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Specter Calls for ‘Revolution’ and ‘Uprising’ Against Republicans 'Far to the Right'
Thursday, April 30, 2009
By Josiah Ryan, Staff Writer

In this Feb. 23, 2009, file photo, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., right, talks with Vice President Joe Biden, in the East Room of the White House in Washington after President Barack Obama made remarks to open the Fiscal Responsibility Summit. Specter, announced, Tuesday, April 28, 2009, that he is switching from the Republican to Democratic party. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)
(CNSNews.com) -  There ought to be a “rebellion” and an “uprising” against right-wing elements that are trying to purify the Republican Party, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said Tuesday, shortly after he announced he would leave the Grand Old Party to become a Democrat.

Specter said Republicans "far to the right"  in the party, who are more worried about ideology than winning elections, have brought about one costly defeat after another for the GOP, including the tabling of 34 of President Bush’s nominees for federal judgeships. Those defeats were the result of the right’s opposition to moderates in the party, such as himself, said Specter.

“They [Republicans on far right] don’t make any bones about their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party,” Specter said at his Tuesday press conference. “I don’t understand it, but that’s what they say.”

“And for the people who are Republicans to sit by and allow them to continue to dominate the party … there ought to be a rebellion,” he said. “There ought to be an uprising.”

Specter was referring to an adviser to Pat Toomey, the former president of the conservative Club for Growth, who announced on Apr. 15 that he would launch a primary challenge against Specter in 2010.

Specter suggested on Tuesday that his reason for switching parties was in part based on polls that indicated he was unlikely to survive Toomey’s primary challenge.

In making his argument, Specter cited several cases where conservative elements of the GOP opposed moderate Republicans and either beat them in the primary and then lost the general election, or so weakened the candidate in the primary that he could not go on to defeat the Democrat in the general election.

In 2006, moderate former-Sen. Lincoln Chaffee (R-R.I.) was weakened in a primary challenge by a conservative Republican who was supported by the Club for Growth, according to Specter. Chaffee was then defeated in the general election, which [with two independents caucusing with Democrats] changed the balance of the Senate, and cost Republicans the confirmation of 34 of President Bush’s federal judgeship nominees, said Specter. ...................http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=47391

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But he is having trouble fitting in. He voted against the Democrats in his first two big votes since the switch, opposing the Democratic budget and helping defeat a measure to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages for troubled homeowners.

And on Tuesday night, he retracted a statement, made in an interview, in which he said the Minnesota courts should rule in favor of the Republican, Norm Coleman, in the state’s disputed Senate race.

Republican press releases snipe at his every misstep.

And the comment about Minnesota, where Democrats need Al Franken to become their crucial 60th vote in the Senate, prompted the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, to confront Mr. Specter on the Senate floor.

“Arlen,” Mr. Reid said in his trademark low-volume growl, “What’s going on here?”

Quoted from Brad Littlefield

Arlen Specter - politician without a party.  Ain't it a shame?