are trying to maintain the ethnic purity of their neighborhoods.”
–Jimmy Carter, 1976
President, 1977-81
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2002
“The Confederate Memorial has had a special place in my life for many years. . . . There were many, many times that I found myself drawn to this deeply inspiring memorial, to contemplate the sacrifices of others, several of whom were my ancestors, whose enormous suffering and collective gallantry are to this day still misunderstood by most Americans.”
–James Webb, 1990
Now a Democratic Senator from Virginia
“Everybody likes to go to Geneva. I used to do it for the Law of the Sea conferences and you’d find these potentates from down in Africa, you know, rather than eating each other, they’d just come up and get a good square meal in Geneva.”
–Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D., S.C.) 1993
Chairman, Commerce Committee, 1987-95 and 2001-03
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 1984
“I do not think it is an exaggeration at all to say to my friend from West Virginia [Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a former Ku Klux Klan recruiter] that he would have been a great senator at any moment. . . . He would have been right during the great conflict of civil war in this nation.”
–Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.), 2004
Chairman, Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
Candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2008
“You cannot go into a Dunkin’ Donuts or a 7-Eleven unless you have a slight Indian accent.”

Just sayin. Review your history! Franklin Roosevelt was a Democrat and declared war on Europe and dropped the most sinful weapon on innocent people in Japan in 1945.
Posted by: Mr Twister | Apr 28, 2009 1:15:23 PM
You are a clueless person right? We were attacked and war was really declared on us. Plus Truman droppe the A-Bomb.
I guess the GOP really are dumber than dirt.

So the rules just no longer apply. Thought you had to have an election. I don’t think you should be able to switch in mid stream. This government just keeps changing the laws every day.
On another note: Just how much money it ccost us to have the “photo op” yesterday. Who gives a rats a** about pictures of the plane.

The BushGOP took the Repubs. way off to the extremist Right Wing. Limbaugh, Cheney and Palin keep talking. There is no longer a place for moderates in the Republican Party. When they’re in power, they vote monolithically in favor of the president, and when they’re out, they vote monolithically to obstruct.The BushGOP governed with contempt for the middle, and now the mainstream is returning the favor. Looks like a long term political realignment.

I’d like to know how this is fair to the people who voted for him as a Republican? Don’t they have a say in this?
I am certainly in favor of putting in term limits for these people in Congress and the Senate. They get away with too much.They are supposed to represent the people who put them in office.I would feel the same if it were a Democrat going to Republican. Which I have been a Democrat for 30 years now, but since Obama I am changeing that to Independent.

Adam—ROFLMFAO…you hate MSM but post on its blogs because it allows you that freedom. trying disagreeing with Limbaugh, seriously, try calling his show. you will be shut up, yelled at then hung up on. ironic you have to come to “liberal, commie” blogs to express you feelings.

Here is the encapsulated history on the present Republican Party. Back in Nixon’s day there was a decision to go racist-not overtly, but over time. The party began appealing to the South ( well the “white” South) and co-opted what was then a viable third party movement, that of George Wallace. The Reagan revolution would have been nothing more than a blip on the screen without those votes. Whatever was left of the Ripon Republicans turned a blind eye, naively believing that they could dissuade the more extreme social elements of the party from going along. They were wrong and the “new” Republican Party was born.
Jump ahead to 2009. The society of the US has changed and what is left of that party is a group of conscientious economic conservatives and a storm-trooper base of wacky radio (and Fox TV) commentators with their equally wacky followers.The Democrats did not have to do a thing. And, of course, given the Democrats propensity for shooting themselves in the foot, they’ll probably figure out some way to blow Specter’s move. But until that time, the Republicans have positioned themselves exactly where they should be-a localized extremist party reflecting a dying social mentality of race-baiting politics and cold-war paranoia about “socialism”.

joyce—i think the people who voted for Senator Specter voted for him because they thought he was the best candidate not because of his party affiliation. anyone who votes strictly on party affiliation instead of convictions is not quite with the program.

Ok repubs, all together now – WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

This one is easy, I am a Dem, so do not get confussed.
He is one of many who are the Poster Boy for Term Limits.
He is upset because he might have to go home? Send him home PA. Out with the Old men and in with the New. Can we send him back. What a bad speach he just gave, Term Limits are a must if we are going to fix this country.

tee hee hee,
you like government telling you what you can do, maybe cuba would be the place for you!
you can’t protect yourself with a gun
you can’t open your own business-free enterprise
you can’t say that you think homosexuality is a sin-without being thrown in prison
It’s all coming-your rights are fading away as we speak!

Self absorbed, lies, easily bought off — sounds like a Democrat to me.
Time to check his taxes.

YOMAMA,
Abraham Lincoln was a Republican hate monger like me. Remember, it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.

Liberals love America like oj loved nicole.

Hmmmmm, the United States of Socialism. This isn’t all about hating conservatism, it’s a payback for the Bush years. But what did he do? Spend, Spend, spend. Just like the liberals do and will continue to do. We’ll just have more of the same. THe United States will never be the same.

Republicans are just angry, if you’re SOOOOOO sick of Obama and his mindless spending thats helping the future of your dimwhit kids going to college then MOVE!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE MOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man! The move by Specter really smacks the GOP in the face. The party of “NO” is now going to be sidelined unless they can pull some Blue Dog Democrats over to their side of the isle. Hannity and Limbaugh have done the damage. Specter is the fall out.

