Knepper Asks…The Nutroots Answers

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7 Responses to “Knepper Asks…The Nutroots Answers”

1. OHIO JOE Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 7:43 am

   Yes, now that he is their problem and not our, it is fun to watch in deed. If the Dem were just a Center-Left party, Mr. Specter would feel right at home. The fact that the Dems are an extreme Left-Wing party (or at least their leadership is) we are about to find about if Mr. Specter is in deed just moderately Left of Center or whether he will feel comfortable being part of an extreme Left Wing group. He better get used to the idea of being an extremisdt now or he may actually be shown the door.

2. marK Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 8:57 am

   Two wise old sayings come to mind.

   “There is no honor amongst thieves”

   “Beware the gratitude of kings!”

3. Adam Brickley Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 9:50 am

   Another thing to consider is that if Specter gets a competitive primary from a Progressive, he will likely get significantly roughed up by the time of the general. Toomey has already been slamming him from the right – and if we now get Sestak slamming him from the left, I think Snarlin’ Arlen will be in trouble in the general (assuming he makes it out of the primary).

   Another thing I would watch is the potential for a progressive independent to run in the general – if Specter wins the Dem nomination, he leaves a gaping hole on the far left. If a self-funder tries to fill that gap, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the a third party/independent take 5-10% of the vote from Specter.

4. SteveS Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 10:05 am

   This isn’t complicated.

   The Dem activists are happy Spector switched. However, to get Spector to switch, certain powerful Dems (Obama, DSC, etc.) had to promise Spector not to oppose him in a democratic primary. Without those promises, Spector doesn’t switch.

   This doesn’t make the activists happy, but it is an unfortunate compromise they are willing to grudgingly accept for now.

   Of course Spector isn’t their perfect candidate. Far from it. So ideally, they would like a strong challenge to come from somewhere in the primary for them to support.

   Their enthusiasm for Spector is limited to its pragmatic, short term benefit.

5. Aron Goldman Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 10:05 am

   Smerconish, Nakedly Defending Specter
   http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2009/04/one_of_sen_arlen_specters.html?hpid=topnews

   One of Sen. Arlen Specter’s biggest defenders in Pennsylvania, Republican radio talk show host Michael Smerconish, is locked in a blame game.

   He tells the Sleuth that his angriest listeners – pretty much everyone who called into his show yesterday morning – are blaming him for Specter’s defection to the Democratic Party. But he blames his listeners, at least the ones who called into his show to “shout down [Specter's] decision.”

   “They’re disappointed in their inability to vote against him in the primary,” says Smerconish, who is positioning himself as his party’s moderate answer to Rush Limbaugh. “They’re the very people who drove him from the party.”

   Just yesterday morning on Smerconish’s radio show, Specter (who was on his way to meet with President Obama) urged more moderate Republicans to become politically active in order for both parties to be “controlled more by the center.”

   “If all the people came out who shared my political philosophy in Pennsylvania on the Republican side, there’d be a contest,” Specter said. “And I’d be glad to wage the contest but look, I’m not prepared to have my 29-year old record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I’m just not going to have it judged by that jury.”

   Reaction to Specter’s Move Is Divided by Party
   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/us/politics/30penn.html?_r=1&ref=global-home&pagewanted=print

   Senator Arlen Specter, who rocked the political world Tuesday by switching parties to become a Democrat, can only hope that most voters in his new party are like Nellie Lazar.

   Ms. Lazar, 35, a nurse practitioner who lives in Philadelphia and was carting her 7-month-old son, Jonah, to one of the upscale stores here in Suburban Square on Wednesday, said she had never voted for Mr. Specter when he was a Republican. Now that he is a Democrat, however, that will change.

   “I vote party line, and I think people like me will be pretty welcoming to him,” she said.

   Interviews with several voters here Wednesday showed that many Democrats were pleased with Mr. Specter’s dramatic move and expected him to win re-election next November; there are, after all, 1.2 million more Democrats in the state than Republicans.

