The proper response is to find a great Democratic candidate and run him/her against either that far-right yahoo or the old Republican, who has been left bruised and bloody following a drawn-out primary against said yahoo. Instead, the Democrats have essentially performed a tactical retreat here, moving Specter to the "D" column rather than risking an election that would clearly have favored the Democrats. Instead of an election that they probably would have won, leaving them with a solid Democratic senator, they have instead chosen an election that they will almost definitely win, but that will leave them with a mealy-mouthed political hack with all the morals of a wounded badger.
As blogging great Glenn Greenwald has already mentioned over at Salon, "prior to the vote on the Military Commissions Act of 2006, he went to the floor of the Senate and said what the bill 'seeks to do is set back basic rights by some 900 years' and is 'patently unconstitutional on its face.' He then proceeded to vote YES on the bill's passage." (Greenwald's entire piece is a must-read.)
Note: This is an analysis "from a purely political perspective."
From a policy-making perspective, maybe the gambit is that having that 60th vote more often during possibly the most game-changing 2 years of the Obama Administration is totally worth the political hit.
In fact, assuming good policy motives, maybe those on the inside are basically challenging those of us on the outside: "Look, we did what we had to do on the policy front. Don't want Specter around after 2010? Want to pressure him from the left the next 2 years? You lead the primary charge -- our hands are tied."
There's also a lot of energy over at the "Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away" campaign that the PCCC (which I co-founded) is doing with Democracy for America. This is aimed at reversing the incentives for Coleman's DC Republican funders by funding progressives out to defeat Republicans in 2010 more and more each day that Norm is a sore loser.
Both pushes are consistent with getting bold progressives to the Senate. One involves challenging an incumbent "Democrat" in a primary -- the other involves solidifying Franken's general election win. It'll be interesting to see where the energy continues to go...to be continued...
