This past month, the political world stood in amazement as longtime Republican Arlen Specter — facing a heavy backlash from Pennsylvania Republicans — switched his party affiliation and became a Democrat. The defection was attributed to a bout of ill-fitting philosophies and political opportunism on Specter’s behalf. The senator, RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared, had voted himself out of the Republican Party.
Perhaps. But in California, the purging of Republican pols unwilling to take the party line on economic issues is becoming systemic. Under the national radar but making news in the state, recall efforts have been launched targeting several GOP officials for voting with their Democratic colleagues on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget. One of the members in the spotlight is Assemblyman Anthony Adams, whose alleged indiscretion was simple: the budget he supported called for a state-wide vote on raising income and sales taxes and car-registration fees. In other words, in the eyes of his fellow party members, he had voted for a tax increase.
I would like hear YOUR reasons.
Article by
-Stein-
Only the huffingtonpost crowd stood in amazement.
The rest of the world already knew he was a democrat.
Becuase the GOP would not nominate him and the Dems would. Also, the Dems have a huge voter advantage in PA. He said as much at the time.
obviously it wasn’t to become more tolerant or open-minded, as your “question” illustrates so well . . .
Specter’s campaign did some polling and learned there was no way he would win as a Republican. He had been a Democrat earlier in his career and since he is an opportunist, he switched parties. No big deal. He’s the Dems problem now.
Stood in Amazement as longtime Republican Arlen Specter switched parties???!!
You must not be paying attention. . . . . . . he was a Democrat in the 80′s.
Anybody who was “amazed” by this apparently doesn’t know that Specter is a lifelong liberal. He just went back to where he belonged.
Arlen Spector left the Republican Party because he knew he could
not win the Republican primary. He admitted that was the reason
he left. Reason is simple he does not want to be Retired by the Republican voters.
Arlen said on tv that he felt the Republican party was moving too far to the right.
Nope.
Specter was looking out for Specter. He would become a Lilliputian if it meant he could stay in the Senate.
Arlen Specter left the party a long time ago. He has been voting with Democrats on key issues for a long time. He was a RINO. Now the Republicans need to get back to conservative principles and offer the people a REAL alternative to Big Government, Big Spending, Big Brother Democrats.
I wasn’t standing in amazement that Specter switched, I was amazed that it took him so long to finally admit he was a Democrat. If someone doesn’t agree with the parties principles then why would they be part of that party? That would be like an atheist joining the Catholic Church.
Republicans don’t want higher taxes. If a Republican votes for higher taxes, they can expect the people who voted for them to be less than thrilled. When people are not able to afford the basics, higher taxes should NOT even be an option. Higher taxes kill jobs and the economy and just make things worse.
. . . . because there is one thing important to this old fool. . . and that is for him to stay in the senate. . he doesn’t;t really care how. . or who he represents. . he just wants to be there. He is an idiot and turncoat more than once.
Anyone that still votes for him it really stupid!
first of all let me congratulate you on a well written question, most on this forum usually write crap and don’t care about how their question is written and make major mistakes, but your was well written and deserves the star i gave you, now for the answer, specter left because he could not win the Republican primary, pure and simple
He’s brain dead, so he fits right into the liberal description.
Uh, Spector has been a democratic for as long as I can remember! He’s done nothing for the party except to hinder it every chance he gets so it’s good riddance, NOW you democrats have him! Wish you well with this one.
I think Specter left the Republican Party because he knew he couldn’t win his reelection primary and would be out in the cold.
What irritates me is that he was elected as a Republican and his supporters expected him to act as a Republican. He didn’t. He acted like a liberal Democrat.
Screw Arlen Specter.
For the same reason he changed from dem, to republican in the past. His
sorry ass was not going to be re-elected as a republican. Thanks for
asking though. ,
He was not a Republican anyway, why would it matter?
For Specter the Republican party has always been too far to the right. He just realized they were not going to nominate him. Now he is going to the same crowd that always voted for him in the first place. During the Warren Commission hearings he came up with the single bullet theory which may be only remotely possible if at all and sold it to the public. He was unable to distinguish between realistic and planted evidence. The Republicans need people who can come up with realistic ideas. Specter is now where he belongs with the dreamers.