Specter proposed a rule change to bar party switching

[Number9Dream]

Arlen Specter has a lot of gall to call anybody else a "flagrant hypocrite".

Arlen Specter, 2001 - "I intend to propose a rule change which would preclude a future reoccurrence of a senators switch in parties in mid-session, organizing with the opposition that would cause the upheaval which is now resulting."

http://www.minnpost.com/ericblack/2009/05/12/8743/specter_proposed_a_rule_change_to_bar_party-switching

Specter's new rule speech begins at ~4:40 in the video.

And who can forget this memorable video of Sen. Specter with his good friends Dubya and Ricky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2q7hei3T3E

So, because the President and a few other prominent Democrats endorse Sen. Specter, we shouldn't question his dismal voting record, we should dispense with the primary, and essentially appoint Arlen Specter the Democratic candidate. Pretend Specter's past never happened. Have blind faith that Sen. Specter will vote with his Democratic colleagues 97.2% of the time like Rep. Sestak has.
Repeat: I trust Arlen Specter... I trust Arlen Specter...

[PADEMJES12]

1. Sestak a hungry hungry Hypo & CQ Politics: Specter is a Good Democrat

Nah, I think Sestak takes the cake as a hypocrite when he did not vote in 23 general elections because of
his obvious dis-interest at the time, which has now conveniently morphed for him being
a victim of absentee difficulties strangely enough for 23 years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rEXP2xAZCo

Also here is a link on Senator Specter's great start with the Democratic Party. Since his
switch, Arlen has been a reliable party vote at 87% according to CQ Politics.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/07/26/specter_becomes_reliable_democratic_vote.html

He has been with the Democrats on President Obama's stimulus, supports Sotomayor, and
is working diligently on healthcare.

[Number9Dream]

5. "... because of his obvious disinterest at the time." ???

So any veterans who say that their military absentee ballots weren't counted are liars?
And therefore there really aren't any problems with military absentee balloting?

If military absentee balloting is so reliable, why did Sen. Specter co-sponsor: S1026, The Military Voting Protection Act of 2009.

Here's an article about the problems with military absentee voting:
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?command=viewone&id=165&database=DefenseWatch%202005.db

If Admiral Sestak had missed a couple of elections, perhaps his duties while serving his Country took priority at those moments. I would never presume to judge a brother-in-arms regarding priority choices he may have had to make while in command of American troops.

Admiral Sestak said, "And I also clearly remember voting at other times by absentee ballot, such as in 2002, while I was leading an aircraft carrier battle group in the war in Afghanistan."

It's sad that a veteran like Sen. Specter one day supports S1026, and the next day smears a fellow veteran regarding the same issue.

[Number9Dream]

6. Nate Silver - Specter maximized his chances of survival

Also from the original Nate Silver article CQ Politics borrowed from:

snip> "On the other hand, it's hard not to imagine that this process has been strengthened, accentuated, catalyzed, by Joe Sestak's primary challenge. You can draw a pretty clear line in the sand from when Specter went from sorta, kinda Democrat to OMG totally! Democrat, and it coincides with the date that Sestak announced his challenge."

snip> "The real question is how Specter will behave if and when he wins the primary challenge, and the pressure from the left is off."

snip> "But once the primary pressure from Toomey had begun to heat up -- as emphasized by a shocking March 25th Quinnipiac poll that put Specter 14 points behind his Republican rival -- he had become quite conservative, voting with Democrats only 16 percent of the time in his final month or so as a Republican."

snip> "On the one hand, all of this is pretty rational -- at any given moment, Specter was making moves that would seem to have maximized his chances of survival. On the other hand, it seems to have triggered plenty of fatigue with voters, who just can't be sure what they'll get if they vote to re-elect him. Arlen Specter is either just about the best reflection or the worst reflection on the state of our Democracy -- it's just hard to say which one."

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/07/since-primary-challenge-specter-voting.html

This article just seems to further illustrate that Arlen Specter has few principles, and will take any position, vote any way, to get re-elected.

[Pat Riot]

2. Rock on #9

You are always right there with the pertinent links. Glad that youtube one was only 36 seconds; it had been a while since I subjected myself to that smirking Dubya.

[PADEMJES12]

3. Thanks Pat

Here's a full one for you....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rEXP2xAZCo

[Freddie Stubbs]

4. This would not have applied to him, as his switch did not change which party was in the majority