Looks like Fox news’ and the GOP’s efforts to push this country to the far right are blowing up in their faces. Republicans have nothing to offer this country, only discord.

About time! Don’t let the door hit you too hard on the way out: he always was a GOP traitor!

B.B. King posted “Good riddance! He was always a GOP traitor, anyways.” Yeah, and those grapes were probably sour anyway.

I am so tired of hearing the phrase “checks and balances” used incorrectly. Checks and balances are among the three branches of government. Checks and balances are not in the constitution in order to achieve balance amongst political parties. Susan Collins needs to get her constitutional facts right, along with everyone else who mistakenly uses the term to describe the results of popular and electoral votes. It is the people who decide which party holds a majority, not the constitution. Let’s start calling them on this. Most people don’t know the difference, either, and are led to believe they have a constitutional right to have their party in control of the House or Senate.

There is no reason why health care cannot be fixed now. No excuses! I’m sending a donation to Arlen Specter for his campaign fund before this night is out! Thanks Arlen.

livefreegirl posted “you can’t say that you think homosexuality is a sin-without being thrown in prison” I’ve never heard of anyone being thrown in jail for saying homosexuality is a sin. Could you please list some name and places or are you just blowing these things out of your @$$?

Seems like the right wing neocons are still in denial. They want to dog a long time Senator for leaving this party of wackos. I think Arlen sees there are much more important things to do then sitting around clinging to guns and relegion and screaming that the sky is falling. These neocons are going to keep up this insanity until they completely loose the party all together. They had better start working across the aisle or there will be more jumping of the crazy train the republican party is on.

my only hope is that his switch means he will start voting more intelligently, instead of always bowing to the right… i’m from PA and specter has always disappointed me… he may be a moderate republican, but usually disappoints… now that he is switching, he better vote correctly to move this country forward with the democrats and our newly elected president obama… frankly, if someone else ran against him in the primarys as a democrat, i would not vote for specter, i’d think more about voting for the other democrat… that all said, i have absolutely NO sympathy for the right wing party (formerly known as the republican party)… too bad ron paul is the only true republican in that party!… the rest are racists, facists, bushies, bullies and haters… may the GOP RIP!

Dave posted “Capitalism was working just fine until over enthusiastic community organizers sued banks to throw out all of their lending standards.” Sorry Dave, this is a myth, not a fact. Our problems were caused by letting the banks become too big by repealing Glass/Steagall. Then Phil Gramm made sure that derivatives where unregulated. Then somehow the banks received permission to leverage their holding at an insane 40 to 1 rate. Then many mortgages where made with floating rates. There were bundled up as securities and labeled AAA (no risk), which was a lie. Finally, when these mortgages began to fail, the entire house of card collapsed.

Arlen Specter always was a douche bag. Bye, bye! GOP traitor…

Robert Weathers posted “You suffer from Obamanausium, a common affliction of uninformed or uneducated knee jerk democrats, you are often wrong but never in doubt.” Well, thank you again for removing all doubt about you once again.

He will fit right in the democratic party with Al and the rest of the clowns. The guy is a looser and will be defeated in 2010.

E Fitzpatrick | Apr 28, 2009 3:23:12 PM—i agree with you regarding proper use of the term “checks and balances.” i learned about the separation of powers and checks and balances as a child in grade school.

Robert Weathers quotes, “Abraham Lincoln was a Republican hate monger like me. Remember, it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt,”
—————–
Well, you went and opened your BIG MOUTH and definitely removed all doubt. You’re a fool by your own admission.

Barney Frank (chairman of the house financial services committee), chris dodd, chuck schumer, maxine waters, harry reid, along with over enthusiastic community organizers, banded together to FORCE banks to throw out their lending standards. Check the senate hearing available on the internet.
They pressured fannie/freddie to continue to make loans to people who could NEVER pay them back. Barney frank in congress was the champion of “affordable housing” while at the same time carrying on a gay affair withe the head of fannie mae.
Can anyone say conflict of interest?

Karl Marx | Apr 28, 2009 3:34:02 PM—how ironic that Karl Marx is parroting Rush Limbaugh. i guess Limbaugh is a communist who hates his nation, and blah, blah, blah.

Frankie
Since the media got the anti-American socialist elected, the stock market has lost more of it’s value in this post election season than any other time in history!
You obamabots have truly lost your minds.

LOL, YESS!! You are more than welcome Specter! It takes courage to do this. You have my respect.

why is the party of the “real americans” now such a small insignificant fraction of the population?… could i be because they were wrong? duh.

“Vote democrat, it’s easier then working!”
Is that why Republicans put so many Americans out of work?

What did you Retards think would happen? You prop up Sarah Palin the ak47 armed Moosehunter as the next President. You accept Rush the Druggie as your defacto leader. You’re token Black guy and Indian guy are failing to con Minorities into joining your Failing Party? You Trot around Joe the Fake Plumber as the example of “Great American” It’s actually laughable when you actually take a moment and think of what the Republican Party has done to themselves..

Dave you have lost your mind.
Why don’t you go on a hunting trip with Cheney. The stock market has not picked up yet, because your rich buddies can’t figure out a way to exploit the situation any further. They don’t have anyone to basically write them a blank check now they don’t know what to do. It was the republican party with Bush and Cheney that caused this problem. Locked door meetings with the oil companies before the gas prices went through the roof. Lies about Iraq to get no bid contracts for their buddies at Halliburton and other military contractors like Lockheed. Unlimited spending on a war that was supposed to pay for itself, complete deregulation of the banks giving their rich buddies free rain to take all of our money, they refused to acknowledge there was a problem with the economy until it was too late. Remember McSame saying the economy is sound? Republicans mind set is completely fanatical.

