The Ghost That Walks

So what do you think of the election results? Frankly, we're not too broken up about Arlen Specter ("D"-Pa) losing his primary battle. On the one hand, as a left-leaning non-registered Democrat--

(Clarification: We are registered to vote, just not registered as a Democrat--cuts down on the junk mail. EOC)

--we were heartened when the Republican stalwart switched his party affiliation, but we were less than thrilled to hear him say, essentially, that he was doing it in order to get re-elected--that he felt he had become so out-of-tune with the national Republican party and its purported "base" that he didn't stand a chance in a Republican primary. A bracingly honest statement from a veteran politician, sure, but is that what the country really needs more of? Blatant opportunism?

We'd have had much greater respect for Specter (Spectrespect?) if he had just gone independent (cf, Florida's Charlie Crist). It's one thing to say--and, perhaps even mean--that you can no longer tolerate the divisive, insular, and frankly scary direction the national Republican Party is trending. But to suddenly declare yourself a Democrat, after however many years of lambasting that party, is the height of hypocrisy. It speaks less to a desire to represent the people than to preserve one's power. After 30 years in the Senate, Arlen Specter certainly has enough name recognition and enough of a track record to run on without the backing of any political party. The fact that he himself presumably realized he wouldn't survive as an independent--i.e., as "just" Arlen Specter--should have told him it was time to pack it in, even before the voters sent him that message themselves.