So Senator Arlen Specter of PA announced yesterday that he is switching parties from Republican to Democratic. Specter was a more moderate Republican, and was facing a primary challenge from an extremely conservative opponent who was out-polling him by a lot. This was good news, because conservative challenger Pat Toomey would have never won the overall election, and there would be good chance a progressive candidate got elected. Instead, Specter went into self-serving mode and switched sides. The benefit is the Democrats will now have 60 seats in the Senate, the “magic number” they need to stop filibusters, but the price is we exchanged a good chance of a progressive pickup for a Blue-Dog wannabe who is more concerned with his own career than helping the country. A mixed bag at best, but since Specter is pushing 80 he might not make it to the end of the term starting in 2010 regardless.
As you can imagine, the news of the defection took the Wingnuttosphere by storm! A fury of hate ensued, with many commentors taking up the position that they kicked Specter out. Although Specter was never a real conservative, his party switching is entirely due to self-preservation, and is not because some crazy teabaggers kicked him out. If anything, his departure and primary challenge were signs that the Republican party has left mainstream American and gone down a road of 19th century policies. But you will never know that if you just go by what the wingnuts post online. Let’s go by freerepublic.com to see some typical reactions to the Specter defection:
What a totally not-racist sig this guy has…
And then you’ll be completely irrelevant!
It’s not because we’re dinosaurs from the 19th century, it’s because of ILLEGALS and MINORITIES!
Someone tell this guy that Specter is a Reagan Republican, watch his mind explode!
But the Right never does this!
Okay, maybe they do do it…
If ex-snook read his comment, he’d realize he’s advocating for progressive Democratic policies…
I got an F-word for this guy
(Firetruck)
Liberals are all about purging…KICK OT THE RINOS!!!!!
Judge Judy?
Fewer and stonger idiots! Their ignorance is so strong they make Schwarzenegger look like a pipe cleaner!
Yes, losing an election due to horrible policies=wiped out by Nazis
Freaking Negroes! Get on your knees and thank the Republicans!
Sure it was a Republican who switched sides this time, but DON’T TRUST THEM LIBS!!
The award for the most delusional post goes to:
Sarah Palin scares me, but not for any of the reasons they think she does
True Republican Patriot shows the love
dools007 makes up a point and then runs with it down the street, on the freeway, and off a bridge
Well, as FreeRepublic is insane, maybe Resistnet.com will have more sane responses!
Okay, maybe not!
That’s it for now, or at least until we better organize all the posts declare the Swine Flu a government conspiracy. Specter’s interruption changed the update, but we’ll get that huge batch of flu crazy soon enough!