JoeDafakePlumber
I will take all of those people you just mentioned over the anti-American socialist from chicago anyday.
Barry sat in an anti-American, anti-capitalist church for 20 years, listening to a ranting racist, and never said a word.
Is it any wonder that Michelle was never been able to find a reason to be proud of America?

SamTyler1973, TexMex4Obama,
Are you guys really insinuating that Lincoln was not a Republican? He won the Republican nomination in 1860 before winning the Presidential election. His winning the Presidency is what caused the southern slave owning (democratic controlled) states to begin seceding from the Union, which in turn started the Civil War.
I’m really torn in the whole debate since I’m a southerner and a Republican.
I think the next one will start with the Republicans seceding from the USSA
(United Socialist States of America).

1st a democrat then a republican now a democrat again. Boy talk about loyalty. All because of polls showing that republicans are sick of him. Now you know why.

livefreegirl—”you can’t say that you think homosexuality is a sin-without being thrown in prison.” are you writing to us from a penitentiary cell? your hero, the Rev. Fred Phelps has made a career of spreading such hateful filth. perhaps he is the pastor who protests with you at american servicemen’s funerals that “God hates f*** dead.” you’re being quite dramatic. but spread the hate…that’s your freedom. it will probably help kill a gay american and then your prayers will come true. pathetic.

Liberals/Democrats who support this move have no clue about the negative impact it will have, as their party over-reaches precisely when things get worse and have no one else to blame. Their biggest problem is the failure to see alternatives and consequences. In the next year, they will get an ample amount of both, which will expose them for the frauds that they are. 2010 will not be a good election year for them, because they will carry the burden of reality that has brought down many Republicans the past few years.
The last election cycle was about “change”…will 2010 be about “alternatives” or some other form of change? Our fickle society is rather unpredictable during crisis situations, but patience is already running thin for those who wanted “change” and got more of the same. President Obama is indecisive and has engaged in trying to please everyone, but has upset the base of the Democratic Party for not immediately closing GITMO and demanding Bush Administration Officials get tried for “torture” program…while his opponents get to sit back and take shots at him for every little mistake he makes. It will take several more months, but the honeymoon will soon be over and the excuse of “blame Bush” will lose it’s relevance. At some point, Obama and the Democrats will have to accept responsibility and stop relying on past administrations as a crutch for their failures.
The Stimulus Plan has barely released funds, Banks who have received billions of dollars in bailout money are still not solvent or lending, the American Auto industry is still collecting billions in bailout money AND laying off hundreds of thousands of workers, and unemployment nationally is reaching double-digits…but President Obama repeats Senator McCain’s taboo comments from last September that ‘…the fundamentals of our economy are strong’ and we’re supposed to believe him?!
To blindly follow the Presidents line of thinking is pure stupidity. He can and must do better. Talking down the economy to get a massive spending bill passed and then trying to talk it up after signing the bill into law, doesn’t work for me…and it doesn’t work for our country. Taxing those who do the hiring and forcing them to raise the cost of goods and services to compensate, doesn’t help average Americans, either. This isn’t that hard to figure out, but Democrats/Liberals make it look like rocket science!
We’ll see whose celebrating after the mid-term elections…if anyone!

Which of the three faces of Obama does Spector support? (1) the socialist (2) The tool of corporate interests or (3) Bush III —— President Obama is following President Bush’s policies when it comes to bailing out the banks and deficit spending. Obama is also a tool of corporate interests. Just look at the elite corporate bigwigs he has appointed to his administration For example, Obama appointed, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of GE, to Obama’s economic advisory team . The cozy relationship between President Obama and Immelt includes a lot of “quid pro quo”as demonstrated in Obama’s stimulus package which included $11 billion for a “smart grid” technology to be built into our national electrical power grid system Estimates are that, ultimately, a “smart grid” for the entire country could cost, at the very least, a half trillion dollars. Some say $2 trillion dollars is the real number. So, who would benefit from all that government spending on a “smart grid” for this country? Maybe, the company that is the primary leader in such a technology. Just maybe, GE! No wonder NBC is so pro Obama as Immelt head up the NBC organization. A lot people on the right have accused Obama of being a socialist, (which is true) but Obama is also a tool of corporate interests and Bush III when it comes to deficit spending and bailing out the banks. The . bottom line is,, President Obama is on the wrong side of every side (from the progressives to the right wing) by being an out and out socialist, a tool of corporate interests and Bush III when it comes to deficit spending and bank bailouts.

Keep it up Rush, you’ll destroy the GOP right-wing nuts in no time!
Welcome Mr. Specter. Nice to have you on board.

i wonder if specter voted for obama?

Its no surprise to me.He is only for himself,like his in love with boss God.Do they care answer is NO. This SOB soululd have switched long time ago

The neocons still talking like the banking failure was due to poor people not paying their bank notes. Goes to show that they really don’t know what is going on. There are more people making 80k defaulting on loans then ther are that make 30k. Not to mention that many of these loans where not homes people where living in, but homes investors where buying to make a profit. Many of these buyers got interest only loans, and when the bubble burst they where stuck with a house that wasn’t worth what the signed up for. I am not sure what the stats are exactly, but I know Barnie Frank mentioned the actual statistic about the poor paying notes at a higher percentage then then middle class.
This was the republicans and bankers exploiting what Clinton did to try and assist the poor with housing. They exploited the law and put middle class people in the same category as poor and gave them way to much money to spend on houses with inflated prices.

