holy freaking cow!
was my reaction when I heard the news that Arlen Specter is switching to the Democratic party. I know, he was quite clear that he won't be an automatic 60th vote for cloture for the Democrats. Oddly enough, he singled out the Employee Free Choice Act as an example of where he won't change his position, even though he used to be a co-sponsor of the bill in a previous Congress. But I would say that the odds of a significant step on health care reform actually getting passed this year just went up by a good bit.
Some interesting coverage of the story, from:
- Talking Points Memo
- Firedoglake
- Campaign Diaries See also this post from a month ago, about Pennsylvania's sore loser law.
I know I promised a book review today, but I don't have the energy — feeling a bit sick (upset tummy, not the flu, chill out). Maybe tomorrow. But I may also report on my jury duty experience.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Heh. I’m READING this from a jury room. It’s ten till noon, and they’ve called ten people’s names all day so far. God, I’m bored.
April 29th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I was there for about 3 hours, and then they sent us all home. But it was clean, quiet, and there was free internet, so I can’t complain.
April 30th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
You know what?
I think Arlen might not make it even if things are already locked up. I wonder if he figures on one more and out anyway.
Who’s the Dem opposition? I’ve totally lost track of PA politics.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
“Who’s the Dem opposition? ”
I don’t think there’ll really be any. I think that was part of the promise, by Rendell, Biden, and Obama, that they’d throw their weight behind Specter. That does guarantee anything (i.e. the Lieberman saga in Connecticut), but I think Specter will do OK.