I Heard it Downtown

So I meant to write this yesterday, but I was pretty looped up on drugs. Not hallucinogenics or anything, just plain ol’ off the counter cold meds. I’ve been battling a mild cold ( or, as a co-worker assumed, Swine Flu. Look. Not every latin guy who sneezes is carrying the swine flu), and I thought I could go save a few bucks by getting the Kroger brand cold meds instead of the label. Turns out, Kroger Cold Medicine is a concoction of tryptophan and elephant tranquilizers. I was NOT qualified to operate heavy machinery. Hell, I wasn’t qualified to operate a stapler (This is why I need an intern at work).

I took a quick break from work to scan some headlines, in a futile attempt to remain conscious. Thats when I stumbled upon the big political bombshell…Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania announced he was leaving the Republican Party, and switching to the Democrats, giving the D’s a filibuster-proof 60 seat majority. Or at least, they will once Norm Coleman runs out of continues and gives up his legal challenge.

So I tried to do some serious, Hunter S.Thompson style gonzo journalism, and type something up while loopy on whatever Kroger moonshine I had ingested. No luck. No scathing insights arrived in my head. I just wanted to sleep. No, I wanted to HIBERNATE. When the going gets weird, the weird go pro I guess….and I should leave that stuff to the pros.

So maybe sobriety will deliver some insight.

First, one thing needs to be made clear before we can dig deep into the analysis. Arlen Specter left the Republican party because he was about to get clownstomped by Pat Toomey in the Republican primary…not because of any high minded idealism. Polling showed Specter down 20% to Toomey, but in a general, Specter wins by double digits. If that wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Biden et all have been working on this guy for years, and Specter even said a few months ago he wasn’t interested in switching parties.

Now, is that a bad thing? We might look at Specter and call him a cold, calculating, spineless Politician, and maybe thats true….but clearly the people of Pennsylvania see something in him, because they have reelected him so many times, and given the opportunity, will prob do so again. Many Republicans feel betrayed by the switch (and I guess I can understand why. I would have been a little upset when Ben Nighthorse Cambell switched to the Republicans…or I would have been, if I wasn’t 6)…does Specter have an obligation to them, or just his constituents, the people of the Keystone state? While I think its kind of a jerk move to announce this just a few weeks after the RNC says they’ll support him over Toomey, I think its hard to argue that Specter doesn’t have the right to do this.

I don’t know too much about Pennsylvania. Off the top of my head, here is a brief list I came up with:
1) No matter where you are driving, you will be stuck in Pennsylvania for about 4 hours.
2) Penn State’s football coach once pooped his pants on the sidelines
3) The state’s demographics are rapidly changing. Over 200,000 voters switched their registration to the democrats.

All of those are true. Look ‘em up. The 3rd one I think speaks to the bigger issue that I’ve alluded to in a couple of these notes.

When Toomey wins by 20% in the GOP primary, but loses by 10% in the general to the same guy, you have a problem. When you lose 200,000 people in the voter rolls, you have a problem. When people are openly betting on when Oympia Snowe jumps ship with Spector, you have a problem. Letting your party be hijacked by radical activists at the expense of people who are actually electable is a problem. Not just for Republicans, but for anybody who likes good government.

I’m personally okay with Specter being a Dem, because a Democrat Specter is likely to vote the way that I would personally vote…as a somewhat conservative Democrat. When we’re looking at 60 (and after 2010, 60+) Dems in the senate, I start to worry a little bit…because then there is no check on bad ideas. Even though those 60 Democrats run across a very large political spectrum (from Ben Nelson, who is practically a Republican, to Sanders, who is a European Socialist), letting one group amass that kind of power typically leads to a circular firing squad, wasted money, and bad ideas. We need a loyal opposition that is capable of actually being a coherent opposition…not this mess.

Right now, I guess Specter is being a bit of a Party Pooper. You have to wonder if others will follow suit, or if the guys in charge will finally get the message. Anybody can see the dangers of prolonged one party domination.

Even if you’re hopped up on cold meds.