Dave posted “Barney Frank (chairman of the house financial services committee), chris dodd, chuck schumer, maxine waters, harry reid, along with over enthusiastic community organizers, banded together to FORCE banks to throw out their lending standards.” Dave,Dave,Dave. I’ve already posted a reply to you on this. Our economic mess was due to other things.

Hey Arlen…don’t let the door hit ya where the Lord split ya ! We are finally seeing the house cleaning that the Republican Party desperately needs. I hope the rest of the RINO’s like Collins and Snow and yes even McCain will go with him. Maybe now Reagan conservatism will have room to flourish.

the repubs losing someone like specter is a huge red flag that the republican party has been hijacked by right wing extremists… there simply is no more room for anyone other than ditto heads, born agains, racists, facists, and gun nuts… isn’t it wonderful to finally isolate all the lunies who are soon to prove evolution a fact by splitting off into another species… or just go extinct

sandy
The liberal socialists have controlled the purse since 2006 but don’t try and get them to understand that.
As a great man once said… “it’s not that liberals are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so”
-Ronald Reagan

So, this is suppose to be a man of character? Not sure what character is being spoken of? Seems like all he’s interested in is getting re-elceted like most of the worthless “servants” we have these days. Sick of all of them! They represent themselves and not us. Wake up folks, toss them all out in 2010.

Poor Specter….he was getting further and further behind in the polls for the primary, so he knew the only chance in hel* he has of being re-elected was to change parties. If anyone thinks his reasons were anything other than the selfish desire to remain in office, think again. He is just another politician, and will swing with whichever tide is in power. He has no integrity.

As long as the GOP keeps kowtowing to the extremist haters like Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter, the party will keeping marching to destruction. Now we have whack-jobs like Newt Gingrich talking about running for President! Oh please let it be so. Talk about a shoe-in for a second Obama term!

Ernie,
Dave
“The democrats are the party of the 4 S’s….
Slavery
Secession
Segregation
Socialism”
Slavery: The Southern Democratic Party of the time was pro Slavery while President Lincoln and the GOP party fought against slavery.
Secession: The Southern Democratic Party supported secession while President Lincoln and the GOP fought against secession.
Segregation: Prominent Democrats fought against the civil rights act.
Socialism: President Obama is about to do an end run around the normal legislative process in order to orchestrate a fascist take over of 17% of the economy, the health care system.
In addition, President Obama has just
nationalized the car industry by giving the unions and the government majority ownership of GM and Chrysler. The Bond holders, who had a majority investment in GM and Chrysler, have been allowed only a fraction of what they invested, 10% of the stocks. If private industry had orchestrated such and out and out confiscation of bond holder shares they would be put in jail.
President Obama is also about to destroy the US energy industries including coal, oil and natural gas via cap and trade, which accounts for over 80% of our energy needs. President Obama plans to turn over our energy needs to his alternative fuel, GE and foreign oil buddies which will increase the cost of energy and result in millions of jobs being lost in the US. Need I say more?

Gun nuts, extremists, torturers, right-wing militias have no greater allies in the world than right-wing politicians.

this is nothing more than the GOP losing a liberal anyway. But this is really about Spector. He see’s the state that trended Dem and he is going to take advantage of it. its a selfish move for him to get re-elected. Riding the obama wave. Once America sees how bad the dem’s will destroy this country, he along with the rest of them will be out.

No Gary, you need not say any more. LOL

it’s almost sad… and when i say “almost”, i’m saying i’m not really sad… that what’s left (or should i say ‘right’) of the republicans is such a teeny tiny extremist fringe, that they are getting exactly what they want… a ‘pure’ party of basically hate filled idiots… but underneath their ‘don’t let the door hit you on the way out’ remarks, they are so devistated inside… what has happened to the republicans who ruined this country is beyond my wildest dreams of justice after i was called a traitor for being against a war we now know was drummed up and lied about… all we need now is to prosecute the bush/cheney administration, and i will finally be living in a country that has been truly ‘reborn’ by those who want to progress move us forward away from greed and towards sanity

chad – i’m from PA and we have been democratic state for years, specter only survived here because he wasn’t a right wing nut job… and now you will throw him out (too late, he left!) as if he never mattered, but he supported your king george bush way too much for my approval… all those republicans who’ve been voting for specter for years you are insulting which is typical of heartless republicans…but the thing is, you need to cry and grieve, along with the right wing extremists, because we have elections that have shown people very very happy with democrats, and our new black president especially! go obama, go dems, go america!

the party of machine guns, against gays and abortion, lost another member.
Oh yeah the party of “NO”, grinding
on the far right rail.

SamTyler1973
The liberals have controlled congress since 2006, which gave them the purse strings.
Pelosi and the rest of the inmates running the asylum have also enjoyed some of the worst approval ratings in the history of the congress.

MUST WATCH TV TONIGHT….FOX NEWS! LOL!!

lol, It will be the only time I will watch fox news!

