On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:31:20 -0500, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

wrote:
A perfect example of the partisan foothold in the US. The main reason he's
switching because he if he doesn't, he's at risk. IOW, if the same guy, who'll
vote the same way (more or less), runs as GOP, Obama, etc. won't support him,
but if he calls himself a Dem, they will. Same decent guy, same principles,
different label. ...

It's not so much that Obama, et al. will support him it's
that what's left of the Pennsylvania Republicans won't support
him. Moderate Republicans turned Dem by the hundreds of thousands
and the only folks left in the Pennsylvania GOP are the whackjobs.
Specter can't win the GOP primary and because of Pennsylvania's
"sore loser" law he can't run as an independent if he loses so he
only has two choices; become an independent before the primaries
or become a Democrat. Pennsylvania, like most states, makes it
onerous and expensive for third party and independent candidates
to get on the ballot so he's now a Democrat.

And speaking of non-events, I took a **** this morning when I woke up....

I don't know about this being a non-event. The threat of a filibuster
has always been more important than the actual filibuster. When
Franken is seated there will be one less arrow in the GOP's political
quiver.

And if history is any teacher, 2010 and 2012 will see a pretty heavy swing to
the GOP, for both anti-"party-in-power" reasons and some pro-GOP reasons. And
the really scary thing about it is that idiots like Limpdick seem to be steering
the ship. If Jindal and those like him will stay true to their (real)
principles and take over, it would be a good thing.

TC,
R