The NRSC has started trying to hook up with Democratic primary voters in Pennsylvania to go after Senator Arlen Specter for his switch to the Democratic party because….brace yourself…George Bush supported Specter. So should the subtext for ALL Democrats now from the NRSC be that if ANY Republican was endorsed or even tolerated by Bush, Democrats should automatically vote against them? And this also...

The House has voted to approve a new hate crimes law named after Matthew Shepard. The vote was 249-175.  The bill has been introduced in the Senate but a vote is not yet scheduled. President Obama has indicated he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk. The law would broaden current laws to include attacks based on a victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity or mental or physical disability. Current...

A mind blowing post from a conservative perspective on how the GOP should deal with Election 2010. Perhaps the most amazing quote comes from Senator DeMint who says: “I would rather have 30 Republicans in the Senate who really believe in principles of limited government, free markets, free people, than to have 60 that don’t have a set of beliefs.” The Republicans would do well by nominating someone like...

Black Americans are not a legitimate demographic in Byron York’s view:

Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The news today will be about Barack Obama’s whirlwind energy steering the Ship of State for the first 100 days, but below the water line, the crew is still seriously undermanned. The Cabinet was finally filled yesterday as the President swore in Kathleen Sebelius amid a swine flu scare and an impending Congressional battle over health care reform but, in true Washington tradition, the New York Times reports,...

I’ll cut to the chase. My grade for President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office is B+. Now, I’m writing this off the top of my head without referring to notes because this type of grading is always subjective. The kind of images embedded in our minds. The charisma factor: A+ This is a no brainer. Obama gets a break here. All one does is compare Obama with the last eight years of George...

While conservative talkers and RNC Chairman Michael Steele are essentially saying “good riddance” to Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter — and it could be argued continuing to send out a message that moderates, independents and non-talk show political culture Republicans are not welcome in the modern, incredibly shrinking Republican party — President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe...

Maine Senator Olympia Snowe is among the last moderate Republican officeholders remaining. In the New York Times she laments the departure of her friend and fellow moderate Arlen Specter for the Democratic Party, claiming that her party has failed to appreciate the need for moderates as well as conservatives in order to win. Then she pulls out the big guns, quoting Ronald Reagan: “We should emphasize the things...

I know how politics works. I know that, from the perspective of Democrats in Washington, the just-announced defection of Senator Arlen Specter to their party is a coup. In practical terms I can see why Democratic officials in Pennsylvania are also queuing up to welcome the man to their fold and promising to back him in next year’s primary and senatorial election. But… I live in Pennsylvania. I’m...

I tried to stay away from the Arlen Specter party-switching story but since I have written posts on him in the past (and his dissaffection with the conservative wing of the Republican Party), I have to put my two cents into the void and see if it turns up anything interesting. Most pundits, and bloggers, are shocked that Specter made the move. I am shocked that he did not make it before yesterday. Arlen Specter...

John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Over the last few decades, an experiment has been taking place within the Republican Party. It has been conducted not by party leaders as much as by the rank and file or so-called base. It has been an experiment as to whether a politically-pure party can be a viable party. To my knowledge this has never been done before. Over the years, groups such as Club for Growth have sought out those who were considered...

Note: The following was written by Travis Johnson, the head of Progressive Republicans. President Obama was inaugurated in January, but the Obama Era officially began today. Don’t believe me? wait til you see what he does with the filibuster-proof majority we gave him by driving Senator Specter from the Party. I’m appalled. Not at Senator Specter. At the Republican Party. You, me, all of us. Everyone...

My colleagues here at The Moderate Voice – many of them moderate Republicans of the Arlen Specter ilk – have eloquently explained the larger significance of Specter’s defection from the Republican Party. I want to focus on the Pat Toomey angle. More to the point: why does the Club for Growth consistently “knee-cap” its own moderates in the GOP, knowing full well that the primary...

In reporting the decision of Senator Specter to the Democratic party most of the articles touch on the fact that he has been a member of the Senate for 29 years. In reflecting on his remarks about the increasingly narrow base of the Republican party it might be worth our time to take a look back at the origins of his career. He was first elected to the US Senate in 1980, the year of the Ronald Reagan landslide....

Being a political junkie I had to watch all of the talking heads commenting on the shift of Arlen Specter to the Democratic party. As is often the case, they each tended to get some of it right and some of it wrong On the left, while I do not always agree with Rachel Maddow on the issues she is often quite entertaining in her analysis of the issues of the day. However this evening she seems to me to have taken...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

What a great day for news. Here’s my favorites: (1) Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching political parties as he announced he is running for re-election in the 2010 Democratic primary. Translation: He thinks he would lose to Republican Pat Toomey in the GOP primary who damned near beat him last time out. “I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans,”...

It sure sounds he thought over this well-reasoned (as usual) March 9th column by the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Dick Polman about why the Pennsylvania Senator should switch parties and jump from the GOP to the Democratic party. EARLIER TMV POSTS ON THIS TOPIC: Cagle Cartoons: Specter Flu Jazz Shaw: Party Purification By Fire Joe Gandelman: Specter Switches To Democratic Party: Potential Democratic Filibuster-Proof...

Mike Lane, Cagle Cartoons This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Our alert staff already tipped you off to the breaking Arlen Specter story today, (see Holly and Patrick for details) but I have a few more brief thoughts to add. Pennsylvania is a perfect microcosm of what I’ve seen going on in my former party for some time now. The land of Rocky is a swing state which has been swinging in precisely the wrong direction for the GOP for several cycles now. To see how this...

Faced with a stiff challenge from conservatives and part of the dying breed of moderate Republicans, Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has announced that he’s leaving the GOP and will become a Democrat — creating a new situation in his up-til-now troubled re-election bid, further thinning the ranks of once powerful moderate Republicans and potentially giving the Democrats a 60 vote filibuster-proof...

Memo: I originally posted this last week but given the events of this morning, with Senator Specter switching parties I thought it worth bumping up. Right wingers in the party have long condemned/attacked/etc Senator Specter for being a RINO and said they would love to dump him. Well today they got what they want which means the Democrats are all but certain to get 60 seats this year. Senator Specter may not...

In these days of financial crisis when coalition building and capturing independent voters seems to be the key to electoral victories more than ever, the Republican party now has a problem: it is steadily shrinking and growing more conservative. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza points out that the GOP now suffers a serious shrinkage problem: The new Washington Post/ABC news poll has all sorts of intriguing...