Dave posted “The liberals have controlled congress since 2006…” They won control in the 2006 election. They didn’t come into power until 2007.
I really don’t give a darn about Pelosi, why bring it up?
I do care about your misconception about what caused our economic mess. Fannie and Freddie we only a small part of the problem. You are ignoring the big picture. Go to that link and read. Or, if you enjoy a laugh. check out the Daily Show when Steward interviewed Jim Cramer. Google it.

jhw539: Sorry, but the Cold War lasted from shortly after World War II until 26 December 1991. George H.W. Bush was President from 20 January 1989-20 January 1993. Just a quick history lesson for you!

The GOP is its own worst enemy. If they keep following the hate-mongers like Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter to the right, they will march right into oblivion. And don’t let the door hit ‘em on the way out.

sandy: you want to see hate? Tune in to Limbaugh tomorrow and Hannity tonight and watch them savage Specter.

Dave quotes Ronald Reagan as if anything he said was of any importance. Remember Dave, Reagan was goofy. Is that who you pattern your life after? LOL!!

those who now represent the republicans make no sense whatsoever… they controlled the goverment for 8 years, had every opportunity to ‘educate’ america to the good of their ways, but for some freak of nature, the country rejected them… period! how do they explain that? anyone who even dared question bush for the first 6 years was a traitor, yet something changed… bit time… what happened to all the intelligent people who voted bush in twice, along with all the republicans who won seats all over the map… all those intelligent people who supported bush and the rightward move of this country?… it makes no sense that the republicans don’t take responsibility for losing something they had so firmly in their grasp!… my god, they even have their own new station with the best ratings!… my point is that the have noone to blame but themselves… all those intelligent people who put bush/cheney into power realize they were duped… and america is NOT a right wing nation (despite the crookery of rove and the evil forces in the white house who tried to use their power to destroy the democratic party)… america is rejecting the republicans, and now, the republicans are rejecting the republicans, and all that is left is a very scared and bitter group of brainwashed white folks full of hate… i knew 8 years ago that george bush and cheney would nurture this element to scare american into submission and it worked… but only for so long… to bad it’s taken such a huge toll on our strength, but we will come back, there is hope even with the mess we face… the democratic party is embracing jsut about anyone but the scared little bullies… we need to disarm the bullies, but we also need to help them with their confusion… its too bad they have voices like rush and coulter and fox news to keep them scared and bitter, but eventually their tantrum will end and they will take a nice nap, and maybe wake up not so angry… the choice is theirs… meanwhile, onward america will go, with or without them

I just made my comments on my Facebook profile and I mentioned that one day Specter will switch to the Democratic Party after his support for Obama’s stimulus package early this year. Who knows maybe the other two Republicans that were on Specter’s side will make that switch. Mr. Specter, you made a wise decision in joining Obama’s cause to bring in the change that the American People are looking for.

sandy | Apr 28, 2009 4:36:11 PM
“the language i see here is definitely hateful.” yeah most of the hate is republican. your party is dying from this hate. have you listened to Limbaugh. probably not since you don’t like hateful speech.

I’m a registered Democrat who voted for Bush twice. At one time, I even thought about switching party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, but once it became apparent to me that the right-wing Christian wing of the party had almost total control of the party, I backed off. The Republican party now has no room for moderates. It’s an extreme narrow tent for Southern Christian white conservatives only. No blacks, Hispanics, Reagan republicans, independents, or swing voters are allowed. No divergency of opinion, no dissent. Sad, sad, sad.

When are the remaining members of the GOP going to realize that Rush, Sean, and Glenn could care less about the party or the country; they’re interested in ratings and in making millions. What’s good for their ratings ain’t good for putting and keeping the party in power; instead, it will continue to marginalize the GOP. So, while Rush, Sean, and Glenn are laughing all the way to the bank, the rest of the party will be confined to oblivion. WAKE UP GOP!

The republican party is going down in Flames. Bye Bye! LOL

Gary—reading chapter and verse from the Limbaugh teleprompter…still not scaring us. in fact each time these talking-points are repeated the funnier they are. at first Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Relly, et al really just irritated people, now they are just funny in a pathetic way.

So what! He is only after his own self glory. He knows he would not get the Rep. nomination. Instead of retiring and fading into history at 79 no his ego is so large. It is going to be funny when the Dem. throw him under the bus and nominate their own. He was a liberal among the Rep. not a moderate. I wish the blue dogs would do the same and switch so we will have two parities one that thinks the govt is the problem and one that thinks only govt can solve and the people are the problem.

Democrats ignore history—just like the radical right…typical Limaughian talking-points. the republican party is the party of racism, xenophobia, homophobia and just about everything that is toxic in american culture. seriously if you seriously believed in civil rights would you join the republican party? if you hated african-americans would you ever join the democratic party?

American patriot
Liberal patriotism is an oxymoron.
You just elected a man who sat in a church for 20 years that blamed the creation of AIDS on America and called this great country the worst terrorist nation in the world. He also claimed we deserved 9/11. Rev racist inspired BO so much that he wrote a book titled after one of rev racist’s speeches “audacity of hope”.
BO’s wife has also claimed she has never been proud of America. What great patriots the Obamas are!
BO also kicked off his political career in an unrepentent terrorists’ house! What a true American patriot that BO is!

The problem I see here is that Democrats just don’t want to let go of their anger and enjoy their victories. Senator Specter has joined their party, and that is a reason for both parties to celebrate. Why reference Limbaugh, Hannity and other Conservative commentators? Do some people here need to trash these folks before feeling reassured as Democrats?

