Republican Senator Arlen Specter announced today that he's switching his political affiliation to that of the Democratic party, bringing them to within one vote of the filibuster-proof 60 they'll need to counter Republican obstructionism in that body. The latest word is that future-Senator Al Franken is still several months of court battles away from providing the crucial 60th vote however.
Predictably, in typical vengeful right-wing fashion Specter's former party has cut him loose with nary a positive word, just for voting his conscience and trying to faithfully represent his constituency. And the party of Reagan becomes even more narrow-minded and moves ever rightward. Prepare for the ubiquitous round of right-wing "good riddance's" in 3, 2, 1...go.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Specter Jumps GOP's Sinking Ship
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4 comments:
While it's not a surprise, it is nice that Arlen finally decided to return to his roots. He was a Democrat originally.
Stunning..
I infer from his press conference that Specter's former party-mates whined like jilted schoolgirls and spat on Specter's shoes.
Limbaugh's typically stupid remark was that Specter can take McCain and Miss McCain with him.
You have to wonder at the breathtaking depth of the sense of entitlement that hardline conservatives have that they STILL....DON'T...GET IT - They've lost the middle ground utterly. They keep going Right and they'll fall right off a cliff.
Can we dare ask the question..."did the GOP just splutter and die today?" Is that once great party ever coming back as anything but a fringe gathering of nutjobs?
I laughed mirthlessly at the article when I read it at work today (everyone around me said Arlen who--?, of course). I then emailed it to my best friend, who is a conservative. A REAL conservative. His reaction: "Great. Another body blow to dangerous incompetent lunatics. Go get 'em Obama".
VZ, are you telling me, that I have it on good authority, that the idea of Republican politics in America, has wilted down under?
I think it fair to say that more Australians than not considered it a very good thing the Democrats won the election. There was a sigh of relief around the world. If McCain Palin had won the election I don't think I would have wanted to get up in the morning, and that was the prevailing sentiment.
The policy divide between our major parties is much less than between yours. There is a far Right fringe, or sorts, but it has none of the clout that yours has. There is a fringe Left too, of course, but most of Australia lives in a secular and centrist political value system. Voting is mandatory.
If you are in politics, we don't care so much who you have sex with (as an impediment to political life) as long as it's adult and consensual, and we don't care about your religion either, as long as it's not determining policy. Our federal minister for the environment is a openly lesbian. Some prime ministers have been atheist, the current one is a committed Christian. Our current deputy prime minister is a 47 year old woman, unmarried but partnered with a male hairdresser, and has no children.
Needless to say she cannot see New Zealand from her house, much less Russia.
We dumped our conservative government a year ago. The conservatives lost not so much over foreign policy (we have troops getting killed currently in Afghanistan, and had some too in Iraq), it was more to do with industrial relations and economics, and some social and environmental issues.
The major conservative party is called the Liberal Party, "Liberal" meaning economically liberal, "small 'l' liberal" is what we say to mean liberal as you use the term.
Republicans are probably most analogous in their attitudes (in very broad terms) to our smaller conservative party, the Nationals, who only hold seats in more provincial areas, where people are mainly concerned about "the farm". Their influence too was once much larger.
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