Breaking News from WaPo:

Chris Cillizza, Washington Post, 28 April 2009

An interesting bit, although not surprising to Pennsylvanians prolly as the Pubes have been pretty much changed to the party of the crazy conservatives here.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/specter-to-switch-parties.html?hpid=topnews

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.

Specter's decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator from Minnesota. (Former senator Norm Coleman is appealing Franken's victory in the state Supreme Court.)

I just heard an interview with him yesterday or maybe the day before on NPR and they were asking if he was going to run as an independent next time, since he would not be able to win his seat as a Republican. I guess that answers that question.
Myles

I'm not sure about this.  I know that he is facing a real uphill fight within the party.  On the other hand, do we really want a turncoat?  He better start proving his worth but quick.

P.S. Never could stand the guy.

Quote from: tekla on April 28, 2009, 12:18:00 PM
I'm not sure about this.  I know that he is facing a real uphill fight within the party.  On the other hand, do we really want a turncoat?  He better start proving his worth but quick.

P.S. Never could stand the guy.

He's definitely not usually been a "fair" fighter. But, you have to think the switch at least shows he's dedicated.

Even if just to upping his chances of holding his Senate seat another 6 years!


Nichole

Politics makes strange bedfellows as they say.  But if the good people (and bad ones too) of the Keystone State want to elect a Democratic Senator, shouldn't they be able to buy - oops, elect - a real democrat?

No problem with that notion, tekla. But thus far we have Ed Rendell as governor and Bob Casey (D) as U.S. Senator besides Specter. I'm not sure that you can roll all three together and get even one major official I'd consider a Democrat!

Huge swaths of the state are known as "Pennsyltucky" and not for nothing are they known that way. The far north, pretty much east to west with a couple of exceptions around Scranton and Erie, are pretty much like Alabama or Arkansas.


Nichole

Yeah, I just wrote about the same deal in Cali on another post.  Contrary to popular images, its not all LA and SF and lots of it is very rural, and very conservative.

I suspect there are a lot of states like that. Fortunately in PA the Philly and Pitt burbs appear to be becoming more liberal and will make it marginally easier to offset the great central desert.

N~

Wasn't he the "deciding" vote that killed, for now , "card check?"

Before he ran for Gov. of CA Ronald Reagan famously said, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me."

I just might  switch my voter reg. to Libertarian in the near future. Me thinks the exodus from the GOP has begun.

Oh the exodus has begun, the poll today had like 20% of voters IDing as 'Pubs.  But, that does not mean we should take them.  Let the GOP become - as it has, a regional rump party - and let these people, who like AS would turn out to be DINOs, form a new losing party.

Can anyone explain this to a non-USA person. It seems to big news but why?

Be careful I'm thick, good looking and fragile 

Cindy J

Quote from: CindyJames on April 29, 2009, 05:49:51 AM
Can anyone explain this to a non-USA person. It seems to big news but why?

Be careful I'm thick, good looking and fragile 

Cindy J

60 is the magic number to override the right's opposition. 60 votes out of 100 gives the Democratic party full control.

What she said.

Its also important in that the Republican party has become almost nill in the Northeast, the most populated part of the country.

Cindy, in the US Senate, there is no time limit on how long Senators are allowed to speak when addressing the floor (ie speaking in front of the other Senators). A bill cannot be voted on until debate has finished and every Senator who wishes can have their say on the floor. If a Senator doesn't like a bill that will probably get enough votes to pass, he can delay a vote by taking the floor and not stop speaking. This is a filibuster.

However, 60 Senators (out of 100 total) can end all debate by voting for cloture. Since the Democrats control the Presidency and both houses of Congress, the only avenue the Republicans have to prevent Democratic bills from becoming laws is the filibuster.

With Spector becoming a Democrats, the party now has 60 votes in the Senate and could shut the Republicans out of debate and pass bills much easier.

In reality, the 60 vote threshold doesn't mean much since Senators can vote freely regardless of what their parties position is.

It does mean that the Republican party is becoming smaller and weaker. 200,000 Pennsylvanian voters left the Republican party in 2008. Spector saw the writing on the wall there.

Thanks for the clarification potatoes or spud for short

I didn't realise that your senators could vote against party lines. It would be a kiss of death in Australia if a senator went against the party line. They usually have to leave the party and run as an independent, without the financial support of the party machine. However the senate in Australia is really a rubber stamp for the house of representatives who have the real power, but again the party line rules and it is the few independent M.P.s that can sway bills

Thanks Again
Cindy

Quote from: Nichole on April 28, 2009, 12:40:09 PM
Huge swaths of the state are known as "Pennsyltucky" and not for nothing are they known that way. The far north, pretty much east to west with a couple of exceptions around Scranton and Erie, are pretty much like Alabama or Arkansas.

Just had to comment on this.  I can't speak for Erie, but I grew-up in the general Scranton region.  I also spent several weeks most summers of my youth in southern Georgia and Alabama.  I'm inclined to call it more similar than different, definitely being part of the third phrase in the old saying, "Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other, Alabama in between."

"I come from Scranton, Pennsylvania and that's as hardscrabble a place as you're gonna find. I'll show you around some time and you'll see. It's a hellhole. An absolute jerkwater of a town. You couldn't stand to spend a weekend there. It is just an awful, awful sad place filled with sad desperate people with no ambition. Nobody, and I mean nobody, but me has ever come out of that place. It's a genetic cesspool. So don't be telling me that I'm part of the Washington elite because I come from the absolute worst place on Earth: Scranton, Pennsylvania.

SNL's parody of Biden in the debates.

And then, when we die, we go to Pittsburgh - old Calvin And Hobbes strip.

I mostly described it as "Take Billy Joel's 'Allentown' and make it about anthracite."

It's a lot like Cali in that way.  We had a recent thread where people seemed to get upset when Beth-chilla, Beni, and myself tried to tell someone that Cali is not all LA, swimming pools and movie stars, or SF, gays, computers and liberals - but huge parts of it are not just like Arkansas and Oklahoma - they are still pretty much still related to the "Arkies" and "Okies" who came out here in the 30s, a la Grapes of Wrath.  Pennsylvania is pretty big, and with that kind of space come huge differences. 

Quote from: tekla on May 25, 2009, 12:53:17 AM
Pennsylvania is pretty big, and with that kind of space come huge differences. 

Yep, it is. But Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi and I'm darned if I can figure out why everyone there is just alike!