I’m a lifelong Pennsylvania Republican and will be voting for the Democratic Sen Arlen Specter. The days of the moderate John Heinz are gone in PA, npw we’re stuck with rightwing crazies who are ruining my party. True Republicans need to boot our spokesperson(I don’t listen to his garbage) Limbaugh. He and others like Keith Oberhman are purely for the idiots who are too stupid to make up their own minds.

dave – the majority of congress are millionaires, democrats and repubs alike… if you are trying to twist the fact that the rich are for the republicans and the middle class and poor are for the dems, you won’t get far with me… stick to facts, lest you become isolated politically… oops, too late!

Ladnarc—you may be concerned about the president’s re-election but he is working now not campaigning like the republican party is.

He said he is a loyal Dems?
Since when? I thought he just switched to The Dems just today.
He switched to Dems because he expects to be re elected.

Once again history shows us the radical religionists can not sustain their control over the people. They have tugged republicans so far to their radical right side that the republican party is beginning to rip off in pieces.
The radical left are finally able to return toward the center now that the center of gravity is returning to normal.

Dave posted about Rev.Wright “….that blamed the creation of AIDS on America….” Sometimes one needs to see the other persons point of view. Why would anyone in their right mind believe something like this? Maybe because our government DID do something like this to the African American community. Google “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment”.
Dave also posted “He also claimed we deserved 9/11. ” Again, that isn’t what he said. He said “…the U.S. had brought on the [9-11 terrorist] attacks with its own terrorism.” This is far closer to the truth than that NONSENSE the GOP was putting out about “they attacked us because they hate our freedom” . The 9/11 commission’s report also backs up Rev. Wright’s claim.
I have gone and watch a few of Rev. Wright’s sermons. I don’t agree with everything he says, but at the same time I didn’t grow up in America as an African American.

Welcome to good, old (non existent any more) USSR. Take from the rich give to the poor! Welfare state, section 8 and food stamps for everyone! No initiative, no hard work is encoraged, it’s OK state will take care of you! Been there, done that! Wait and see how you will sing when your taxes will go to 60% like in Sweden and Finland!

You know, this is a great year for PA. I grew up there, love it, live in Texas, hate it. I will definately head back east when my child is grown. The Steeler’s win the Super Bowl, YAY!!!! Mr Rooney, Owner of the Steeler’s and a lifelong Republican, supported President Obama and now Arlen Specter switches parties. Awwwwwwwwwww, so proud of my state!!!!

If he wants to run as a Democrat for the next election – fine. But he was elected as a Republican and should stay that until the next election.

Mike…if you care about african-american people or gay texans being beaten up let me tell you something you are in the wrong party. you refer to violence against gays yet your party stood in the way of hate crime legislation protecting homosexuals and african-americans. the racists and homophobes in the state of texas are not democrats. so why don”t you do some speed-reading and find your way to the 21st century.

Cn you say “sixty”? Sure, I knew you could. Bye Bye republican party. With people like Liberger, Palin, Hannity the voice of the GOP, your done. LOL

Dave, lord, still dragging up ‘Nam? Not that it matters but no, I wasn’t protesting. But riddle me this: ever heard of Iran? Yeah, that one. One of the axes of evil that is now on the path to nukes? The one that hates us? Saddam was the world’s Iran-check in the middle east. Achmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs thank Allah at their 5am prayer every morning for George Bush and all the moron strategists that blundered us into Iraq. We took out Iran’s main enemy in the region. And tied our hands at the same time because they knew we didn’t have the military, political, or financial capital to back up any talk w/ any additional action.

Butterfly, you certainly are taking some precious memories with you. Yes, I was so happy that Dallas (where I live), Austin, San Antonio, Houston and El Paso (my birthplace) all went blue! My brother went to Texas A&M and he is the biggest Steelers fan (since he was a three-year-old). I have always respected Senator Specter and truly didn’t know he was a republican. I always thought he wanted what was best for the nation and never even thought about his party affiliation, just that he was a decent politician ( a rare thing) and great amercian. Well we’re glad you’ll be here a little bit longer. Hopefully we will have a democrat governor before you leave.

This is not a suprise as the GOP has allowed itself to be overrun by right-wing Southerners. I’m from Tennessee, and it’s amazing (and sad) to see the change that has occured down here over the last 10-15 years. At one time, we in the South were looking towards the idea of a “New South”. It seemed like in the late 70′s through the early to mid-90′s that we in the South were really trying to scrap the Confederacy-era mentality and become as progressive as anywhere else in America, but that came to an abrupt end when the GOP increased their divisive rhetoric down here. All of the sudden the “New South” ideas went away and were replaced with a resergence of a solid white South that seems determined to turn back any progress made in the last 50 years. “Bubba” has become king again in the South. It hard to find a radio station in the morning that doesn’t have their own Bubba or Jethro proudly spewing their right-wing stupidity over the airwaves (Always with he same exagerated drawl).
I’m glad to see that the GOP success in the South by playing on old racical and bogoted feelings has become their own undoing in the rest of the USA.

Dave posted “You know, the kind of chemical weapons that saddam murdered 700,000 kurds with? ” Yes Dave, we knew he had them. We still have the receipts.
Funny, why didn’t we do anything about this? And where did Saddam get that gas?
One more thing Dave, our country is not better off today with Saddam gone. Invading Iraq was a stupid thing to do. I was all for going into Afghanistan. But we should have stayed there and finished the job instead of splitting our forces to “get Saddam”.

