When I read his essay in this issue of the New York Review of Books, I thought Arlen Specter was just positioning himself with the Liberals as he usually does and would then travel to Scranton to support the NRA, as he usually does. He has been a turncoat for so many years that this move to become a Democrat suits him well.
We here in Pennsylvania have been famously called a State with Philadelphia in the East, Pittsburgh in the West and Mississippi in the center. This is a fair analogy for a State (officially, a Commonwealth) that has the largest NRA membership in the United States. We like our guns, as our Governor, who has failed to ban assault weapons for twenty years, has learned. One must give Ed Rendell credit for opposing the NRA in a State like this.
But Darlin' Arlen will survive, which is his principal purpose, and he will deprive the country of the services of Joe Torcella, who would have become the next Senator from Pennsylvania. Torcella, who has headed the National Constitution Center and worked as an aide to Mayor Rendell, would have put a real liberal in the Senate, not a right-wing Democrat like the incumbent Bob Casey (Who opposes gun control and abortion) or a turn-coat like darlin' Arlen, who will win as a Democrat.
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Specter's decision was likely two parts self-interest (as with Joe Lieberman) and one part annoyance with the GOP's refusal to support him over Toomey, and the party's relentless rightward march.
ReplyDeletePat "Sockit" Toomey's Club for Growth shot itself in the foot several times by defeating insufficiently extremist Republicans in the primary, only to have egg on their faces on losing the general election.
It's not a foregone conclusion that Specter will win the primary, and I would support any progressive challenger who will do at least as well as Specter against Toomey in the general. But the operative phrase is "at least as well".