Mr. Arlen Specter, We Salute You

In case you live under a rock, you should know that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has decided to change parties. He has defected from the Republican party, and become a full-fledged donkey. Specter has always been considered a moderate Republican, and he stated that he felt the party was leaning too far to the right for his tastes. More likely, however, is that he got into some hot water with his party by being one of the only three Republicans to vote for President Obama's stimulus bill, and he's switching parties to increase the likelihood of him keeping his job in 2010.

Now, as the President noted, Mr. Specter's is a pretty independent guy and his vote definitely can not be taken for granted; the guy used to be a Republican for crissake. This was made immediately clear as Specter was one of two Democrats who joined the entire Republican party in voting against Obama's latest budget proposal. One thing is certain, however: as a Democrat, Specter will have more freedom to cooperate with the President on issues that Republicans are particularly stubborn about, like health care and immigration. And as soon as the courts force Norm Coleman to pull his head out of his ass , the Senate will be joined by another Democrat, Al Franken, giving them 60 Democrats and a filibuster-proof majority.

This is definitely a victory for all that is good in America. A chance at actually improving health care, protecting the environment, solving the energy problem, and reforming immigration. What the fuck do Republicans have against those things, anyway?


Now it's kind of lame that we have to sort of gangster our way into actually making progress in this country, but when I think about how much the Bush administration gangstered the country during those dreadful eight years, I don't feel so bad.