WOW!!! Democrates call this a win????? LMAO

Maybe the next one will be Charlie Crist of Florida.

This man was a cancer to the Republicans anyway. He just didn’t want to lose his seat that’s all. He just wants to stay in power. What else can he do but be a taxpayer parasite?

mike says “liberal democrats for slavery”
another completely asinine comment… trying to bash the 60+% of the country who support obama using words like ‘liberal’ and ‘socialism’ don’t work any more, chicken little… face it, using your criteria, the ‘liberals’ you like to bash represent most of the country!

Dave posted “But nearly every democratic politician voted for it and it’s done. ”
Once again Dave, you are incorrect. In the House, 81 Democrats voted YEA, 126 voted NAY. 215 Republicans voted YEA, only 6 voted NAY.
In the Senate, 29 Democrats voted YEA, 21 voted NAY. 48 Republicans voted YEA, only 1 voted NAY. It seems like nearly every Republican voted for it!

Dave, I don’t make political decisions based on what happened 35 years ago. Specter’s decision today is a reflection of what millions of moderate Republicans (including myself) have been feeling for the past 4-5 years. And that is as follows: unless you kneel to whatever the party line is at the time, you can screw off. Chuck Hagel was an incredible Senator with an impeccable conservative voting record and am amazing biography (Vietnam Vet, Incredibly successful Entrepreneur, etc, etc). He would have been an amazing Presidential candidate. BUT, because he DARED to question the idiocy in Iraq, the party said, he’s a traitor. The party (such as is left) better wake up. It’s fine to yell and scream but some adults had better take power. Kissing Rush and Sean’s boots is great for Rush & Sean but it ain’t no governing strategy.

Wooohoooo! My Senator showed he has guts and is not going to be affiliated with the Party of NO. Here is a perfect example of putting country before party.

Typical of a career politician, one of a number of professionals known as “moral prostitutes” whose only convictions are those of the highest bidder. He wasn’t going to keep his seat as a member of the GOP so he switches to the Democratic party to serve his own interests. Just why he thinks this will save him is beyond me for a couple reasons. First, if his actions were always in the best interest of his constituents then changing his party means nothing and if they were changing his party accomplishes nothing. Second, there must be long-term Democrats that were planning to run against him so why should he believe that he’ll win the nomination just because he’s the current incumbent? I pity this guy because if – I mean, when – the economy continues to tank in 2010 who is going to vote for him either as the candidate of a failed policy party or as a double party-hopping Republican?

earthnotflat
Why would Bush (a very decent man) go to war when he was enjoying 90% approval #’s after 9/11, just to go to war?
He already had the presidency and his family were billionaires. Could it be that the intelligence available to him at the time warranted it….gasp! Oh no, that would mean all those drug-enduced anti-war rallies you went to were a waste of time!
The truth is that slick willie said NUMEROUS times that saddam had WMD’s too, and after saddam REFUSED to listen to the united nations’ weapons inspectors (a worthless group of people by the way) Bush decided to do something about it.
The world is better off with saddam the dirtball gone and America’s presence in Iraq. We have to beat back the barbaric islamic mindset because there is no “truce” with the jihadists, as liberals somehow believe there is.

dave – your quotes of rev wright are incorrect… have you listened to the actual speaches of rev wright?… i’m a middle aged white male business owner and have no problem with his views when they are put into context… again, your quotes of him are not accurate!

but the fact is the repubs have to take responsibility for what they’ve allowed to happen to their party! Posted by: earth_not_flat
especially when it comes to the heinous rantings of people like Lumbaugh/Hannity/Beck. they’re speaking in the name of the conservatives/republicans and spewing hatred, bigotry, racism and, oh yeah, lies. and you guys not only let them do it, but you believe what they’re saying. you’re losing your moderates because they’re embarrassed and humiliated to be associated with the republicans.

Dave posted “The last democratic presidential canidate, john kerry (the one who got lower grades at Yale then Bush) voted for it. John Edwards voted for it, hillary clinton voted for it, joe biden voted for it, al gore voted for it…….
A couple of things Dave.
1) Bush was a flat-line C student, never doing better. Kerry started out very badly (4 D’s out of 10 subjects his first year) but then pulled his grades up. His final year he had a B- average.
2) I really don’t care which Democrats voted for it. If the Republicans in charge would have followed the constitution and declared war, I doubt if any Democrats would have voted for it.
3) No matter what, Bush had the final say so. He made the final decision. He was the great Decider.
Now, did you go to those links I posted? Have you read about the real cause of our economic meltdown yet?

Oh, I forgot, liberals do not want any opposition…
——-
No the country wants reasonable opposition and constructive suggestion, not teleprompters (welcome technology, goodbye paper notes), not global warming criticism (when 9 of 10 scientists all over the world affirm it), not tea bag protests over taxes (when not a single tax has increased and actually taxes just got cut), and not endless ranting and extreme hateful rhetoric including sniping at a young 23 years old whose father just contested for the CIF.
Oh. No more Rush, Beck and Hannity. Both are a cancer to the republican party and the US. Greta and OReilly still make some sense without as much playing pepole against each other and we can learn something from them every now and then.

