A member of Congress once told me that Representatives who consider changing their votes based on only a dozen or so phone calls from constituents are referred to as "bedwetters" by the other members of Congress. I thought it was funny, but in retrospect I should have asked for a list of the so-called "bedwetting" members. After all, knowing who they are would make it a lot easier to influence congressional behavior. "Bedwetters" are useful to activists.
In this light, Nate Silver is right: Specter's obvious lack of principles is best ray or hope in his entire party switch story. Given that voting data shows Specter has slowly moved to the right in recent years, then our best hope that his party switch will also result in a broad, overall leftward voting switch will have to come from his lack of principles:
But if you're a Democrat, would you really want Arlen Specter to be anything other than a soulless, unprincipled hack? If Specter were more concerned about self-consistency -- and less about self-preservation -- he'd probably still be a Republican right now. Moreover, Democrats had better hope that Specter is as nakedly power-hungry as possible, because his best move from the standpoint of self-preservation is probably not merely to become a Democrat but to become a reasonably liberal one, along the lines of Bob Casey Jr.
Indeed. We better all hope that Specter's obvious lack of principles translates into a massive shift in his voting habits. While Specter has said publicly that there will be no such shift, is there any reason to trust such an obviously unprincipled, power-hungry politician? Further, to help guarantee Specter's leftward voting shift, it is important that Joe Torsella stay in the primary campaign, and that Representative Joe Sestak continue to keep the door open to a primary run as along as possible. Clearly, Specter's behavior can be altered by the presence of real threats to the continuation of his political career.
Specter is an unprincipled wanker. So, let's use that to our advantage.
I decided to run for the United States Senate from Pennsylvania for one simple reason: I believe we need new leadership, new ideas, and new approaches in Washington. It's become obvious that the old ways of doing business might have worked for the special interests, but they haven't worked for the rest of us.
Nothing about today's news regarding Senator Specter changes that, or my intention to run for the Democratic nomination to the Senate in 2010 - an election that is still a full year away.
His campaign has hired The Campaign Group to handle media strategy. The company is run in part by Neil Oxman, a longtime Democratic political consultant who has worked extensively with Gov. Ed Rendell dating back to his days as Philadelphia Mayor, and more recently helped elect Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Finance Director Michelle Singer has held the same job under Rendell. Campaign coordinator Rebecca McNichols was Senator Bob Casey's political director during his successful election in 2006. Communications director Mark Nevins has worked for the presidential campaigns of U.S. Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