   The overwhelming response here in the Philadelphia suburbs, Mr. Specter’s political base, was that he was really a Democrat all along, and his new identity was just a case of truth-in-labeling.

   “I met him six months ago and thought, he sounds to me more like my kind of people than a Republican, and I wondered, what’s he doing in that party?” said Robert Walter, 84, a Democrat and former professor who lives near Newtown Square.

   More than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania — many of them here in the suburbs — have recently become Democrats.

   Their defections left a shrunken Republican party in the hands of conservatives who seemed prepared to turn Mr. Specter out of office in next year’s Republican primary, and so he switched parties.

   “He loves to be in the political maelstrom,” said G. Terry Madonna, a political scientist at Franklin and Marshall College, “but Specter is better off today in his effort to be re-elected than he was yesterday.”

   Will state GOP get Ridge to run
   http://www.pennlive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news/124105200366430.xml&coll=1

   Sen. Orrin Hatch, for one, said Toomey’s candidacy is toast.

   “I don’t think there is anybody in the world who believes he can get elected senator there,” said Hatch, the vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, according to Politico.com.

   In Washington and Pennsylvania, GOP leaders are looking to use this initially negative flip-flop by Specter to produce a surprise victory.

   “The interesting thing about this primary challenge was that it was not about Pat Toomey. In their heart of hearts, all of Pat Toomey’s supporters know it wasn’t about Pat Toomey. It was all about Arlen Specter. It was all about beating Arlen Specter,” Democratic consultant Larry Ceisler said.

   “Now the question is, how much do they hate Arlen Specter? Do they want to drive a stake in Arlen’s heart? They know they can’t do that with Pat Toomey,” Ceisler said.

   After hearing that Specter had switched parties, Pennsylvania Republican Party Chairman Robert Gleason said his first call was going to be to Tom Ridge. As of Wednesday night, state GOP leaders had not heard from the former governor. An effort by The Patriot-News to reach Ridge was unsuccessful.

   “Obviously, Governor Ridge was a great governor and he’s looked upon highly by people all across Pennsylvania and the country,” Barley said.

   Whether it’s Ridge or another potential big-name candidate matters less at this moment than the fact that Republicans appear to have a chance to do something different in 2010.

   “After all the bloodletting we’ve gone through the past few years, it’s been very hard,” Barley said. “We’ve been defending, and that was especially difficult given the lack of popularity of the former president. Now we get to run a fresh face. We’ve been devoid of new leadership and now we can set a different agenda, show we are more inclusive.”

   What’s strange about this new GOP reality is that Specter’s defection might actually help the GOP, which has been flummoxed about how to be a more moderate and inclusive party.

   “They have a shot to keep this seat if they run a moderate Republican,” Ceisler said.

   “If they do that, it’s like they have proven Arlen Specter’s argument. And maybe for Arlen: If you want to change the Republican Party, you have to leave it,” Ceisler said.

   A Pennsylvanian’s thoughts on Specter’s Defection
   http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/credente/2009/04/a-pennsylvanians-thoughts-on-s.php?ref=reccafe

   It’s Still My Party
   By CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN
   http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/opinion/30whitman.html?em=&pagewanted=print

   Republican Party is slipping into irrelevance as Sen. Arlen Specter and voters bail
   http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2009/04/republican_party_is_slipping_i.html

   Republican Party irrelevance: It’s not funny what’s happened to the GOP
   http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2009/04/republican_party_irrelevance_i.html

   Small-tent Republicans
   http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090430.wespecter30art2215/BNStory/specialComment/home

6. Kristofer Lorelli Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 10:23 am

   Aron, great link on Ridge. It is amazing how personal republican Senators took this switch. I have never seen a reaction like this before.

   I thinkthe entire establishment is going to try to defeat Specter and we will see very conservative members back Ridge. It may be the race to watch in 2010…I expect to see tens of millions pumped in to the race.

7. Sean P Says:
   April 30th, 2009 at 7:57 pm

   SteveS: I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama made the promise, but we all know what has been said about Obama, promises and expiration dates.