Dave posted ”
“America created the AIDS virus to kill black people”
“American is the worst terrorist nation in the world”
“America deserved 9/11″
“America is run by greedy rich white folk”
”
Dave, here you go again. I’ve already rebutted your posts about this.Rev. Wright did NOT say we deserved 9/11. This is just a lie Dave. Is your position so weak that you have to resort to LIES? The 9/11 Commission’s report says that Rev. Wright is closer to the truth than Bush and his “they attack us because they hate our freedom” B.S.
As for the AIDs virus, did you look up the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment yet? Rev. Wright has good cause to distrust our government. You should be ashamed at what we did to African Americans. Basically, they used African Americans as guinea pigs, not only withholding treatment for African Americans with syphilis, they withheld diagnoses from them. That’s right, they didn’t tell them they had syphilis. Those men went home and infected their wives and children. No wonder Rev. Wright doesn’t trust the U.S.
As far as saying our country is run by a bunch of greedy white folks, it was like this when I was growing up too. How many African American’s Republicans do we have in Congress?

Sassy, I will ask you the same question that I asked flatlander, (oops my bad),which he has refused to answer, because he doesnt have an answer.. Exactly how should the GOP differntiate itself from the DEMS?

RonGross asks “what have I done to find bin Laden?”
answer: i voted for obama, who is committed to finding him, which i bet my bottom dollar he will… but of course bush/cheney apologists will find some reason to take credit far even after bush called binladen “unimportant”… also, just the fact of asking me this question is ignorant and implies that unless i am out hunting in the middle east, that i have no right to criticize the bush/cheney administration whose job it was to find them… get a life dude, you cant argue worth crap

Hey earth not flat and sassy, how y’all doing? Still waiting here for an answer that obviously will not be forthcoming. As I retire to a night of unencumbered sleep, I will leave you both with this little nugget of eternal truth from Lord Acton. “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

Gary | Apr 28, 2009 12:45:14 PM – I agree with most of that, but I think it would be fair to say that the GOP, with it’s unswerving anti-Obama hatred, has made the point rather mute. They now say, every decision that Obama makes, that he’s threatening “bipartisanship”. What bipartisanship? The first time he tried to work with them, they basically spit in his face and patted their-selves on the back for it. They decided from the beginning to try to score political points instead of working to fix this country. In their zeal to score points against Obama, they have made themselves irrelevant. They gave Obama two choices, #1 accomplish nothing except what we want – or #2 accomplish everything you can without us. I expect childishness and petty bickering from our government, but they’re taking it to new levels.

I don’t believe this was an easy decision for Sen. Specter.I can only hope that the decision was made on principles rather than pragmatism.I haven’t always agreed with Sen. Specter but I do believe he is aware of the difference of right and wrong as opposed to right and left.I am a moderate Democrat who has no problem voting for a common sense republican, which six years ago I believed Norm Colman was.Norm caved immediately to the unreasonable right. Both parties, and U.S.,can only become stronger with dissenting views and the courage and wisdom to express them respectfully.

So? The man’s been an embarrassment to the Senate ever since he had his brain surgery anyway. Let the Dems have him. As an ambivalent politician with no core beliefs, he’ll feel right at home in the Democrat Party.

The reason Arlen Spector left the Republican party is the reason he gave, they have moved so far to the right that they are not the party they were when Spector was elected as a senator in 1980. This, coupled with the fact that today’s mainstream republicans have done nothing but criticize Spector for the way he votes and his more moderate viewpoints. They did not respect Arlen Spector, who was one of the few republicans who is not a conservative crazy. If the republicans keep going the radical right wing route they are going now, maybe they will lose John McCain, and the two senators from Maine as well. While this is not likely, it is possible given the extreme hard right views the republicans of today take.

So he was a Republican but now thinks he should ride the democratic wave. This should be interesting.

Thank god he is gone. Hopefully McCain and his daughter are right behind him.
Now we can get an actual republican in there instead of a lib pretending to be a republican.

What I’m wondering is what behind the scenes deal was worked out with his intended democratic opponent for the senate seat in 2010. It he wasn’t in on it, he’s not a very happy camper right now.

To those saying there should be a special election now that Specter has switched parties: does it really matter if he changes the letter behind his name and votes with the democrats or if he keeps the R and votes with the democrats?
To those pegging re-election as he sole motivation: he would win the general, but not the primary of an increasingly extremist party, and maybe he just feels that he has another term of service in him and isn’t willing to forgo his opportunity to serve to a radical.
To those calling for McCain, Snow and other RINOs to leave: do you really think that decreasing your representation is going to increase your influence?
TO those who claim that the Dems have to do this or that, or they now own every problem handed to them: the democratic tent is a bit tent and allows for dissent. There may be 60 Ds but that doesn’t necessarily mean 60 votes. It is one of the party’s greatest strengths as well as one of it’s greatest weakness.
To everyone: go out and give a republican a hug today, they need them.

“ff Specter ran as a Democrat, “he’d be unopposed” in the primary and “he’d win 60-65 percent of the vote in the general election.” This is it in a nutshell!

This guy is a traitor. He should have resigned his senetor position first and joined democrats. He has no respect for the people whom voted for him. There should be law of defection. He is a liar and thief. I am indeed ashamed that democrats accepted him. THis is no way different from old washington politics. Same on you Mr. Spector, you are an idiot to core and a real opportunist.

Career politician! He knew he couldn’t win from the side he is accountable to (those that elected him as a REPULICAN) and so he switches parties. Aren’t we tired of LIFE LONG Politicians?? I sure as hell am!